Setting BHAGs, motivating and inspiring your teams to achieve GREATNESS!

A very wise man once said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” That wise man was Walt Disney and he was right! He built a multi-billion-dollar empire and place that every adult and child would call today “The most magical place on earth” and it all started with a Mouse. Walt challenged himself and dared to dream big, set audacious goals and he achieved every last one of them. He did it even in death and that’s because in creating these BHAGs for himself and the Walt Disney Company, he inspired a set of people who are now called ”Disney Imagineers”. He inspired them to dream big, think big, create the unimaginable and do it for the magic. As a leader he challenged himself and his team of Imagineers to set goals that can only be labeled as BHAGs today.

BHAG is a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1994 book titled Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. The acronym stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. The idea behind a BHAG is to develop a visionary goal that is strategic and emotionally compelling that helps align your team to work together toward extra-ordinary outcomes and or performance results.

Why your BHAG matters

A great BHAG will cause your team to stretch beyond the obvious and beyond the status quo. Just like stretching a rubber band creates energy, stretching your team also creates energy. Committing to a goal that you don’t know how you will achieve creates an environment of innovation and inspiration. It gives people a vision of what the future might look like if everyone pulls together and gives their individual best to the collective effort. With the right BHAG, your people will embark on a crusade to achieve greatness. Get your team excited and engaged by sharing the vision. Your BHAG isn’t born overnight. Meet regularly to think about and discuss it. More importantly have fun going from GOOD to GREAT leveraging your BHAG as the catalyst.

Five Steps to creating your BHAG and driving it in your team

1.   Leaders, start by looking in the mirror - The energy of the company begins with you. If you’re not excited and inspired, your employees won’t be either. As a leader, your mindset is your most important asset, so you have to continually work on it as part of your self-care regimen, just like exercise and eating well. Stay focused on solutions and share your enthusiasm with your employees.

2.   Make everyone’s contribution a part of the mission to achieve the BHAG - Make sure your team is aligned with the vision of the BHAG and that this vision is featured prominently and enthusiastically in all your leadership communications with your team. When employees have clarity and unity around their team’s BHAGs, they understand how to prioritize their work, and they avoid wasting time on unfulfilling, inconsequential tasks. More importantly, they can see how the work they do each day contributes to something bigger and directly helps to advance the team’s BHAG. Set a due date to get the creative juices flowing, measure and manage your success milestones.

3.   Be a Cheerleader, not just a coach - When employees don’t bring their A-games to work, it’s often because they lack confidence in their abilities or don’t even know what they’re capable of achieving. Great leaders bring out greatness in their team because they see what is possible and transfer that belief to their people. Empower your people by letting them know you believe they can achieve their goals, do their best work, take on a new projects and overcome their obstacles. Often your belief in them will directly affect their confidence in themselves

4.   Practice empathy - The old-school management technique of using negative reinforcement to drive results has been proven ineffective, and it also creates an unhealthy work environment for everyone. By leading your team with support and empathy, you will build a stronger relationship and increased rapport with your team. Your employees will step up to the plate and deliver at the next level!

5.   Pile on the positive feedback - Overwhelm them with positive feedback on the big things, little things, any chance you get. Most leaders only give feedback when it’s negative or corrective, but they don’t give out the good stuff nearly as much as they think they do. Give at least three pieces of positive feedback for every piece of negative feedback.

Here are some classic BHAG examples from companies you know:

• Become the most recognized & respected consumer brand in the world (Starbucks)
• Every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds (Amazon)
• A computer on every desk in every home (Microsoft)
• Become the Harvard of the west (Stanford University)
• Land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth (1960's America)

?As always I like to share a video that further drives home my points, Please review this video that talks about the benefits of BHAGs in any organization.