SMART Goals Aren’t Enough

Make Your 2026 Goal-Setting More Impactful

As we head into a new year, you’ll see no shortage of goal-setting frameworks, templates, and productivity tips. One of the most common and widely used goal frameworks is SMART. It is a great starting place; however, sometimes leaders think when they complete each line of this pneumonic, their work is done and their people will have all they need to follow through on their goals.

Going beyond SMART provides your people a better chance to succeed. There are specific actions you can take and questions you can ask to ensure your goals work for you in 2026.

The Importance of Goal-Setting

According to Gallup, of employees who strongly agreed with, "My manager helps me set work priorities," 38% said they are engaged. On the flip side, only 50% of employees strongly agree that they know what their priorities should be*.

What this tells me is that employees want to set goals yet too often they are not done effectively. So, if goal setting is commonplace and has a positive impact on employee engagement, yet half of employees do not have a good grasp of what their goals are, leaders are tasked with figuring out how to shrink this disconnect.

What is SMART?

For those that have never heard of SMART, there are some variations to the wording, but generally it stands for: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound**. For a goal to be considered “smart”, it needs to meet each of those five criteria.

As I mentioned above, it is an effective tool for ensuring there is structure to frame goals for both the leader and the employee. I’ve found with leaders of all levels that most people have heard and used the framework. The question is if it is so widely used, why do so many people feel goal setting is useless and does not lead to the desired results?

Five Ways to make your goals SMARTer

To get the desired results out of the goals we set, it starts by recognizing who is responsible for what when it comes to goals. When we are talking about performance goals, the “What” of the goal should come from you, the leader. As the leader, you have a more complete view of your business area and how it ties into what the organizational priorities are, whereas the employee generally has a more limited view based on their scope and responsibilities.

When it comes to questions around “How”, “When”, and “Where” a goal will be accomplished, this should be done collaboratively and decided together. This provides the opportunity to empower your employees to work in a way that best fits them and makes them more accountable to the outcome because they were a part of creating the plan for their goal(s).

If you are working on goals that are more personal development related, working with your employees, rather than letting them do it alone, is still an absolute must. Employees may have a sense of what they need to improve, but by working in tandem, you leverage both your and their perspective since you as the leader have a better idea of what it takes to get to where they might be trying to go.

Next, once we start setting the goals, if we are using a framework like SMART, there are four key questions we need to ask and answer to ensure you and your employee are completely aligned on what is important, what the boundaries are, and what resources are available.

The first question is: What are the necessary resources they need to be successful? This ensures that your employees have the tools at their disposal to be successful. It is common to think of resources as just being budget, however, there are many other resources people could need like equipment, people, training, and dedicated time.

The next question is: How does this goal align with their other priorities? This is a key one, because as the Gallup statistic earlier demonstrated, your people understanding where things fall on the priority list makes a significant difference with how engaged and effective they are.

Third: How often will you meet with them to review progress? Too often, goals are set at the start of the year and then only revisited at an end of year performance review. If we can check-in throughout the year, we can not only check on how our employees are doing, we can also make adjustments. If something is making the goal target exceedingly difficult or if an employee is well-ahead of schedule, you can use these reviews to adjust. Also, priorities can shift, and things can change drastically and quickly, so by building in check-ins you provide opportunities to be nimble and pivot before it is too late.

Fourth: What support do you need from me? As a leader, it is your responsibility to give your employees the best opportunity to succeed, so the same goes for helping them achieve their goals. By asking this question, you are not saying you want to hold their hand and do things for them; instead, you are ensuring your employee feels supported. Support can be anything from connecting them with the right people, getting them access to the necessary resources, being an accountability partner, thinking through potential obstacles, and much more. You are showing your employees they are not alone; you are there to help them achieve success.

A framework like SMART is a good starting place, but we need more to make goal setting something that is more than just checking a box. To do that, recognizing how you as the leader can work with your employees along with asking deeper questions to make sure they have what they need, they understand where the goal fits, they know how often you will be reviewing progress, and they communicate how you can support them is crucial.

Whether we like it or not, goal setting season is upon us, so let’s make this one SMARTer than ever before!