A Personal Hedgehog Concept

In Jim Collin’s Good to Great, he presents an idea called the Hedgehog Concept – the sweet spot in business at the intersection of three distinct drivers: What the organization can be the best in the world at doing, where the organization has a passion for innovation and success, and where the organization derives its profit.

I was reflecting on an equivalent concept for an individual rather than an organization.  Essentially, this would be an Ontological, or Personal Hedgehog Concept (PHC), focusing on ways of being as a person, rather than ways of operating as an organization.

For each of us, there is one thing that we are better at than anybody else in the world — it’s being our authentic self.  I emphasize authenticity because for most people, it is not our default way of being.  Over time, we have all learned to protect ourselves, to put up various walls and self defenses, and to avoid feeling our fears, disappointments, or sadness.  Yet I assert that our greatest gifts — to ourselves and to others — manifest when we are acting from the core of who we are, at our very best (our essence), and not form who we are being when our barriers and masks are up.  Returning to that place of authenticity is a unique journey for each of us, and is one of the three components of our greatest success.

The second component of the Personal Hedgehog Concept is our “purpose” — the organizing principle around which the major decisions of our life revolve.  To say that our purpose is the reason that we were put on this planet is both an over-simplification, and completely ignores the challenges that each of us face in actually discovering what that purpose is.  As part of a PHC, I assert that those who have come to realize (or declare) their purpose are at a distinct advantage in life as they navigate the permanent white-water of change that so many of us experience in our modern world.

The final component of the Personal Hedgehog Concept is one’s career.  Throughout life, most of us will have a number of different jobs, and those may or may not be tied together in the form of a career.  In the context of the PHC, the work that matters is that which not only puts food on the table, but that simultaneously feeds one’s soul through the alignment it has with our purpose.  Sometimes we may find our self having more than one job – the one that pays, and the one that nourishes us.  To the extent that these are one in the same, I assert that we are closer to our own personal sweet-spot in life.

In Jim Collin’s book, those companies that had discovered and operated from their hedgehog concept significantly outperformed other comparison companies over an extended period of time.  For individuals, comparison with each other is hardly the greatest measure of a human being.  Rather, the comparison is between who we experience ourselves to be, and the joy and fulfillment we are capable of by living in alignment regarding who we are being, why we are here, and how we are making use of the gifts of our time, talent, and life.

In my capacity as a coach, I work with people to be more aware of choices, and to choose that which supports living from their essence – their authentic self, at their very best.  I also work with people to discover what is most important to them, and to close the gap between what one says is important, and how one is actually living one’s life.  Lastly, I also work with people to find greater fulfillment in their work, ideally by aligning what they do with who they are and why they are here.  If you are ready to move into your personal sweet-spot in life, then contact Primary Goals.