S.M.A.R.T is an acronym widely used in all forms of people management with a couple of different read outs, a few examples are:

• Specific, Significant, Simple
• Measurable, Meaningful, Manageable
• Achievable, Attainable, Actionable
• Realistic
• Timebound, Timely, Trackable

I prefer to read it as Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Timebound.

Follow the S.M.A.R.T. concept and both you (tracking progress against the goal) and the person delivering on the goal will be much happier along the way and in the end.

• Specific: Well defined so it clear to all what should be achieved.
• Measurable: Define how you’re going to measure if the objective is met.
• Agreed: Agree with the person who is going to deliver on the goal and agree who he/she is going to report progress to.
• Realistic: Define the scope and resources so that it’s realistic to achieve the goal. You may need to adjust either the scope or the resources to make the goal realistic. Also agree how you prioritize scope and resources so that should you have challenges along the way you know where to first look to adjust, most commonly: Do you reduce the scope of the deliverable or do you add resources to complete in time?.
• Timebound: Define the deadline and if it’s goal to be achieved over longer time also some milestones for review of progress.

Practically then? I use S.M.A.R.T. as a mental check list. I have tried to use it as table but find it cumbersome and that I often got stuck trying to fill in the table correctly rather than setting the right goals. I have S.M.A.R.T. in mind in every discussion around setting goals, delegation and also accepting goals, projects and activities and carefully check for the five components of S.M.A.R.T. making sure to raise any unclarities before moving on.

Easy and it will spare you alot of headache.