Purposeful leadership

Leaders become truly wise when they address and work on the dilemmas of modern days’ businesses and industries in more holistic ways. With the infinite global issues we face in our time, there is a need for businesses & industries to embrace their role within the social, cultural and regional aspects, accepting the responsibility to think beyond the bottom line and effecting positive change in society they operate and, the community they live in and above all for our mother planet.?In order to establish a foundation of the purpose, organizations must first develop and attract purposeful leadership.

Purposeful Leadership?is an actionable philosophy for driving impact and long-term values for all stakeholders of the businesses and industries. Here in this article, I would like to highlight the ‘purpose’ as aspects in individual, organizational & leadership perspectives.

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Purpose in individual perspective:

An individual would not be expected to dedicate his/er passion & perspiration; determinations & drives, hard works and hard willingness - if they do not understand and align with what the purpose of the organization is. In my experience of over two decades in the industry – I have seen individuals with ‘purpose’ going far than those with mere ‘passion’. We have always been told that successes come par passion – this could be true, however, passion is just one part of an equation. Effort is also important, because if we not putting in the time and hard works then our passion could merely be a hobby. Purpose is key material what matters most and supersedes beyond passion and effort. Purpose gives meaning to both passion and persuasion. ?Passion can exhaust you, while purpose can fuel you and take you long way ahead in your career and life’s meaningful journey.? Undeniably, a company is only as strong as people working for with dedications and loyalty towards the company. How long would you be willing to work for an organization that didn’t have a clear purpose, nor ever care about understand your purpose?

You got to question the purpose of your passion: else, this would be a life-long labor cost without any significant achievements. Personally, in my direct experience, I have seen few selective ones being very lucky (being blessed to be there in the right place and at a right time), getting a high-profile role, suddenly blessed with windfall gain, acquisition of wealth in very short time – however, many of them end up as failures in long run. You must be very dedicated, loyal, persistent, patience and purposeful to be consistent in your success.

“What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but will to labor. I believe that labor judiciously and continuously applied becomes genius.” - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Initially, your passion attracts you, acts as go-getter, however, in the long run, your purpose will act as binding agent to your chosen pathways, would keep backing you, and would accompany you until the end.

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Purpose in Organizational Perspective:

A workplace that instills a sense of purpose and meaning in people that fosters a deeper connection to the organization's values and vision. When people do understand how their works contribute to larger purposes and positively impacts others, they feel a sense of fulfillments. Encouraging a shared purpose and aligning individual goals with the company's vision help creating an environment at workplace that are intrinsically inspiring and naturally motivating. A positive organizational culture is essential enabler for creating an environment where people would not just survive but thrive as best in their categories. It encompasses trust, respect, open communication, and high level of collaboration. Encouraging a culture of appreciations, recognizing achievements, and celebrating successes builds a positive work atmosphere. When employees feel valued and supported, they would come to work fully fit, healthy and happy to be dedicated and focused to work.

Engaging team, leaders and board with meaningful work leads to increased productivity, higher qualified retentions, continued innovations, loyalty, health & well-being, and revenue growth trajectory. Connecting to the purpose drives better KPIs and deliverables and overcall outcomes foe the organization. When people understand how their roles and direct contributions connect to the organization’s purpose – they would do everything and anything within and beyond their means to perform nothing less than their best.

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Purpose in Leadership Perspective:

Purposeful leaders embody their organization’s purpose in everything they speak, commit, do and perform. Communicating about purpose with dedication, determination and detail - is essential for purpose-led transformational journey. Business decisions made with purposes at its’ core have a positive and sustainable impact for all stakeholders, especially the supervisory board and investors.

Purpose is a mindset of prioritizing and putting “Why’” factors before any “how” enablers and “What” results. Those mindful leaders, learned & smart organizations question their strategies, tact, operations and all decisions, by beginning with why as basis. Ultimately businesses and industries exist for generating outcomes and giving values to the stakeholders, else the whole reason for staring a business, investing in industrial manufacturing complex would be meaningless. Leaders who would increase the values by questing why to self and others for every decision while chasing the mission and objectives of the organization, would perform best and continue to keep all stakeholders satisfied,

Leading with purpose requires evolution and evaluations in tandem. You need to have brutally honest checks and balances by gathering qualitative and quantitative information about the effects of your actions so you can assess whether they are creating the change you want to be part of. Then, in the spirit of continuous improvement, you can make smart adjustments to what you are doing or how you are doing it. You are never done with that all at once, as Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne profoundly opines, “I have grown into my purpose. I am practicing, and I know that I am coming into my voice still.”

