Leaders Paint a Picture of Purpose

Since I’ve shared a few things I learned from Jeff Henderson here already, this seems like a great time to include one more. First though, let me provide some perspective. I often talk with business owners and executives who have grown a bit weary after painting a picture of their organization’s purpose (or even the mission, vision, and values) with their team and not seeing the changes in behavior they had hoped for. As I’ve said several times to this point, leadership generally comes with a significant weight of responsibility and can be incredibly hard; this is just one example of where that difficulty comes into play. With all the fires burning a leader’s tail, constantly talking about the organization’s purpose, mission, vision, or values can be exhausting!

Here’s where Jeff’s story ties in… During a phone call with Jeff and Mark Cole (owner and CEO of Maxwell Leadership, who also wrote the foreword to What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!) , Jeff talked about a conversation he had with Truett Cathy not long after starting with Chick-fil-A regarding the “My Pleasure!” we’re all so accustomed to (nearly) any time we thank anyone for anything at one of the restaurants. It seems like “You’re Welcome” has been completely removed from their vocabulary; at least that’s what appeared to happen when our son worked there during his last year or so of high school - while he was in uniform, that is… Believe or not, Truett never had the luxury of one those little blue lights that Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith used in Men In Black to erase someone’s memory; it took TEN full years to build a culture within Chick-fil-A where team members consistently said “My Pleasure” instead of “You’re Welcome.” Since most of the business owners and executives I interact with have organizations a bit smaller than Mr. Cathy had at the time, I point to that as an example of how getting their teams to latch onto the organization’s purpose will likely require talking about more than just occasionally.

This is one more reason it’s so important for every leader to have clarity around their own definite purpose and to be sure it’s directly connected to the organizational purpose we champion for our teams. When we’ve got a strong enough purpose behind everything we do, talking about it routinely becomes much more natural. But talking won’t be where it stops when a purpose that gets us out of bed each day is what drives us; working to achieve that purpose will yield a walk that truly matches our talk. From there, we’ve got a platform for explaining why we do what we do, how our behavior ties to our purpose, and how all that supports everything the organization stands for.

None of this happens automatically. Leading with a clear purpose is where it all begins. When that’s in place, we’re able to connect the dots for ourselves and for the organization as a whole. From there, especially when our walk really does match our talk, we have the opportunity to begin detailing how the tasks involved in each role tie back to the organization’s purpose - as well as the mission, vision, and values of our organization.

Leaders Help Their Teams Embrace the Purpose

A Harvard Business Review article by former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly called How to Connect Employees to Your Company’s Purpose opened like this:

When I ask CEOs in the new CEO workshop we run at Harvard Business School to rate the importance of having and living a great corporate purpose to the success of their company, their average response is 9.1 out of 10. In contrast, when I ask them how effectively their company’s purpose is coming to life today, their average rating is around 6 out of 10. This highlights that there is often a big gap between a company’s purpose and the reality for employees.

Joly followed that by emphasizing, “Unless companies figure out how to close this gap, they will fail to deliver on their potential. Doing so ultimately requires figuring out what will enable their frontliners to embrace and connect with their company’s purpose and values so they can make it come to life.” Closing that gap so our team members can connect with the organization’s purpose relies so heavily on leaders painting a clear picture of that purpose; through their words AND their actions!

Once we have that clarity on how our required tasks tie to our own definite purpose and we’ve connected those to the purpose our organization is aimed at, this gives us the chance to share those details with our teams on a daily basis. They’re most definitely watching what we do, whether we realize it or not; that’s part of being in a leadership role and why leaders never have the luxury of setting a bad example. With that being the case, it’s not so much about telling them what we’ve done - they already know. It’s really about explaining why we’ve done it, and ensuring they understand how the things they’ve seen us do build to the purpose we’re working to fulfill; the organizational purpose and even our own since there should be some close ties between the two.

As we do this consistently, we can share how these things also exemplify our values and support the mission and vision that’s printed in the policy manual or on the lobby wall. But it’s never all about us! This is where we get to begin tying the tasks each team member is responsible for in their own role back to the mission, vision, and values - AND our organization’s purpose. In most cases, the team surrounding a leader produces more than the leader ever could alone. Without understanding exactly how their work makes a difference (by living out the values in working toward the mission, vision, and purpose), the majority of our team members will likely just go through the motions and never give it all they’ve got. Remember that fifty-seven percent increased discretionary effort I’ve referred to a few times previously?

We can take a significant step toward earning that kind of engagement from our teams when we provide them with clarity around how each thing they do helps the entire organization succeed so let’s wrap this up by looking at how we can create that kind of atmosphere…

An Atmosphere Based on Purpose

Today, Cindy and I have the pleasure of working closely with several organizations where the leaders have created the kind of atmosphere in their respective teams where each member understands the purpose they’re working to achieve and how their daily responsibilities connect with their company’s mission, vision, and values. I’ve seen one team rally around the saying, “Customers for life!” and another team truly live out the idea of “Neighbors serving neighbors.” And since I previously shared the story about why nearly every individual in yet another company THANKED me after a handbook rollout meeting, all because of how the owners instilled the values that handbook was centered around, I won’t detail that out again here - but hopefully you get the picture.

In each of those companies, I saw firsthand what it looks like when team members were willing to contribute the additional discretionary effort I referred to throughout What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!) and I saw the results it had on the bottom line. The revenue of one grew by fifty percent in just eighteen months, with several long term employees staying on well beyond their planned retirement dates to help ensure the new owners had a successful transition. Another had back-to-back years of record growth. And the other had a 24 month stint with no voluntary turnover whatsoever despite being in a market where team members frequently received substantial offers from competitors. I think it’s safe to say that exemplifying the company’s values and providing a clear organizational purpose makes an impact!

I could go on and on but I’m guessing you get the point. Interestingly enough, in each of these organizations and in several others I didn’t detail here, the leaders didn’t just work to build engagement around their own purpose or a purpose that served the company. In every case, they were just as focused on helping everyone on the team identify and work toward their own purpose AND connect it back to everything the organization was working to achieve. But they didn’t stop there! These same leaders have also been very intentional about providing the necessary tools for each of the folks on their teams to grow and succeed, in their current positions as well as for roles they have interest in moving forward.

Doing these things certainly helped each of those companies in achieving their purpose and it helped the leaders fulfill their individual purposes. On top of all that, each organization was more productive and more profitable. And I doubt you’ll be surprised to know that there was one more amazing byproduct that each business experienced: some of the best talent in their respective industries began reaching out to join them!

When we create an atmosphere where our teams embrace the purpose we’re working toward, great things can happen - and fast. When we’re able to help each individual on our team identify their own definite purpose and connect that to the organizational purpose, we add even more fuel to the fire - so that’s what we’ll start working through soon!