What does it mean to lead in a purpose driven organisation?
The business world is a buzz with purpose, finding the heart of what an organisation means to its' customers, what impact does it have on the world. The vision, mission and values is still there but all underpinned by purpose. This will ensure that customers come on the journey with you, are aligned and loyal as they understand why it is you do what you do but it will also enable you to engage your employees as they will see the difference they make with their unique set of skills and competencies on the customers life. Simon Senik’s original TedTalk has had over 180 million views and if you haven’t yet seen it it’s definitely worth a watch.
Research tells us that employees who work in a purpose driven organisation put in more discretionary effort, if they understand their impact they work 57% harder and are 87% less likely to resign. Then 82% of ones with the greatest sense of purpose were more optimistic about their own future prospects and the ability of the organisation to ‘stay ahead of industry disruptions’ according to Deloitte research. But this doesn’t happen just because an executive team or Brand agency came up with the new purpose, vision and values there’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes within Human Resource, Organisational Development and Culture Departments and the Leadership Team to make the purpose come to life where it has a heart beat of it’s own.
The key to this is entwining of your own story with the purpose of the organisation so that your drive, passion and commitment shines through with authenticity and you can help others do the same. It’s like becoming the protagonist in your companies story where you become the champion for their message because it’s also your own. The challenge is achieving this, in my experience of working with a Global Engineering Consultancy firm who had been through numerous mergers and acquisitions who then introduced a new Vision, Mission and Values to the organisation not all senior executives find this process easy.
One particular manager comes to mind, Phil who was a leader from one of the acquired companies which he loved and was completely committed to so was really struggling with the change of identity to the new storyline. He became stuck on the choice of words for the values of the company as he felt they were too generic and to be fair to him they were with other companies including their competitors having the same ones!
‘I just don’t see what this has got to do with me and the work that we do’ was his mantra.
The work I did with him led him through a process to connect his story and make those values come to life.
The purpose driven leadership model shows by finding clarity in your own purpose, your intrinsic core ‘why you do what you do’ and how you lead others gives you your story which can then be matched to your organisations values, vision and purpose. A key component of neurofitness in the future of work is enabling individuals to find the unique way they contribute to the organisation’s purpose only then does it become a purpose driven organisation.
