S-M-A-R-T GOALS FOR MENTEES

When setting your goals in a mentoring relationship, apply the SMART parameters. It would help enhance the achievability of the goals. It would also help you and your mentor track progress better.

(Mr. Thomas and his mentee Ramsey are in an office, to hold their first mentoring session.)

Mr Thomas: what are your goals? What are you looking to achieve from this relationship?

Ramsey: I want to become the CEO of this company in the next two months.

Mr Thomas: (laughs) you must be joking. That is not possible. You are a junior manager in this company, how do you plan to achieve that in such a short time?

Ramsey: (speechless)

Quite funny. That is how funny you sound when you make vague goals. What are vague goals? These are goals that are not Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. In other words, vague goals are not SMART.

As a mentee, your purpose for having a mentor is to help you achieve specific goals that you have set for yourself. It could be to become the CEO of your company, help you grow your business, or help you have a better marriage. Whatever your goals are, there are certain parameters that they have to meet. When your goals meet these parameters, it is easy for you and your mentor to map out a plan to achieve them. You need to set SMART goals.

THE PARAMETERS FOR GOAL SETTING

SPECIFIC: When setting goals in a mentoring relationship, the first thing you should ask yourself is “are these goals specific?” If you get the answer in the affirmative, then you are good to go. Define your goals to the letter. Imagine you asked someone what they want to be, and their reply is “I want to be a business owner” I am sure you would like to know the exact type of business. You would want the person to define what exactly they want. Compare the first reply to “I want to start a foodstuff business” Do you see the more specific one. As a result of this, pursuing the goal and mapping out strategies would be more uncomplicated.

MEASURABLE: What is progress if it cannot? When setting your goals, you should have a system of measuring them. There should be Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): what are the signs of growth and progress. Thes KPIs would help to track progress and create a timeline for the achievement of the goal. In a mentoring relationship, setting measurable goals is crucial as it demands accountability. Accountability, in turn, is beneficial to the success of the relationship.

ACHIEVABLE: The point of setting a goal in the first place is to achieve it. What then is the use of a goal that is not achievable? There is none. Do not fill your head with ideas, building castles in the clouds. Before you set any goal, ask yourself “is this achievable?” and be honest with yourself. No mentor would be willing their waste their time and resources pursuing something that would not yield any results.

RELEVANT: This is related to the previous point. However, there is a difference. A goal can be achievable but not relevant to you. Let us go back to the illustration above, the conversation between Mr Thomas and Ramsey. Ramsey’s goal was not realistic for his position and the time frame. Set goals that are within your reach. This does not mean that you should limit your abilities or dreams. You have to be honest with yourself, so as not to waste your time chasing clouds.

TIME-BOUND: The last but not the least of them, whatever goal you want to set must be within a time frame. You cannot set goals and leave them to infinity, that would disqualify them as goals. There are long-term goals and short-term goals. The goals you set for yourself has to fall within those two options. Expert, Ruth Newell said “I teach starting with broad over-arching goals or ‘defining your dream’. Then, once dreams and direction are identified, bring those dreams down to specific, attainable, positive and possible goals. Date and time are assigned to each goal so they can literally be checked off a list. Goals should be clearly defined.” [1]

For everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT
When setting your goals in a mentoring relationship, apply the SMART parameters. It would help enhance the achievability of the goals. It would also help you and your mentor track progress better. One of the evidence of a good mentoring relationship is achieving your goals within the relationship. Read “Evidence of a working mentorship”[2]

Thank you for reading, have you ever applied these parameters in your goal setting? Please share, I will be waiting in the comment section.

[1] https://collegian.com/2015/05/experts-advice-on-goal-setting/

[2] https://thementormorphosis.faithgane.org/blogdetails.php?id=52