SMART goals: No concept is more important to being an excellent manager of groups or individuals. SMART goals can set you free. They can set your employees free. They are the key to successful delegation. However, their misuse can lead to senseless micro-management, planning overkill and employee ennui. I thought I’d write a reliable guide to walking the fine line between using SMART goals to free you and your peeps, and rendering them listless with managerial overkill.

Over the years, a couple of the letters in the SMART acronym have taken on a life of their own. I’ll do what I can to trim them back a bit. Here are the versions I’ve come across:

S = specific

M=measurable, memorable

A=Achievable, actionable

R=relevant, realistic

T=timely, time-bound

I’m going to start with T. For one thing, it’s the easiest to do. Even more important though is this: It’s the key to managing energy, and managing energy is the key to performance. Without a deadline, even the most specific, measurable, important goal flops around like loose string on Itzak Perlman’s Stradivarius.

Nothing tightens up a team like a deadline. And, nothing ensures a deadline will be met like setting a follow-up date. That’s all it takes, really: Give a specific deadline, like “Saturday, 10:00am,” then set a follow-up date to check on progress: “Let’s talk on the phone in 3 days – how about 3:00 on Wednesday?”

You’ll be astonished at how quickly things start to move.

I can almost hear your objections: “But, Liz, isn’t that treating adults like children?” Or, “Why should I have to babysit my employees? They’re professionals. They know what to do – they should just do it.”

Except:  You don’t set follow-up dates for them. You set them for you. Setting and keeping follow-up dates are what allows you to manage a project without having to step in and do it yourself. Follow-up dates give you all the opportunities you need to manage well. Here’s what I mean:

• Setting a follow-up date shows your commitment to the goal or task. Time spent is how you show people what’s important. When something is a high priority, you make time for it.

• Setting a follow-up date shows your commitment to them. Time spent is how you show people that they are important to you.

• Setting a follow up date gives you easy access to teachable moments. Regular contact makes this easier. The result is better alignment, early course correction and – best of all – the ability to express appreciation often.

• Setting a follow-up date keeps you both current. Has there been change in the priority of this project? In relevant information?  Regular follow-up dates make it easy to pass this information along.

You see? All the critical tasks of a manager, there in easy, bite-sized pieces, built right into the fabric of your day. No inertia to break through, no big hill to climb to reach your goal. Follow-up dates enable you to tag on to the energy and momentum of the actual work while working your management agenda. They are a twofer.

But the primary reason you set a follow-up date may surprise you: It will give you instant feedback about how clear you were in the first place. And, take it from one who knows: You weren’t nearly as clear as you thought you were. You weren’t as comprehensive either. You may have forgotten some critical detail, or failed to think things through to a logical conclusion. Follow-up meetings show you this with painful clarity. It can be embarrassing to respond to questions that arise during a follow-up meeting, but it will be some of the best time you’ve ever spent.

Next week: S is for specific.

As always, I welcome your ideas, input and stories.

I’m in the final pages of a thought-provoking book: Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor. He keeps dropping revelatory bombs, some of which shed light on the difficulty we have saying no at work.His basic premise goes like this: We are designed to seek happiness. Because the formula for happiness is pleasure + meaning + strengths, we find happiness when we are doing something meaningful that we enjoy and are good at. Something we can disappear into, where we lose track of time. So far, so good.

The kicker is this: we have most of our happiest moments – our flow states – when we’re working. That’s right: We are more likely to experience happiness working than when we are at leisure. We’re more likely to encounter meaning, pleasure and use our strengths when we are working. That’s what the research shows.There’s something else in the research: We believe that happiness is connected to leisure, not work, even though we report having more happy experiences at work. This mismatch between what we believe (leisure=happy) and what we experience (work=happy) points to a deep-seated prejudice against work in our culture. It’s as though we’re not supposed to love our work or bring the idea of pleasure into the work equation. Pleasure belongs to that 10th game of shuffleboard on the cruise ship, not to making the annual report look amazing. What’s up with that?

Apparently, many of us are channeling Immanuel Kant, who sternly told us that duty is the only moral action and that moral action is the only route – however circuitous – to happiness. There can be no meaning without duty, and duty involves the sacrifice of at least some self-interest. Therefore, meaningful work equals duty, duty equals sacrifice, and sacrifice equals happiness. You can’t have one with out the other. As for pleasure, forget about it. Taken to its logical extreme, this means the more self-interest you sacrifice, the more meaningful and moral are your actions and the happier you must be. This is what’s burning us out.It’s also 180 degrees wrong.

We don’t have to suffer to do good work. Enjoyment doesn’t invalidate it. We won’t be punished for taking care of ourselves. In fact, the work gets more valuable when I put enjoyment on an equal footing with doing good work. When I add self-interest to the mix.According to Kant, that is heresy. According to the way we are designed and the latest research on happiness, it’s the simple truth.I find this enormously comforting. I’m not all that good at leisure. It bores me if it goes on too long. I hate shuffleboard and miniature golf. I like working. I love contributing – I just don’t like being in endless sacrifice mode. It’s an attractive thought: I can dial up the pleasure and dial down the pain – and be happier – with a simple Kantectomy. Who’s in?

I’m humbled by the people I coach. Everyday they face the most astonishing levels of stress, do good – even great – work for their internal clients, then come back the next day for more. Their resilience is epic, even legendary. They are so good, in fact, that no one can see how close they are to flaming out.

Well, not no one. I can see it. My clients can too. Problem is, I can’t figure out how to get them to stop colluding with their tormentors.

Most of these high-achieving professionals would rather die than say to a client: “You slipped your deadline for reviewing this, which means the whole production schedule will be delayed.” I’m at a loss to understand why this is so difficult to say. Even when the client argues, or yells, or says, “but this has to be done in two weeks!” or complains to the pro’s boss, it doesn’t change the facts.

And isn’t it kinda obvious that, if a client cared that much, they’d have made time to do their part? Isn’t it kinda obvious that, since you have multiple clients and one of them is allowed to do this, someone else’s project will have to be delayed? And, isn’t it kinda obvious that you’ll then have no credibility with any of your clients? So why would you stay late atwork or come in on weekend rather than saying this?

Perhaps I’m missing something? If so, please correct me. I’m all ears.

I’m taking up the challenge from Etienne over at The Happy Employee. What are the five things I’d tell the managers I work with if I were about to die?

1. Get more sleep. You’ve read the studies. You’ve seen the effects in others. Get more rest. We will love you for it.

2. Get more help, especially when you’re overwhelmed. Sure it may not be done just the way you’d do it, but it will be done. (This is advice I should take myself. And I will, as soon as I get up from my nap.)

3. Have more fun. That’s where all the innovation is hiding – in workgroups where they are having fun. Also, it’s very difficult to be anxious when you’re laughing.

4. Make appreciation a habit. Ask each person on your staff to coffee or lunch and get them to tell you the story of how they accomplished something they are proud of.

5. Leave room for other’s to add their thoughts. Do some things at the 80% level so others feel comfortable joining in.