Set SMART Goals to Achieve Success in Your Optometry Practice

Looking for ways to achieve success in your optometry practice? Doctors and staff should set SMART goals.

To develop a plan and achieve success within this model, make sure goals are:

Specific: You want your goals to be specific and clear. You want to be sure that everyone understands the goals too.

Measurable: Goals need to be measured. Johnson used an example of setting a goal that all receptionists greet customers with a smile; but this would be extremely hard to measure, so be sure to pick something that can be easily measured.

Achievable: Make sure you are challenging people, but also make sure that it’s not so difficult to achieve or your team might ignore it.

Realistic: Goals need to be realistic given you, your staff’s, and your practice’s resources.

Timely: Goals need to be completed in a timely manner, so that they don’t get placed on the back burner or forgotten.

But don’t forget to involve your team. One the biggest reasons doctors may not be reaching their goals is because they are not involving their staff.

It’s important to talk to your team and get their input on what the goals should be. Often, they are higher than the goals you would have set. Also, because they set the goals, they are more likely to take ownership of them and commit, Johnson said.

Lastly, motivation is key. Make sure to collaborate and encourage that goalsetting and achieving the goal is fun!

Watch our Best Practices for Setting & Hitting Your Goals video here.