Do you have an enormous BHAG for 2011?
Posted By Amanda Collins on January 3, 2011
Each year, as we turn the calendar from December 31 to January 1, we are encouraged to create “resolutions” for the new year. Often, these take the form of losing weight or eating healthier, but what about your business goals? It seems that we purposely create objectives that are amorphous and, thus, challenging to measure. You can’t track what you can’t measure, so this year, give yourself a set objective that is just outside of your reach, otherwise known as a BHAG.
What’s a BHAG, you ask? Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. I learned the term from Phoenix business coach David Hepburn, Jr., and it’s a good one that’s stuck with me. The idea behind a BHAG is not to set you up for failure. In fact, it has just the opposite purpose: a BHAG is designed to inspire you and encourage you to keep moving forward.
My current BHAGs include owning a home in a posh neighborhood of Phoenix and adding two contract employees to my firm. For both of these, I need to create more revenue opportunities, but that’s not really my BHAG. Making more money doesn’t inspire me in and of itself; it’s what that money provides that lights a fire.
So, to keep myself moving, I create regular, “tame” goals quarterly as part of my SWOT analysis. These smaller milestones are the steps that get me closer to realizing everything I want for my business and my life. They may include things like education, certification, the number of networking events to attend, and anything else that supports my BHAG for the year
I encourage you to sit down in the coming days and start to create some big, hairy, audacious goals for yourself and your company in 2011. And by all means share them! Once you have them out there, others can start to encourage you and remind you that—even on those dark days when nothing seems to be working—you have a reason to continue.