What are strategic goals?
Strategic goals are an extension of your vision. We use them to help organisational leadership teams begin to put the meat on the bones of the strategy to achieve the organisation's vision.
Strategic goals are the bridge connecting vision to objectives and actions. They articulate the key areas you need to focus on and should be measurable, time-bound, achievable and memorable. Depending on your situation, these goals could be set for three to five years.
They address the core areas of your business and we find our four zones are a useful framework. Using the four zones ensures your strategy and subsequent goals and objectives have a whole of system approach.
Step 1. Agree on your top 4-6 strategic goals
Create simple names for each goal and put them in the platform.
Do you have at least one goal in each zone? You might have two to three in the Economic Engine around different key functions such as Engage the Market, Sales, Delivery, Customer Retention and/or supporting or nurturing customers.
Step 2. Get clarity and alignment
Ask yourself and the team: Where are we now? Consider the present state of the business. Be realistic, don’t kid yourselves.
- Where do we need to be in three years to reach our vision?
- What are the gaps?
- What do we need to do to bridge the gaps?
- What is our approach to achieving success?
- How might we measure progress towards our goal?
- Can we measure progress with milestones each year?
Answering these questions will give your goals clarity. It’s this clarity that will help create the Objectives and Key Results.
Step 3. Use the SMART guide to write and record your goals
Name: Clear and simple name stating what the goal is, for example: Engage more customers or Improve profitability.
Description: Include the impact or measure here, along with how you are going to achieve it. For example: We have improved customer retention by improving our delivery and our post-sale customer support. We have increased our customer retention from 50% to 95%.
Use metrics if possible. These makes your goals more powerful and helps to measure progress.
Check
- Have you got six or less strategic goals?
- Have you considered the whole system with at least one goal in each zone?
- Do they give clear company-wide directions that express where the business is going?
- Are they SMART?
Writing great objectives