If you haven’t already, review the Goal Setting Philosophy page before starting. It explains the mindset behind this workshop and how to think through the MiM™ lens when guiding your client.
Timing & Participation
Workshop: 1 of 4 (Growth Plan Design™)
Duration: 60 minutes
Led by: MiM™ Coach
Participants: CEO and/or President and/or Owner
The SMARTER Goals session should include the leaders responsible for defining the company’s strategic direction — typically the CEO, President, or senior leadership guiding the future of the business.
The goal is not to reach consensus across a large group. The goal is to ensure the leaders responsible for strategy clearly define the outcome the business is working toward.
Preparation
Time Required: 45-60 minutes
Lead: MiM™ Architect
Timing: 1–2 days before the workshop
Preparation for the Ideal Profiles Workshop centers on orienting the client around reflection and ensuring you are fluent in guiding the conversation toward repeatable relationship patterns.
Step 1. Send Prep Email
No formal preparation is required for this session. The goal is to create space for leadership to think through the questions together during the workshop.
Prep Email
Looking forward to our upcoming workshop: Your SMARTER Goal.
There’s no formal preparation needed for this session.
During our time together, we’ll explore a series of questions designed to connect the growth goal you’ve set for the business with the longer-term direction you want the company to move toward.
The conversation is meant to be reflective, so there’s nothing you need to prepare in advance.
Talk soon,
MiM™ Coach
Note for Coach: This should already be on the calendar at this point, but as a quick reference, this is your calendar invite.
*Client Name* // Your SMARTER Goal
Required: Client leader(s), MiM™ Coach
----------------Meeting Room: *Zoom or Teams info*
Purpose: In this session, we’ll review the growth goal you currently have for the business — or help define one if needed — and pressure test it through the SMARTER framework to ensure it’s aligned with the outcomes you want the company to achieve.
Step 2. Review the Teach Deck
- Open the Quick Start™ - SMARTER Goals Teach deck in Canva
- Use Presenter View to review your speaking notes
- Practice transitions
- Focus on flow, not memorization
Your goal is to be fluent in what this session is designed to surface. By the end of the conversation, you should have enough clarity to articulate what the company's long-term vision is and how their current goal relates to it.
Step 3. Review Client Context
Before the session, review any available materials that describe how the company currently frames its purpose or direction.
This may include the company’s website, mission statement, vision statement, or previously documented strategic goals.
This context can provide helpful background, but the purpose of the session is to hear leadership describe the company’s origins and future direction in their own words during the conversation.
Teach
The Teach portion of this session is brief and serves to orient the leadership team to the Measured in Millions® philosophy on goal setting.
The purpose of this section is to align the group around this lens so they can begin examining their current goal through the SMARTER framework in the discussion that follows.
Gather
The purpose of this section is to guide the leadership team through a reflective conversation about the origins of the business, the future they hope to create, and the role their current growth goal plays in reaching that outcome.
Begin by asking questions that help leadership reconnect with the story behind the company.
If the founder or owner is present, explore the motivations that originally led them to start the business.
Example questions may include:
- Why did you start this business?
- What need or gap were you trying to fill at the time?
- What about solving that problem was meaningful to you?
Next, guide the conversation toward the future of the company.
Example questions may include:
- Where do you hope to see the business in the future?
- What kind of company do you want this to become?
- If everything goes well over the next several years, what does success look like?
Once this context has been established, transition the conversation toward the company’s current growth goal.
- What growth goal has the leadership team set for the business today?
Finally, guide leadership through the SMARTER lens by exploring the connection between the goal and the future they hope to create.
- If you achieve this goal, what will actually change for the business?
- How does achieving this goal move the company closer to the future you described earlier?
- Does this goal strengthen the business in a meaningful way?
The objective of this conversation is to ensure the company’s growth goal is clearly defined and aligned with both the End Game and the Real Impact leadership wants the business to produce.
Immediate Follow-Up (End of Session)
Following the workshop, send a short follow-up email to the client team, ideally within a few hours.
Follow-Up Email
From: MiM™ Coach
To: Client Team
Subject: SMARTER Goal Follow Up
—————-
Hi *contact name(s)*,
Thanks again for the thoughtful conversation today.
We spent time pressure testing the growth goal for the business through the SMARTER framework and connecting it to the longer-term direction you want the company to move toward.
Your SMARTER goal: (Insert finalized goal)
In our next session, The Profit Equation, we’ll examine what the business would need to produce financially in order to achieve this outcome.
You’ll receive a short prep email ahead of that session with anything needed for the discussion.
Talk soon,
MiM™ Coach
Synthesize
After the session, synthesize the conversation into three clear outputs that will guide the remainder of the Growth Plan Design™ program.
1. Long-Term Vision
Capture a concise statement describing the future leadership wants to create for the company. This should reflect the direction leadership described during the conversation and the end state they ultimately want the business to achieve.
2. SMARTER Goal (Current Planning Period)
Document the finalized SMARTER goal the leadership team agreed to pursue. The goal should be clearly written, measurable, and tied to a defined timeframe.
3. Strategic Connection
Write a short statement explaining how achieving the SMARTER goal will move the company closer to its long-term vision.
These three outputs establish the strategic foundation for the Growth Plan page in the Digital Playbook and will guide the economic and strategic decisions explored in the sessions that follow.
Share
The Share phase is about publishing the Growth Plan page in the Digital Playbook and confirming alignment with the leadership team.
Your role is to translate the outputs from the Synthesize phase into the Playbook page and ensure the company’s long-term vision, SMARTER goal, and strategic connection are clearly documented.
Once the page is complete, share it with the leadership team so they can review and confirm that it accurately reflects the conversation and the direction they agreed to pursue.
When the Playbook page is complete, send this follow-up email to the client team:
Playbook Update Email
From: MiM™ Coach
To: Client Leader(s)
Subject: SMARTER Goal | Playbook Update
—————-
Hi *contact name(s)*,
We’ve started your Growth Goals page in your Digital Playbook.
The page captures the long-term vision you described for the company, the SMARTER goal you’ve chosen to pursue, and how achieving that goal moves the business closer to the future you want to create.
You can review it here:
👉 Insert Playbook Link
Our next sessions will continue building on this page as we examine what it will take to achieve the goal and define the plan for getting there.
If anything looks off—or doesn’t reflect what you’d confidently share with the rest of the company—let me know and we’ll adjust it.
Talk soon,
MiM™ Coach
What's Next
Next is The Profit Equation workshop, where you’ll work with leadership to translate the SMARTER goal into the financial realities required to achieve it.
In this session, you’ll examine the company’s current revenue streams, operating costs, and economic structure to understand what the business must produce to reach the goal.
To learn how to prepare for and facilitate this session, explore the Profit Equation Toolkit.
Link Coming Soon