Module 1- My Business and I Final LK

Activity 7

Instructions:

1. Work with a partner. 2. Read each of the goals below. 3. Decide which goals are measurable or not and indicate why some are not measurable. 4. You can make a note of your answers.

Goals:

a) Improve customer satisfaction. b) Complete one week’s production with no rejects.

c) Service 40 vehicles per week. d) Recruit only well-motivated staff. e) Answer all call outs promptly.

Although improving customer service, answering all call outs promptly and recruiting well- motivated staff are worthwhile goals, they are very difficult to measure. This makes them poor as goals. If the business has a system for measuring customer service regularly, the smallest increase will count as improvement. ‘Promptly’ can mean different things to different people, as can ‘well-motivated’. You would never know if you hit your goals. On the other hand, having ‘no rejects’ and ‘servicing 40 vehicles per week’ are both measurable. Having goals increases your motivation to achieve them. These goals must be realistic, and not too easy to achieve. The best goals are those that stretch people but not to breaking point. They take people a little further than they have gone before. Keep this in mind when identifying your own goals for your business. You need to know when your goal is going to be achieved. Being measurable, you need to know when to measure them. Setting a time in which to do this will help you to know when you are going to revise the targets and set new ones. You can set your goals for a week, a month, or a quarter (three months). Initially, avoid setting goals for longer than this as they start to lose their effect, especially if you haven’t been measuring whether you have achieved them or not.

Goals motivate people but only if they can see what needs to be achieved. Set them too far ahead and they lose their ability to motivate.

So, when setting your goals remember to keep them SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

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