Women’s Venture Fund
While he is not a household name, Adam Kreek is one highly accomplished young man—an Olympic gold medalist in rowing, winner of the prestigious Canadian Athlete Leader of the Year (2010) and successful founder of Kreek Speak Enterprises where he and his team deliver motivational talks on topics ranging from change management and leadership to teamwork and sales.
According to Adam, since today’s business environment demands that we be more agile we need a new way of setting business goals. Instead of S.M.A.R.T.* goals, he suggests C.L.E.A.R. goals:
C – Collaborative: Goals should encourage teamwork.
L – Limited…in both scope and duration.
E – Emotional…have a connection to employees that taps into their energy and arouses passion
A – Appreciable…large goals need to be broken down into smaller goals to be accomplished more quickly and for long-term gain.
R – Refinable…set goals with definable objectives but as new situations or information arises, refine and modify your goals.
We like Adam’s recommendation for setting goals with one substitution: The C should stand for customer-centric. What do your customers want? (When was the last time you even asked them?)
Don’t get us wrong. We’re all for collaborative teamwork; we consider it part and parcel of achieving
goals. Collaboration is achieved by establishing an emotional connection to your mission for your employees.
But don’t throw out S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting. That’s like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
You should be attending to this task right now—before the new year rings in.
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