Once you’ve embarked on the mentoring journey and are out to sea on mentoring waters, how do you know you’re making progress?
Thankfully, with the S.M.A.R.T. goals we set at the beginning of our relationship, our mentoring partnership is already built on a foundation that is measurable.
Remember, within the S.M.A.R.T. principles themselves, the M itself stands for measurable, helping us continuously get an idea of where we started, where we’re at, and how much further we have to go. The T in S.M.A.R.T. is also important, giving us Time-based or Time-sensitive end-dates that serve as a yardstick—as well as motivation.
Here are some examples of how to make goals both Measurable and Time-based:
- “I want to grow my professional network by at least five people a month.”
- “My goal is to increase my output to include one more [sales deck, piece of content, prospect outreach] a week.”
- “By the end of the quarter, I hope to bring on one more major client.”
In all of the aforementioned scenarios, mentors can support their mentees reach these goals by:
- Introducing them to some relevant people in their own networks or recommending certain online professional groups or clubs.
- Providing soft skills support in the form of efficiency and time management tips and tricks to help mentees find the time and motivation to be more productive.
- Giving mentees the support they need by sharing how to reach out and talk to C-Suite executives, position themselves within the organisation, and more.
But measuring mentoring progress doesn’t start and end with setting S.M.A.R.T goals. Here are a few other ways to understand the real progress you’re making.
Linking S.M.A.R.T. Goals to Business Objectives
Another great way to measure progress is to link your professional S.M.A.R.T. goals to the organisation’s overall business objectives.
If you don’t already have access to them, ask a direct manager for your department’s business objectives for the year and link your own professional goals accordingly. That way, you will be able to see and enjoy the direct impact your contributions are making on objectives bigger than your own.
This approach has been proven to be effective. According to McKinsey Research 91% of companies who have effective performance management systems say that employees’ goals are linked to business priorities. That’s because seeing how our individual goals fit into and affect the big picture encourages both accountability and better performance.
Nikki Scheuder, mentoring program coordinator at Arup, shares how they aligned their mentoring program goals to the organization’s overall goals and values.
Ensuring S.M.A.R.T. Goals are Adaptable
Last but not least, it’s important to ensure your S.M.A.R.T. goals are adaptable to the changing organisational and technological environment.
For example, let’s say your goal last quarter was to meet up with five new professional contacts for coffee. Given the pandemic, this goal would need to be adapted to fit the current environment: maybe having a virtual coffee instead.
While you don’t want goals to become moving targets, you do want to make sure they’re dynamic, evolving to your current needs, and adapting to what’s going on around you professionally. In this way, they continue to fit into the A in S.M.A.R.T—Achievable. This is why revisiting goals frequently is of the utmost importance to ensure you’re still on track to reach them.
Ready to get your mentoring program started? Chat with one of our Mentoring Experts, and learn about the five key decisions you need to make in order to successfully match, build momentum and measure a successful mentoring program.
