The BHAG and Your Core Values, How do they interrelate?

William Osgood pointing to text that reads "Big Goals". Los Angeles skyline in the background

We previously discussed setting your BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). Now we discuss how the BHAG and your Core Values go hand-in-hand.

Once you have the BHAG firmly established and a part of your daily thoughts, actions and learning, it is time to break the BHAG into its smaller components. Often times, these smaller parts are called goals. I would like you to consider them as SMART goals. Without going into what smart goals are in this article, we will provide a quick orientation on the importance of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time sensitive goals so as to correlate the time element with the effectiveness of priority management.

You see, when you are focused on the most important things that originated from the BHAG, which in turn were broken into SMART goals, you have given yourself the focus, direction and clarity of the most important things. Now you have the plan! All that remains is to put it into practice, to implement it while dealing with all of the other issues we have been discussing, most importantly, those continuous, relentless, sometimes irritating demands on our time by customers, clients, staff, “Got a minuters,” (pardon the abuse of the English language).

Now, you are probably saying, regardless, I still get phone calls, the customer interruptions, employees who need my attention right now. All of these are clearly issues which we need to plan for. I must protect my PEAK PERFORMING PERIOD.

This is where the whole idea of the Core Values becomes significant and so important. Your Core Values are so compelling, so motivational to you that they invigorate the passion that lies inside of you; thereby, creating increased energy and commitment to concentrate on implementing your SMART goals. As long as the BHAG and there corresponding SMART goals are in alignment with your CORE VALUES, you can create blocks of interrupted time.