Without goals, you have no challenge to speak of.

And in the craft of goal setting, you want to strike a balance between being results- and process-oriented.

We're all familiar with the results-focused way of establishing goals, especially business owners and managers. The approach puts the numbers front and center.

For example:

"Beat this last year's sales figures by 10%."

Or, "add 1000 subscribers to the company newsletter within 60 days."

Without these figures to shoot for, accurately measuring a team's progress will prove near-impossible.

On the other hand…

A singular focus on a goal can put enormous pressure on the shoulders of employees.

To make an enormous undertaking manageable, you want to create a step-by-step plan for achieving the goal. Set milestones so your workers can focus on completing one clear step after another, eating the proverbial elephant one bite at a time.

Moreover, every completed step represents a small win that can boost motivation and productivity big time!

To ensure your goal is a balance between results and process, make sure it's SMART. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

If you're running a digital marketing team, here's how SMART goal setting may look like:

• Specific: You already know what to shoot for, but don't stop there. Include both the "what" and the "how." If the challenge is to increase sales, help the team spell out how they'll get the job done - whether through Facebook advertising, Adwords, or influencer marketing. Be sure to help your team map out the action plans and milestones, too.

• Measurable: You want to get more of your products and services out of the door. But by how much - 10%, 15%, or 20%? Before you fill in this blank, however, you must consider the following point.

• Achievable: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars," said Norman Vincent Peale. But if you set targets way beyond your team's capabilities, they will reject the challenge.

• Relevant: Increasing sales is always relevant for businesses! Also, you want to highlight why your team should work to increase sales. The juicier commissions are nice, but you want to look beyond the financial motivation.

• Time-Bound: The Parkinson's Law states: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." So if you don't want the project or challenge to take eternity, set a hard deadline for the goal, including every milestone.

If we put everything together, we'll have something along the lines of:

"To increase monthly sales by 10% within 30 days by working with influencers in our industry."

Now that's a goal way SMART-er than the usual "Let's boost our sales this month, guys!"