Glossary
SMART goal
SMART is a checklist for writing a goal so that anybody can tell whether it was met: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. George Doran published it in 1981. The letters help the first time you write a goal and stop helping soon after, because the hard part is agreeing which goal, not phrasing it correctly.
01
Where the acronym helps and where it gets in the way
Scorecard rows do not need the acronym, because the format already forces most of it: a measure, an owner, a number and a week. Where SMART still earns its place is in quarterly priorities, which get written as sentences and can therefore be vague. If a priority cannot be marked done or not done on the last day of the quarter, it fails.
The checklist is popular because it is easy to teach and it catches the worst goals, the ones with no number and no date attached. It also pushes teams toward goals they are already sure of, since achievable is the letter everybody optimizes for. Treat it as a proofreading pass rather than as a way of deciding what matters.
Worked example: A building products distributor wrote improve customer service as a quarterly priority three quarters running and marked it partly done each time. Rewritten as answer every inbound quote request within four working hours by the end of the quarter, it turned into a row on the weekly board and finished in ten weeks.
Sources: There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives, George T. Doran (1981); kpi.org/kpi-basics/kpi-development
Target
A target is the number written beside a measure that says what a good week looks like: twelve proposals, ninety-five percent on time, cash collected.
02OKR
OKR stands for objectives and key results: a short qualitative objective paired with about three measurable results that prove it happened.
03KPI
A KPI is a number a leadership team has agreed to run the business by: one owner, a goal written next to it, and a slot on the weekly agenda.
04Company Rocks
Company Rocks are the three to seven priorities the whole business commits to for the next ninety days, agreed before anybody sets a personal one.
05KPIs: what they are, how many to track, and which matter
A practical guide to key performance indicators for small companies: definitions, leading vs lagging measures, examples by department, and how many to track.
Start with a real question
Not sure which of these you actually need?
Tell us what the leadership team is arguing about. A person replies within one business day with a straight answer, whether that is a book, a tool or an implementer.
A person reads every one.