Purpose-driven Leadership - The Answer to Increasing Employee Disengagement

Every generation has its defined set of priorities. As is becoming increasingly evident, the younger workforce comprising the ‘Gen Z’ and the Millennials is not satisfied with simply picking up their paycheck at the end of the month. They remain in the pursuit of more holistic objectives, seeking to derive greater meaning from #work .

Younger employees are lured by the overarching ‘purpose’ of the organisation, exploring the market in an attempt to find a firm whose purpose is a good match to their own #values .?

In today’s conscientious times, driving a company’s profit and shoring up its bottom line no longer remain the sole drivers of employee attraction/ retention. With the workforce keener on other ideals like comprehensive well-being of employees, as also the ability to make a meaningful contribution at work, employers are needed to take note of the evolving criteria concerned with employee welfare.

With employers continuing to prioritise conventional objectives, employees are resigned to a feeling of increasing disengagement with the work that they undertake. Gallup, a workplace consulting and global research firm, finds that ‘purpose’ is the number one driver of employee engagement[1] . In line with this claim, companies need to recognise the markedly different characteristics of their younger employees and dedicate targeted effort towards framing, articulating and #implementing the purpose which guides the entire organisation. Through purpose-driven leadership, employees can feel a greater sense of belonging to the organisation, and are primed to contribute more substantially at work.

Below are a list of ways that an organisation can bring ‘purpose-driven leadership’ into practice:

1)????Articulating the company’s purpose: While being the most obvious one, it is a critical step in implementing #Purpose -drivenLeadership in any organisation. An important consideration to be mindful of while articulating a company’s purpose, is to be wary of declaring it, and lean towards discovering it along with other employees. Not only does this ensure that a greater mass of the workforce buys into the company’s purpose, but it also guarantees that the impact of the purpose will seep in at every rung of the company’s hierarchy, greater than could be ensured by the sole efforts of the leader in question.

2)????Aligning every activity with the framed purpose: It is important for a leader to consider ways in which every activity in the company can be brought in line with its higher purpose. This starts right from the hiring of an employee, where the purpose of the company is made amply clear and some form of allegiance is sought in the potential recruit. During later stages of work, ensuring that everyday activities tie into the higher purpose can inculcate a sense of belonging and togetherness among the employees, as they all function with a common goal in mind.

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3)????Governance through values, and not through rules: With the shared purpose of the organisation being abundantly clear to every employee, the purpose itself acts as a framework that can guide every activity in the organisation, curbing the need for hard-and-fast rules in every aspect of the company’s operations.

4)????Keeping the employees motivated: With several facets of the company’s operations having been streamlined by the adoption of a higher purpose, a critical task to be performed by a leader is to ensure that motivation levels among employees remain high. The leader must take extensive efforts to communicate with their team, to probe their concerns, as well as to guarantee their motivation in serving the shared higher purpose.

Companies no longer enjoy the privilege of being scrutinised simply on the basis of their profit-and-loss statements. They are increasingly being held accountable for a higher purpose beyond their daily operations, one which not only ensures a greater sense of belonging and contribution for its employees, but is a key determinant of the sustainability of an organisation. Purpose-driven leadership offers many benefits, and is primed to carry us into the future of work.