Achieving success - How far will you go?

Do you keep track of your organization's goals? Are they clearly communicated to you? 


Have you ever thought about how far you would go in your efforts to achieve those goals? Are you part of the team? Have you ever asked yourself to what lengths you would go to be successful?


When planning our goals, be they professional or personal, we are often required to stretch a little bit, to give that extra bit of effort, to take that one extra step to ensure our success. 


As organizations, we ideally plan on a larger scale with a larger scope. We plan strategically for the long term and execute, bit by bit towards that goal. We try to clearly communicate to our teams, not only the "how to", but the reason behind the plan. Ideally, all parts of the organization will execute their respective parts of the plan for the overall good of the organization.


More often than not, it seems to me, we pay less attention to the stated strategic goals of our companies in order to reach our own, short-term objectives. We willingly sacrifice organizational success in order to fulfill our own goals. Our culture of rewarding achievement has, in some respects, fostered a corporate culture where we sacrifice the larger good for that of the individual. 


Sometimes, the corporation itself is to blame for not clearly placing its goals above those of its employees. Sometimes, the employees place their own goals in front of their employer's, knowing full well that those goals will, in the long term actively work against the corporations strategic goals. Are we actively contributing towards some measure of organizational failure in favor of personal gain?


How far will you go to achieve your goals? Do we ask ourselves often enough if our goals align with those of our employers, or vice versa? 


Perhaps a more fundamental question is, how important is success to us, and how do we define it? Are we willing to sacrifice some measure of personal success, monetary or other, in order to ensure that of our organizations? 


Do you? 


Should you?


Perhaps not now, but later?