Being Part of Something That Matters

I can’t think of anyone I know who doesn’t want to be part of something that matters, something bigger than themselves. We can all think of folks who believe they’re owed something, and say they work harder just as soon as they’re paid what they deserve, but I’m willing to bet nearly all of them would pick being on a winning team over a losing one every single time they have a choice. Think back to my example as we looked at how Great People Are Drawn to a Definite Purpose and consider how many folks buy New York Yankees caps or jerseys each year compared to the fraction of them that have any ties to A-Rod… As an organization, the Yankees have the most championships of any professional baseball team while one of the most talented players to ever wear their uniform was only part of one championship team in his entire professional career.

I’m sure someone will think about this a bit and challenge me with the fact that so many people have played for the Yankees. I can’t argue that but my response would be to consider the number of Chicago Bulls jerseys with the number 23 versus the ones without… While I don’t have statistics to back it, I’d be willing to bet that there are far more “Jordan” jerseys than there are Bulls jerseys with every other name combined - and maybe more even if we counted the ones without any name at all! From the time Jordan entered the NBA, he had a very definite purpose! People wanted to be part of that, players and fans alike. If we’ve done a reasonable job of developing our own definite purpose, as well as the purpose the organization we lead is working to achieve, we should have some folks on our teams who are there because they align with that purpose.

Having that buy-in is certainly important, but leading from a place of service will require a bit more. If we’re truly interested in helping our team members achieve their personal and professional goals just as much as we’re interested in reaching our own or succeeding as an organization - and I’d challenge any leader’s motives who isn’t - we’d better be willing to do the work necessary to connect with each of them on common ground and learn what each of really value; not everyone gets out of bed each day with the goal of doing more work than any other human on the planet. It took me longer than I care to admit to realize that, but learning to quickly recognize the primary behavioral style of each individual I interact with has done wonders for speeding that process up.

You’ve likely heard the story about the three bricklayers; one who was simply laying brick, another who was building a wall, and the third who was building a cathedral. They were all performing the same task on the same project at the same time, but they had very different perspectives on the work they were doing. I believe a significant part of our role as leaders is helping our team members grasp the perspective of how much impact their work truly has. To do that, we’ll need to establish common ground with each individual we lead. Connecting on common ground can go a long way in earning the buy-in and engagement we’ll need from our teams to achieve great results, but helping them reach their own goals while helping them be a solid part of something that really matters can change everything. This won’t come from lip service though, we’ll need to have a firm understanding of the tasks we need them to do if we want to have any hope of tying that back to anything that matters to them.

Helping Someone Connect with a Purpose Requires Competency

If we truly want to help our team members feel like they’re part of something that matters, developing solid relationships by connecting on common ground can provide a great foundation. This isn’t some theory I read in a book, it’s something I saw a few managers demonstrate and something I experienced personally throughout my career in safety and human resources. When I left my role at a large manufacturing facility, I knew each of the 650 employees by name and knew a fair amount about a large majority of those employees’ families. In each of the companies I worked directly for from that point until I transitioned to full time self employment, I invested a ton of time early on to get to know each of the folks I’d be working with. While those companies had far fewer team members, it still took a focused effort - one that not many of the managers already there had taken the time to do. It was recognized and appreciated by many of my new coworkers, but it wasn’t quite enough for me to earn their complete buy-in or help any of them genuinely connect with even the overall purpose of the organization we were a part of.

I recently had the opportunity to visit with a friend who was one of the first people I met as I started in manufacturing as a nineteen year old kid. Phil had retired just a few months prior to our visit, after more than four decades with that company. Just in case you’re wondering, this is the same Phil whose actions taught me the importance of not forcing a promotion on someone - as I detailed in chapter ten of What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!). We hadn’t seen each other many times since I left that organization nearly a decade prior but we had maintained contact through some mutual friends, including his wife and my son, so we had a lot of ground to cover! We talked a little about music (we both enjoy 80s metal & hair bands), a bit about our kids and grandkids, and a fair amount about our time working together - the good and the bad. I worked on Phil’s assembly line the first few weeks I was with that company, prior to moving to the department that fabricated parts for the assembly lines. For the next four years, I made parts that Phil’s team would eventually use and gained a tremendous understanding of the machines in my home department as well as a general competency in the bulk of the manufacturing processes in the entire facility.

