Leadership thoughts for 2008 (4)

TODAY is the last Monday in the month of January, indicating how rapidly time flies as we find ourselves at the end of the first month of the year 2008. We started this month by looking at some thoughts which will contribute to provide us some inspirational platforms for making progress in our leadership journey for the year 2008. Today’s thought is however the final in this series of thoughts for the year and while there are many contenders for this thought, I have chosen one designed to stimulate and provide us optimal stimulus as we follow on from last week’s thought which was that we can attain any target we set for ourselves.

Therefore, our next leadership thought, that is leadership thought 4, is: “Set big targets”

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt
One of my favourite American presidents is Theodore Roosevelt, a man reputed for his swashbuckling approach to life. When many Nigerians look at our problems in the nation we have the false idea that our nation is facing problems that have never been faced by any other nation and that is why it surprises many people to learn that at the turn of the century the United States faced a situation similar to what we have today with high level corruption, oppressive business practices, violations of regulation and corrupted electoral processes. Theodore Roosevelt is one of the men credited to have effected the turn around that set the nation on the right part. One key attitude that he exhibited was his tendency to set big and ambitious goals as reflected in the quote he made.

As we continue in our leadership journey in this year we find that setting big targets is an essential motivation towards progress. Our big dreams are key to our achievement. This is because setting big and ambitious targets motivate us to achieve great things. As Zadok Rabinwitz put it, “A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.”

The targets move us on the path by a number of ways. The first is that big targets provide us inspiration by setting us something exciting to aim for. It is a fact of life that the saddest thing that can happen to a man is to lose a sense of striving for achievement in the world. As I counsel with top executives, I find that one of the most incisive questions is to ask a man where he thinks he is going in life or in his career. Those that achieve effective leadership are usually those whose ambitions are not bounded or defined by solving today’s problems but by big targets they want to achieve. And interestingly enough, the more ambitious and life changing the target, the greater the likelihood of great leadership. Different persons have different types of targets; some to attain the highest position, some to change work patterns and improve their settings and to some the ultimate is to break new grounds and possibly rewrite the history books or as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “not to go where the path may lead, but to go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Every great leader has been such a person. The second thing that big targets do for us is to make it obvious to us that we cannot continue in “business as usual”. I find, for example, that when I set targets that are easily within reach I unconsciously continue in my old paths and very easily slip back into my old ways and hardly make progress. This is why even though we want our goals to be achievable we must start by making them challenging. This helps us recognise that if we are to attain them then we must make significant changes in our environment or our patterns of operations.

For example to attain respect among our peers which is essential for leadership effectiveness if set as an ambitious but well couched target might lead us to face the fact that our contributions at meetings have been less than stellar. This in turn might force us to recognise perhaps our communication deficiency leading to a planned process to improve our communication skills by the end of the year, in itself a major achievement and a big step towards improving our leadership platform.

Therefore, as we enter into this year it is necessary for us to set out both short and long term targets, which will radically change the world we live in and in which we provide leadership. The balance of achievability and radical ambition is what makes a good big target.

Remember, “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” Seneca

Hence our leadership thought; “set big targets”