How to set strategic goals
Strategic goal-setting is a recurrent responsibility for business leaders. But do you know how to set specific, actionable goals? Avoid vague directives, and motivate your team toward success. Explore this guide to setting strategic goals, and sign up for online leadership courses on edX.
By: Shelby Campbell, Edited by: Valerie Black
Published: June 10, 2025
Why does having strategic goals matter?
Strategic goals are critical for measuring your organization's success. These organizational targets can help employees understand what they're working toward and how their work drives progress. They often align with organizational mission statements.
Strategic goals communicate your organization's direction to stakeholders so everyone can work together to achieve them. Business leaders, including C-suite executives, department directors, and managers, are responsible for setting strategic goals. However, anyone in an organization can help set its direction with creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Strategic goal-setting is the first step in the strategic planning process. Leaders set strategic goals to determine what success looks like for their organization and what is possible within the current circumstances.
Tips for setting strategic goals
Whether you have an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, you can drive growth using strategic goal-setting. Explore the following tips, and sign up for an online business strategy and analytics program on edX.
Determine relevant KPIs
Companies measure success using key performance indicators (KPIs). While some may be observation-based, others are quantifiable and provide measurable data that indicates whether a strategic decision is working.
Examples of KPIs may include:
- Employee productivity
- Revenue and profit
- Social media interactions or followers
- Market share
- Customer satisfaction
Think beyond financial success
Although finances may be a useful KPI, strategic goals are often separate from financial goals. Greater profits may not paint a complete picture of your company's growth.
For example, if you want to become your region's top HVAC company, improving your local search engine result page (SERP) ranking may help you find and retain new customers.
Set short- and long-term goals
As you develop your strategy, it may benefit your team to set incremental targets that drive progress. By setting short-term goals for your employees to complete weekly or monthly, you can ensure that your organization stays on track to complete long-term goals.
For example, you may want to dominate your industry's market on a social media network. A short-term target that contributes to this goal may involve efforts to post a viral video that gets over 100,000 views.
Consider mutually beneficial goals
You can create goals that lead your teams to accomplish many separate objectives. Have discussions with your team to determine the direction they would like to see the business take. When their goals align with the organization's, everyone can work together to progress across all fronts.
For example, you may implement training programs to increase productivity by 10% over the next year. These programs can benefit you and your team by giving them opportunities to advance in the company and build professional skills as they increase productivity.
Account for the political and economic climate
Outside factors can affect your organization's ability to achieve its goals. When strategizing new goals, be sure to account for these external influences.
For example, a strategic goal for a manufacturing company experiencing less demand due to inflation may be to find new suppliers and reduce materials costs by 15% over the next year.
Evaluating your strategic goals
Many organizations follow the SMART framework when evaluating their goals. These guidelines help business leaders assess if their objectives are too ambitious. SMART stands for:
- Specific: Avoid ambiguity when setting goals — outline exactly what you want to happen.
- Measurable: Your goals should have a quantifiable endpoint.
- Achievable: Strategic goals shouldn't be so lofty that you don't have the capability or resources to reach them.
- Relevant: Create goals that reflect your current circumstances.
- Time-bound: Goals should have a deadline to create urgency and focus.
By ensuring your goals align with these guidelines, you can keep your objectives realistic and motivate your team.
You should also continually assess your goals as you execute your strategy for achieving them. Allow your goals to be flexible, and reroute your plan as circumstances evolve.