When I moved into other roles in the company, whether it was locally or with the training I provided for other sites across North America, that competency helped me relate to so many of the people I interacted with. As Phil and I talked, he mentioned that specifically as one of the things he appreciated most in dealing with me over the years. He said that even when we didn’t see eye to eye on something, he was able to respect my point of view since he knew I understood where he was coming from. Although I didn’t have that same level of competency in every other part of the facility, I was able to develop a decent understanding of most everything else over the years. That was a huge help when I accepted responsibility for hiring for all the open hourly positions and it made a crucial difference in how I had some tougher conversations with folks who weren’t meeting their performance expectations.

As I think back on the roles I held after leaving that organization, I can point to specific things I did to learn about the various roles of the team members I’d be working with. While doing payroll and HR for a stone quarry, I frequently jumped into the “training seat” in the heavy equipment to get perspective of what those operators experienced each day. While holding safety and human resources responsibility for a mechanical contractor, I visited job sites throughout the Shenandoah Valley on a weekly basis to learn more about what our skilled tradesmen were working on. And in my last position on a company’s payroll, I occasionally took candidates to job sites so they could actually see the work they’d be doing because I remembered how different it was for me when I started working in the agricultural construction field just out of high school.

I won’t pretend any of that was because I understood how much it could help me build effective relationships with the folks I’d be working around, it was really something I just wanted to learn for myself. But developing even that basic competence in the tasks performed in each of those organizations helped me appreciate individual roles in a way that I could begin connecting it back to what the entire company was striving to achieve. And making those connections served as the framework I could use to help tie any team member’s work to the overall mission, vision, or values of the organization - and help them know they were part of something that mattered.

Competent Leaders Tie Tasks to Purpose

When we’ve done the work to create the kind of atmosphere that great people want to be a part of, because they see the impact our organization makes and they have a desire to be involved in something that matters, and we’ve invested the necessary energy to have at least a foundational level of competency in the tasks each of those team members are responsible for each day, we have the opportunity to begin connecting their individual job duties directly to our overall purpose. Earlier, I stressed how important I believe it is for a leader to paint a clear picture of the definite purpose their company (or even their department within a larger company) is focused on achieving, and I emphasized how critical it is for us to articulate that purpose routinely. Here’s where I’ll challenge you to push the envelope just a bit more!

With what we understand about each team member’s role, we can work to provide specific examples of how the things they do to exceed expectations plays a direct part in fulfilling that purpose. Quite honestly, we’d do well to be just as intentional about tying their excellent performance back to the mission, vision, and values of the organization as well. That said, there will also be times where we’ll need to discuss poor performance; as undesirable as this is for every leader who genuinely cares for the people on their teams, it’s part of what we signed up for. When that time comes, it’s just as important for us to define how the subpar behaviors are not in line with our mission, vision, or values AND what this is doing to prevent the organization from achieving its definite purpose.

As effective as it can be to consistently talk about the company’s purpose - as well as the mission, vision, and values that should be guiding us to that purpose - there’s one more thing we can do as leaders to earn best-in-class engagement from our teams and help each individual get value from the process. We can help them develop the same kind of clarity around their individual purpose as we have for our own or for the entire organization. Then we can begin connecting all the dots.

We’ll start looking at exactly how we can help them latch onto their own definite purpose soon. As difficult as it may sound now, I assure you that they’re already showing and telling us what it is. Working to capture that with them is as simple as recognizing what to look for!

Before we do that though, I’ll reemphasize something I said before: purpose matters to some of the best people in every industry. And while it’s never just about the pay, anyone in a leadership role who isn’t willing to provide fair and equitable compensation for the people putting their heart and soul into pursuing the organization’s purpose and driving profitability does not deserve to be called a leader or have great team members who follow them. With that in mind, we’ll take a quick look at the power of purpose in business, and how that can create the profitability necessary to provide for those amazing team members, before we dig into the specifics of identifying our team members’ individual purpose.