Leading with purpose

Over the last couple of years, we’ve watched a lot of companies with rich histories close their doors. It’s easy to point fingers at reasons why a company might fail, i.e. increased e-commerce competition from the likes of Amazon. But I believe the main reason companies fail is because they’ve lost that sense of purpose; that identity that once made them successful, made people excited to work for them, and built customer loyalty. 

Most of the time companies lose their purpose because their goals become short-sighted, looking for the quick wins and boosts in revenue (often to please shareholders) rather than evolving for the future. When this happens, employees become disconnected from their work, which leads to lackluster financial performance and weak forecasts for future performance. The downward spiral begins. 

As a business leader, it’s important that you put the purpose of your organization front and center. You need to reiterate it constantly. You need to show how your organization is living up to its purpose. And you need to personally live this purpose every single day. Because people look to you for guidance and direction—from your leadership team on down. 

Mission and values are empty words without purpose

In October of 2018, we unveiled Valley’s new branding, complete with a set of key values and a mission statement that defines our purpose—to give people and businesses the power to succeed. 

But, really, who cares? These are just words on paper, right? 

Wrong. As a leader, I care greatly. Because those words were chosen specifically to lead us forward. I constantly reiterate to our leaders, managers and associates across the bank that the “power” we refer to in our mission statement is them. Our people are that power. Their ideas. Their care for our customers. And their desire to help our communities succeed. 

From an organizational standpoint, we are focused on ensuring that our purpose doesn’t fade away. How are we doing that? By being more transparent than ever before. We’ve enhanced our employee engagement and internal communications, highlighting people’s achievements and the impact we’re making in our communities. I’m making it a point more than ever to communicate to our associates personally, through video messages, emails and strategy summits that are about more than discussing metrics and goals. I’ve even encouraged members of our leadership team to be more open and transparent, which they’ve taken to in ways I’m really proud of—including being more connected and responsive to our associates on platforms like here, LinkedIn. 

Value your employees

Opening lines of communications throughout the organization is a great way to reiterate your organization’s purpose, but I ask myself all time—what can we do to make it easier for our people to live up to our purpose and achieve our mission? Answering this means showing our associates that we’re making investments in people and technology to make their work easier, more efficient, and better for our customers. This also means ensuring our associates have access to better training and learning opportunities, as well as chances to take on more leadership roles within their teams. 

Investing in your people is key to showing them that you truly mean what you say. They will hold you accountable if you don’t. When people feel invested in, feel aligned with your organization’s purpose, you can ultimately improve the bottom line, lower turnover rates, and attract great talent to your organization. It also creates a more inclusive environment, inspires collaboration, and promotes innovation—all key elements to your organization’s growth.  

Don’t lose your compass

As a leader of an organization that has a responsibility to shareholders, I know first-hand how easy it can be to get distracted from the overall purpose and mission of your organization. It goes back to what I said at the beginning—constant short-sighted decisions can eventually lead to your company’s name in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. 

It’s easy as CEO to spread a motivational, purpose-driven message throughout the organization. But if your message fails to impact your leaders and employees because they can see your actions run contrary to your message, you will pay for that. I constantly remind myself that I need to lead by example and that my actions and decisions are constantly being monitored and analyzed. 

In the just over a year that I’ve been President and CEO at Valley, I’m amazed at how much our organization has changed; how the culture has reenergized, and how optimistic everyone is about the future. I may have a responsibility to our shareholders to deliver strong returns—but I also have a responsibility to protect, strengthen and expand the culture that’s building here. 

Everything is linked together. And as long as we continue to remind ourselves what our purpose is, show how we’re living it, and engage everyone to embrace it, we can achieve anything we set our sights on.