You have definitely heard how essential it is to watch out that the goals you define are SMART – which, of course, is not only a value statement and a judgement of their quality but also an acronym to remind you that a goal should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or Achievable), Relevant and Time-Bound. The literature, articles and TED-Talks on all the different aspects of SMART goals are abundant, so we are not going to spend too much time on these.

Having said that, one point must be highlighted as it gets overlooked or ignored quite often. Having goals as “Relevant” is not just a reminder that they should not be meaningless, it is also an invitation and an encouragement to see them in a broader perspective, especially if you are in a position where you set them for several teams or departments. Unless you plan to unleash a war of attrition, the goals you set should not be a zero-sum game in the sense that one team’s gain is a different team’s loss. Although this approach might be tempting if you want to see short-time results (and if your ancestors had an annual subscription for gladiator games), it is insanely toxic for an organization and the long-term negative effect will by far outweigh any positive short-term. Thus, the SMART goals are a great starting point for your overreaching goals – something that will unite and be the common denominator for the whole organization. Moreover, they serve as a reminder that everyone is in the same boat and is working – well, towards the samegoal.

The question is – is it enough? Will the formulation of SMART goals be a necessary and sufficient condition for you or your team to excel? The answer is, most probably not. First of all, both, those who achieve their goals and those who miserably fail, set off with the same more or less SMART goal before their eyes. Yet, the results differ. This means that the goal per se cannot be the differentiator between these two groups. Furthermore, sometimes achieving a goal can be the result of a pure luck. But we don’t want luck to guide our results, do we? Instead, we need replicability.

In its essence, the net outcome of your goal-setting exercise is almost always a set of metrics or rules. However, “the moment when a metric becomes a target, it seizes to be a good metric”. In the heat of the moment, we all will have a penchant to progressively explore crazier and crazier shortcuts or try to outsmart the system – especially if our bonuses or promotions are tied to them. Is a number on the scale (and by a certain date at that) the metric? All means will be explored, and excessive sauna visits will be the least harmful of those, while the long-term success will be seriously undermined, and don’t even get me started on health-related aspects. Professional sports are a whole grey territory – not to say, a minefield – chock-full with shortcuts (also known as “doping”), which bring one closer to their goal. Unless they get one disqualified altogether, that is. But let’s talk business: hunting cute and polished yearly numbers often becomes a slippery slope. The means of achieving these pretty numbers will be ranging from sky-rocketing year-end sales, which will erase your profitability margin, and up to foul accounting practices, which will make your vanished profitability a blessing in disguise.

In a nutshell this means that having just a very SMART goal to navigate you leaves too much space for luck, which you have no control over, and offers a virtually unlimited potential for cheating. You deserve better. You need something more than this. You shall regain control – same place, in two weeks! But for now – take a breather, have some mulled wine and stay tuned to “The Cure”