Why Targets Should Terrify (and Inspire) You
In most organisations, targets are treated as tactical endpoints: a means to measure delivery, reward competence, and maintain accountability. They appear sensible, achievable, and structured, all the things leadership is supposed to be.
And that’s the problem.
Safe targets may produce predictable outcomes, but they rarely unlock meaningful growth. What if the true power of a target isn’t what it helps you achieve, but who it forces you to become?
The boldest leaders don’t use targets to prove success; they use them to provoke transformation. They don’t ask, “Can we hit this?” but “Who do we need to become to make this possible?” In doing so, they shift from performance management to ontological leadership — leadership that begins not with what you do, but with who you are becoming.
Consider JFK’s moonshot, Microsoft’s pledge to go carbon negative, or IKEA’s goal to be fully circular by 2030. These aren’t just targets; they are identity declarations. They demand reinvention, not just of systems and strategies, but of culture, mindset, and courage. Whether or not every milestone is hit becomes secondary. The stretch itself is the point.
The danger in conventional goal-setting isn’t failure, it’s success without growth. Leaders hit their KPIs, tick every box, and slowly stagnate. Teams disengage. Innovation plateaus. Reputation becomes the goal, and ambition is quietly traded for safety.
Why? Because beneath most cautious targets lies a deeper fear, the fear of being seen to fail. In performance cultures, failure is often misinterpreted as incompetence rather than a catalyst for growth. So leaders hedge. They aim for what is achievable, not what is transformational. To overcome this, leaders must actively foster environments where “learning reviews” replace “post-mortems,” celebrating brave attempts and openly sharing their own insights from setbacks to model vulnerability and reinforce that risks taken in pursuit of growth are valued.
But transformation demands tension. The most powerful targets stretch identity. They create internal discomfort, challenge assumptions, and invite reflection: What am I afraid of? What must I let go of? Where am I playing small? This shift requires leaders to initiate deep-dive workshops and facilitated sessions where teams can collectively explore their current identities versus their aspirational selves, building a shared narrative for who they need to become.
True leadership is not about hitting every target. It’s about daring to choose the kind of target that makes you grow.
This shift requires a different kind of goal: not a metric to measure success, but a mirror that reveals potential. Not a benchmark for performance, but a bold commitment to become someone new, more present, more courageous, more aligned with purpose. Even as we embrace this, metrics still play a vital role; they transform from being the end goal to becoming a feedback loop for the transformation itself, helping us understand if we are truly becoming the kind of organisation that can achieve our boldest visions.
The organisations that thrive in complexity will not be the most efficient, but the most adaptive. And adaptation begins with ambition. Targets, if reframed as transformational tools, can realign culture, fuel innovation, and build deep commitment.
So next time you set a goal, stop and ask: What would we pursue if we weren’t afraid to fail?
Because leadership is not the art of safe delivery. It’s the courage to become someone worth following, in pursuit of something worth failing for.
To read the full article, click here.