| In a recent email to me, mezhermnt subscriber | | | | * quantity (the total amount of work performed, |
| Corina from Hong Kong asks: | | | | or output produced) |
| "This will be the first year my company uses the | | | | * cost (the total amount spent to perform the |
| SMART approach to do performance | | | | tasks) |
| management. As a manager, I am supposed to | | | | * efficiency or productivity (the best use of time |
| set up measurable objectives for my | | | | and resources) |
| subordinates. It's not a problem for me to set up | | | | So what are some examples of measurable goals |
| measurable objectives for my assistant managers | | | | for a secretary or personal assistant? |
| as they have deadlines to meet. But when it | | | | First we need to talk about the results that are |
| comes to my secretary and the clerical staff, I | | | | important for a secretary or personal assistant to |
| am not sure how to set measurable goals for | | | | achieve, rather than get hung up on the duties |
| them as their duties are very routine and tedious. | | | | they perform. For example, rather than focusing |
| Could you give me some examples?" | | | | on the duties of "send agendas for meetings" and |
| Are deadlines the only thing worth measuring? | | | | "schedule appointments", one key result might be |
| Corina mentions that setting up measurable goals | | | | "their boss is always able to focus on the priorities |
| for her assistant managers is relatively easy | | | | and not distracted by administrative tasks". |
| because they have deadlines to meet. Does this | | | | Next, what could be some goals for a secretary |
| mean that the only results worth measuring for | | | | to strive for over the coming year? One goal, in |
| the assistant managers is whether they complete | | | | line with the above result, could be to "Reduce |
| things by their deadlines? | | | | the proportion of administrative items that go into |
| What about completing the right things, instead of | | | | the boss's in tray or diary." |
| wasting time and effort and money on doing | | | | And lastly, how could you measure this goal? One |
| things that really don't need to be done at all? | | | | way could be to add the total hours the boss |
| And what about completing things well, instead of | | | | spends on administrative tasks (or tasks that are |
| rushing to get it done on time but producing an | | | | not in their list of priorities) and divide it by the |
| end result that falls below the standards required? | | | | total time the boss works, to give a proportion of |
| Spend the time to think about results, before | | | | time spent in administrative tasks. Clearly the goal |
| thinking about goals and measures. | | | | is to reduce this amount. |
| So this is the first key to setting measurable | | | | See how this thought process gets you |
| goals for performance management: first spend | | | | monitoring important results, instead of just |
| some time to define the most important results | | | | measuring activity, like how many agendas were |
| that the person, in their role, is responsible for | | | | produced or how many appointments were |
| achieving. And check that you've got the right | | | | scheduled? |
| balance among those results using a checklist | | | | So next time you're setting goals and measures |
| something like this one: | | | | for your staff, make sure the conversation starts |
| * timeliness (finishing the work on time, or with as | | | | with a clear statement of the results they are |
| short as feasible cycle time or total effort) | | | | responsible for producing, as opposed to the |
| * quality (the goodness of the output produced, | | | | tasks they perform. Measure the results, not the |
| perhaps in terms of customer expectations or | | | | tasks. |
| standards) | | | | |