How to Find the Right Goal Setting and Tracking Methodology for Your Business

Without goals, your company will likely drift aimlessly while your competition sails on to success. Having clear goals, and tracking against said goals, will keep you moving forward. That said, no matter what types of goals you want to accomplish, you won’t get far without a goal setting and tracking system.

Below are four of the most popular goal methodologies. Read on to determine which is best for your organization.

SMART Goals

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) is one of the most popular goal-setting systems in corporate America, as it can be scaled up or down to accommodate many different types of goals.

A SMART goal is:

• Specific: the more targeted your SMART goal, the better.
• Measurable: the goal is broken down into steps that document exactly what needs to happen to reach said goal.
• Attainable: while some goal-setting strategies allow you to dream big, SMART goals must be realistic.
• Relevant: the goal must be relevant to the organization’s larger mission.
• Time-related: the goal must have attainable deadlines for every step of the process, which makes goal tracking easier.

ORKs (Objectives and Key Results)

If SMART goals are attainable, OKRs are for dreaming big. Short for “Objectives and Key Results,” ORKS are large-scale, ambitious goals designed to challenge a department or company to achieve great progress. An OKR is made up of a single objective, with three to four key results used to measure how close you come to meeting your goal. If you’re consistently meeting your OKRs, it’s a sign you’re not dreaming big enough. Here are some quick tips for OKRS.

Note: The key results in OKRs are often confused with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). OKRs and KPIs have some similarities, but while a KPI measures an ongoing process, key results are used to track how close you come to attaining the OKR objective.

4DX

4DX is a strategy execution and goal-tracking framework first described in Stephen R. Covey and Chris McChesney’s book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution. In some ways, 4DX resembles OKRs, as both systems tend to focus on important goals. While the goals best-suited to 4DX are ambitious in scope, the intention is to succeed in reaching the goal. In contrast, an OKR’s main purpose is to challenge the company to overperform; attaining the goal is a secondary consideration.

The 4 disciplines that make up 4DX are as follows:

• Focus on wildly important goals (WIGs)
• Act-on lead measures (the likelihood the goal will succeed)
• Keep a compelling scoreboard to track progress
• Create accountability

V2MOM

V2MOM stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures. The system outlines what you want to achieve, why you want it, and how to get it. V2MOM goal tracking is intended for use at all levels of an organization. Their small size (a V2MOM cannot exceed a single page of paper) makes them ideal for quarterly goals.

When creating a V2MOM:

• Vision defines what you want to accomplish.
• Values set the principles that will guide your goal.
• Methods outline the steps and actions you need to reach your goal.
• Obstacles list any challenges and issues that the project will need to overcome.
• Measures set the goal’s minimum achievement, usually defined numerically.

How to Track Goals with Employee Tracking Software

No matter which of these goal-setting methods you use, you need to know how to track success against your goals. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing how close a goal is to completion, or why a particular goal succeeded or failed. Goal tracking is one of many reasons why employee tracking software is important.. Through an employee tracking dashboard, you can check deadlines, provide feedback, break down projects into manageable tasks, and generate the data needed to track goals to completion.