Companies of all sizes go through an annual goal-setting process. If they don’t, they should. At Reverb, we’ve used various formats over the years ranging from spreadsheets to custom tools and Notion pages. I’m not going to prescribe one tool over another – the tool that works best, after all, is the one that you use. For us, it’s been a gradual evolution that was less about the right tool and more about creating goals that drive the level of strategic, forward-looking conversation we want to have as a team.
Your goal-setting process matters
As the Reverb team grew, our goal-setting process started to feel clunky. We started by tracking and reviewing goals at an individual level. That soon became unwieldy, so we began to review goals by department. Then we thought it might be more engaging and easier to follow to review goals bucketed by priority. Cross-company goals became sub-categories for individual goals. If you’re not tracking, that’s perfectly ok. In summary, we got the job done but it’s been messy.
We made a good effort but well into 2021 we were still too in the weeds. However we categorized and viewed our goals, the discussion felt disjointed and we struggled to take a 30,000 foot view of what we were doing as an organization. As the CEO a lack of clear company goals and priorities translated to a feeling that I was personally lacking goal clarity. Or maybe it was the other way around. As the saying goes “organizations emulate their leaders.”
Clarity requires commitment
I approached 2022 planning committed to driving clarity for myself and the team. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about what I should personally be doing (and not doing) as I continue to run and grow the business. Honestly, the decision to do less networking (which I talk about in this LinkedIn article) and shift my time and energy internally vs. externally is one of the single most important decisions I’ve made.
Without a boss, it’s easy for me to spend my time wherever it’s most needed on a given day, or wherever my energy takes me. I never thought of myself as a shiny object person, but some people might disagree! To hold myself accountable to what I’d like to do this year, I carefully thought through and documented my goals. I shared them with my staff and advisors for feedback then documented them in our HRIS just like everyone else on the staff. I really do feel a great sense of clarity going into the new year with clear and measurable goals.
Can one goal unify the team?
I wanted to establish company-wide priorities that would both motivate and unify our staff.
I remembered a concept I hadn’t revisited in a while, the BHAG. If you’re not familiar, a BHAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal, is “a compelling, long-term goal that is intriguing enough to inspire employees of an organization to take action.” BHAG comes from the 1994 book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.
The BHAG is not new, so why did it grab me? Honestly, it felt like the answer to several issues I wanted to solve.
- Choose one thing that will have a strong, positive impact
- Increase clarity, focus, and prioritization across the team
- Identify an important initiative that everyone can contribute to
- Choose something that is easy to measure and celebrate
Now that we’ve established our BHAG (I’m not sharing details now but will when we meet it) and a worthy incentive, we’ll be working on a dashboard to track progress. Think of the famous thermometer people use during fundraising campaigns – we’re aiming for that level of simplicity. I’m quite confident that we’ll hit our BHAG, and our individual goals too.
While important, meeting goals is not the only reason to set them. Similar to values, goals remind us what we should and should not be doing. They tell us how to prioritize, when to say yes, and when to say no. Each day we’re bombarded with good ideas, possibilities, and opportunities. Without goals and a clear strategy, it’s impossible to know what deserves our time and energy.
It’s ok if your goal-setting process isn’t perfect, and is even a little messy. Having an expensive tool, or any tool, doesn’t matter much when you’re small. What’s important is thinking about what kind of conversations you want to have, and how goals can keep team members and the company as a whole focused and accountable.
Need help aligning your leadership team around goals, culture, or values? Let’s connect.
