What are the key takeaways from this Manager Tools episode?

Key insights include: **MT Goals Framework:** Focus exclusively on measurable metrics and specific deadlines rather than SMART's five criteria. Two-thirds of SMART goals fail because managers wordsmith specificity, achievability, and relevance while neglecting the critical measurable and time-bound components that actually drive accountability.; **Q4 Completion Strategy:** Set goal deadlines for September 30th or early October instead of December 31st. This nine-month timeline provides buffer for unexpected challenges and prevents year-end scrambles, allowing managers to claim success even if completion extends into November or early December.; **Narrow Focus Principle:** Commit to three major goals maximum rather than ten or twelve. Great strategists and leaders consistently emphasize concentration of effort—80% of results come from 20% of activities. Fewer goals enable deeper commitment and higher achievement rates than spreading effort thin.

Manager Tools

How to Set Annual Goals - HOF 2025

December 22, 2025

Read time

2 min

Topics

Productivity, Leadership, Software Development

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 23, 2025

Key Takeaways

✓MT Goals Framework: Focus exclusively on measurable metrics and specific deadlines rather than SMART's five criteria. Two-thirds of SMART goals fail because managers wordsmith specificity, achievability, and relevance while neglecting the critical measurable and time-bound components that actually drive accountability.
✓Q4 Completion Strategy: Set goal deadlines for September 30th or early October instead of December 31st. This nine-month timeline provides buffer for unexpected challenges and prevents year-end scrambles, allowing managers to claim success even if completion extends into November or early December.
✓Narrow Focus Principle: Commit to three major goals maximum rather than ten or twelve. Great strategists and leaders consistently emphasize concentration of effort—80% of results come from 20% of activities. Fewer goals enable deeper commitment and higher achievement rates than spreading effort thin.
✓Backwards Planning Method: Map goals in reverse from deadline to present, creating a fishbone diagram of dependencies. Identify major obstacles early by working backwards through required tasks, then front-load activities in Q1 and Q2 to discover problems when time remains for adjustment.

What It Covers

Manager Tools presents a three-part series on annual goal setting, advocating for MT goals (measurable and time-bound) over SMART goals, with practical frameworks for creating effective objectives and avoiding common pitfalls.

Key Questions Answered

•MT Goals Framework: Focus exclusively on measurable metrics and specific deadlines rather than SMART's five criteria. Two-thirds of SMART goals fail because managers wordsmith specificity, achievability, and relevance while neglecting the critical measurable and time-bound components that actually drive accountability.
•Q4 Completion Strategy: Set goal deadlines for September 30th or early October instead of December 31st. This nine-month timeline provides buffer for unexpected challenges and prevents year-end scrambles, allowing managers to claim success even if completion extends into November or early December.
•Narrow Focus Principle: Commit to three major goals maximum rather than ten or twelve. Great strategists and leaders consistently emphasize concentration of effort—80% of results come from 20% of activities. Fewer goals enable deeper commitment and higher achievement rates than spreading effort thin.
•Backwards Planning Method: Map goals in reverse from deadline to present, creating a fishbone diagram of dependencies. Identify major obstacles early by working backwards through required tasks, then front-load activities in Q1 and Q2 to discover problems when time remains for adjustment.

Notable Moment

A security manager panicked about measuring gate guards until realizing he could track two simple proxies: complaint counts for timeliness and random spot-checks for smiling. This straightforward approach transformed unmeasurable work into actionable metrics that improved performance and launched his career.

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Episode Transcript

Hey, folks. Sarah here from manager tools, and it's that time of year again. We're off celebrating with our family, and we hope that you're off doing the same. And, therefore, we're going to release to you a classic manager tools podcast, one which we always release around this time of the year while everyone out there is starting to think about what they need to get done for next year. Today, how to set annual goals. We know that schedules fill up fast, and let's face it, life gets busy. That's why you should start thinking about the events you need on your calendar in 2026 before that coveted time slips away on you. The AM conference is up for sale now. You can plan early and start networking with the folks that will be there using our group Slack channel, which is already available for use. Check it out today at manager-tools.com/training to learn more information about next year's m conference. Welcome to Manager Duels. Today's topic, how to set annual goals, part one of three. Hi, everyone. This is Mike, and welcome to manager tools. Many managers are going through goal setting efforts right now for 2008. And typically at this time of year, we get lots of questions about goals and goal setting. Sometimes they're dispiriting. Managers spend an awful lot of time wordsmithing their intent into corporate frameworks. All that time would be far better spent thinking about goals themselves, and how the achievement of those goals will help the organization. A lot of managers also have to create goals that are smart. And as you'll find in today's cast, we don't recommend you're doing so unless you have to. We dislike them so much, we almost call this cast, smart goals are stupid. Well, yeah. Yeah. We really don't like them. In fact, we spend a good bit of our time in our introduction talking about SMART Goals, so beware. The fact that the technique is so widespread and so often ineffective causes us to want to address it fully. And hey, who would have thought that our answer would be MT goals? Yeah, right. Okay. Here we go. I have something for you here. I have a soapbox just built just right for SMART goals. So feel free. Yes. I, well, I'll do my best to help you rein me in. But but you don't like SMART goals either. No. You're right. I don't. But like you said, I I take my I take my role of reining you in sometimes very seriously. So this will be this will be no different. And our wonderful audience and I will thank you for it. Why don't you like SMART goals? Yeah. You see here, you're already inciting the ranting. We're just getting started. There you go. Feel free. Let let let your inner rant loose for me. Yeah. Yeah. That's Marco. Okay. So let's let's before we do that, though, let's just start more …

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