Are you uneasy about where your business is headed? Unsure about which way to steer the ship? Lacking motivation and excitement?
Your answer lies in a single word: mission. As in, you need a mission.
Your employees need a mission. One that, if achieved, would really be something meaningful.
Let’s face it, work can be, well, boring. But we all have fun when we make some waves. Shake things up. Turn some heads. Prove people wrong.
You think that NASA employees had a motivation or clarity problem when their mission became “Man on the Moon by ’69″? Think they had any fun doing the impossible? Think it felt like work?
You think Sam Walton and his team suffered from lack of clarity or excitement when, in 1945, he set the laughable goal — make his single store the “best, most profitable variety store in Arkansas within five years”? The goal required a tripling of revenue — from $73,000 per year to $250,000 (Source: Good to Great).
Or in 1977 when Walton set the absolutely audacious goal of becoming a $1 billion company in four years — which required a doubling of revenue?
How about Southwest Airlines, when in the 1960s it decided to shake up the stuffy airline industry with really crazy stuff, such as singing flight attendants, casual dress, low prices, one-way fares, open seating and pictures of whales on its planes? You think they were having a good time?
Yes, it’s time for you to take a good look at yourself and your organization and decide who you are, why you exist and where you are going. You need a crystal-clear goal that touches you deep to your core and excites you and everyone in your organization. Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last, calls this a BHAG — a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. He came up with this concept after studying scores of successful companies.
Here’s the good news. The only thing that stands between you and your next step to success is this January-February 2008 issue of The Business Owner Journal. Spend a little time with this issue and, by the end, you’ll be ready to make this a landmark year.
This article originally appeared in The Business Owner Journal, the periodical of choice for owners of small and midsize private businesses. All rights reserved, D.L. Perkins LLC. © 2012.
This publication is intended to provide general information on the subject matters covered. It is sold and distributed with the understanding that neither the publisher nor any distributor or advertiser is engaged in providing legal, tax, insurance, investment or other professional advice. The advice of a qualified professional should be sought before any reader applies a concept presented herein to his or her particular situation or business.
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