New Research Suggests a Smarter Approach to Goal Setting
By Jean Rhodes
Recent research has highlighted the benefits of goal-focused mentoring. Although efforts to develop strong mentor-youth relationships are certainly necessary, it appears equally important, in most cases, to center the relationship around goals. Research suggests that, relative to friendship approaches, targeted approaches can be twice as effective.
These findings have led many mentoring programs to adopt goal-setting frameworks, most notably SMART goals. Indeed, for decades, the SMART goal-setting framework has been seen as the gold standard in business, classrooms, and coaching sessions. The acronym – standing for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound – promised an evidence-based formula for success.
Now a new study published in Educational Psychology has challenged this conventional wisdom. The authors hypothesized that, when learning new or complex tasks, non-specific goals offer distinct advantages over specific performance targets. The main types of non-specific goals they tested against SMART goals were “do-your-best” (DYB) goals and open goals. DYB goals are self-referenced targets that focus on personal growth relative to previous performances. These goals allow learners to systematically explore and discover effective strategies, reduce performance anxiety, and focus on improvement rather than fixed standards. Open goals are exploratory in nature and lack specific performance standards. They encourage active discovery of new information or skills, flexible learning approaches, and unconstrained exploration of unfamiliar territory. For example, one might strive to “see how many new words they can learn this week” or “see how long it takes to learn the basics of algebra” (pg. 948).
The primary difference between these non-specific goal types lies in their guiding principle. DYB goals remain anchored to a performance marker (such as personal best), while open goals maintain complete flexibility without reference to any performance standard. Meta-analytic evidence (e.g., McEwan et al., 2016) supports using non-specific goals during early learning stages of complex tasks, as specific goals can hinder strategy development and increase anxiety.
The authors recruited 247 participants to perform creative tasks under different goal-setting conditions. The results were surprising: those given precise, measurable targets performed no better than those told to explore freely. The authors concluded that, while SMART goals might work well for mastering specific skills, in situations requiring innovation or learning complex skills, rigid frameworks might actually impede progress. And, while “do-your-best” goals and open goals are often considered interchangeable, they actually produced different results. Participants given “do-your-best” instructions slightly outperformed those with completely open-ended goals. For beginners especially, open-ended goals often may prove more effective than specific targets.
These findings arrive at a crucial moment, as programs assess their approaches to goal-focused mentoring. The research suggests that rather than abandoning SMART goals entirely, programs might need a more nuanced approach – one that recognizes different situations call for different types of objectives.
For mentors, this means rethinking how they guide mentees toward success. Instead of defaulting to specific, measurable targets, they might consider alternating between structured and open-ended goals based on the task at hand and the mentee’s experience level.
In the end, the smartest approach might be knowing when not to be SMART at all.
References
Mcewan, D., Harden, S. M., Zumbo, B. D., Sylvester, B. D., Kaulius, M., Ruissen, G. R., Dowd, A. J., & Beauchamp, M.R. (2016). The effectiveness of multi-component goal setting interventions for changing physical activity behaviour: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Psychology Review, 10, 67–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2015.1104258
Pietsch, S., Riddell, H., Semmler, C., Ntoumanis, N., & Gucciardi, D.F. (2024). SMART goals are no more effective for creative performance than do-your-best goals or non-specific, exploratory ‘open goals’. Educational Psychology, 44, 946–962. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2024.2420818