Goal setting acronyms — do you know all of them (SMART, PURE, CLEAR + SMEAC)?

Almost everyone knows the most famous acronym for goal setting, which is SMART. But whether SMART is enough for an awesome goal setting? What else may a leader use to become proficient in this?
Let me gather the most helpful acronyms here in this post.

Just to remind, SMART stands for writing goals that are:

• Specific. Specific goals are much more likely to be achieved. To make a goal specific, ask yourself who (is involved), what (are you going to achieve), when (do you want to achieve it), where (location or relevant event), which (impediments and limitations) and why (why do you want this, what is the reason).
• Measureable. Goals should have criteria for measuring progress. You will not be able to measure your progress and whether you are getting closer to your goal without such criteria.
• Achievable. Goals must be achievable. This will help you to figure out the ways to realize that goal and inspire motivation, not discouragement. Ask yourself — do you have the resources and capabilities to achieve the goal and yet leave it challenging enough?
• Realistic and Relevant. The goals must be realistic in the sense that the goal can be realistically achieved within the resources and time available. Relevance means focusing on something that makes sense with broader business goals (company strategy etc) as well as compliance with the current priorities.
• Timebound. Goals should be time-bound with a start and end date. If the goal is not limited in time, there will be no sense of urgency and therefore less motivation to achieve the goal. Hint — if a goal is going to take a few months to complete, then break it into several milestones.

To add even more to SMART tools, like taking into account people perceptions and cognitive biases, they propose PURE goals which are:

• Positively stated. It is important that you express what it is you are trying to achieve in the positive. No ‘no’ in the goal! Just compare ‘I do not want any bugs in the new module’ and ‘Reduce bug quantity by 10 percent’.
• Understood. It is important that the goals are understood especially if you as a leader or manager. Are you sure you are on the same page with your team? What assumptions are being made about the goal? Do you use the same glossary as your team do?
• Relevant. Relevance means focusing on something that makes sense with broader business goals (company strategy etc) as well as compliance with the current priorities.
• Ethical. Frankly speaking, this is a broad term nowadays. Here, it means that the details of how you feel while and when achieving that goal are included in the goal statement. Thus, we need to align with what is important to us and what we believe to be fair and worthy goals.

Furthermore, what about adding some agility into regulated SMART, as well as motivation and cooperation? Here goes CLEAR, which stands for:

• Collaborative and Challenging. Goals should encourage employees to work together collaboratively. Challenging goals are the main pillar of self-development and motivation.
• Limited and Legal. Goals should be limited in both scope and duration. Word ‘legal’ just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
• Emotional. Goals should make an emotional connection to employees, tapping into their energy and passion.
• Appropriate. This is close to relevant and ethical from PURE. Goals should be suitable and proper, taking into consideration the business circumstances.
• Refinable. Set goals with a specific and powerful goal, but as new situations or information arise, allow yourself to refine and change your goals. Remember that we are agile!

The last acronym for today is SMEAC, it was actually borrowed from the military. It doesn’t add much in terms of people or agility, but if you just need something done (especially carefully, systematically and often waterfall-ishy) — SMEAC is what you have been looking for:

• Situation. This is the background, a description of what has happened. What were the events leading up to where you are now? Why is it a problem/why an improvement is needed? Who else is involved? When, where and how did it happen (if applicable)? The point of this part of the process is to provide background to what is behind the goal (problem, improvement, etc).
• Mission. So now we know what has happened, the mission is what we need to do about it. The mission should be a short, clear and concise statement of what you want to achieve — “Our mission is reduce bug quantity by 10 percent”. Actually, this will be our goal summary, which we’ll specify later. At this stage, there’s no need to include any detail.
• Execution. Execution is the “how” part of the plan — how you are going to achieve your mission. Here we can used the same questions as we used in SMART — who (is involved), what (are you going to achieve), when (do you want to achieve it), where (location or relevant event), which (impediments and limitations).The execution part of the process is usually the longest and should provide sufficient information to allow you or team to go and do the job.
• Administration and Logistics. This is about what resources you need to do the job, and how they are to be coordinated.
• Command and Communications. This is the RACI of the goal— who’s in charge, who do you report to, and how you communicate with each other.

All things considered, if your goal complies with all the ‘acronym checklist’, I bet it’s rather good and can motivate and develop your team!