All resources and knowledge we need to lead purposefully in business & industrial organizations – are available in common domain and in academic or industry research findings and records, however, it would not be practical in organizational cultures, and real-time-leadership, until and unless deliberated and earnestly desired. Mark Atkinson, a deeply purpose-driven tech entrepreneur who built Mursion, an AI-Powered tool for leadership development, believes in his company’s manager-development resources for that reason, he says, “Technology has commoditized learning, but the world is not populated with autodidacts. We have to practice to really change!”

Above all, purpose must be backed with all willingness and resources for the change and changers, top leadership wishes to see and prevail in the organization.

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How leaders and board can enable a purposeful workplace:

The most critical function of leadership is to have the answer of “why” factor in work for self, for the organization and for the people.? As Mark TWAIN, has to say very appropriately in the context, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

What you do in your life is only ever as good as why you do it, as classical wisdom goes. That?‘why, or purpose’, is defined in lexical or contextual sense as the, (“La raison d'être, le sens,?la cause véritable et profonde, de l'existence d'une chose ou d'un être”) / “reason for existence.” Let’s put the words of Simon Sinek here in the context, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." When leaders apply the powerful concept of purpose to workplaces in organizations in real-time, they transform – self, people around and the organization as whole. Nothing becomes meaningless; everything becomes a solid stone on the pathways towards delivering the reason for being there in the workplace.

There are few simple but powerful things leaders can work on to make works and culture of the organization purposeful for all. Here are few recommended ways towards that end;

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1. Making workplace and work interesting for everyone:

Never easy for leaders to find out purposes of people in their work. More difficult to explore what makes the work of people interesting. People need to devote most of their precious man-hours to challenging and joyous elements of their jobs and very limited time to mundane jobs of routine & repetitive tasks. Thanks to modern days’ technological interface and era of AI & Automations – at workplaces, in industrial manufacturing units & into mega scale distributions centers; most of the routine, repetitive, predicable jobs, functions and SOPs can be automated.

The case example of Amazon, could be relevant for our discussions. The global online shopping retailor has been investing big bucks to implement and homologate technology to make their distributions centers and stores run more smoothly. The Systems and gadgets making the workers to minimize the time they spend on monotonous and repetitive ordinary tasks, like organizing shop floors, updating inventories, replacing orders of merchants for the shelves, and dedicate more time to elements of the job for which they are meant and uniquely qualified for - serving the most critical stakeholder of the company - “customers”.

2. Connecting individual works with organization’s objectives:

The critical role of leadership to make people believe that they play an important role in the team and organization. People must feel connected to their work and the organizational objectives as interlinked. Their presence, efforts, inputs and mindfulness are worthwhile and critically important for the organizational objectives and mission. Connecting individuals’ purposes with organizational purpose is the key.

Leadership and board need to consider making star-performers and others in the positions to act as process owners, taking charge of the outcomes, reward the results, support the growth and development of those individuals who go beyond boarder to work for and bring in results for the organization. Communications by cascading the message of purposeful objectives, KPIs, deliverables along with risks & rewards to all strata of the organization is the key.

3. Learning, Development and Growth – for all:

No one wants to feel like they are stagnating in their jobs.? Most employees want the opportunity to learn, develop and grow at work, non-stop and on daily basis. Leaders need to build continuous learning and growth into every one’s job.

As they say ‘learning is an endless process’ so is development and growth trajectory for individual and team together as group. A learning organization that fosters the culture of each day is important for learning and developing while in the job – have far ahead achieved on scale of growth, diversification and scaling business beyond their envision. The purpose deeply embedded in the culture of team and organization are far more motivating than mere salaries, benefits and compensations. A joyous, shared learning, fun to be with work colleagues, appreciating leaders, rewarding system and respectful culture – ins nothing less than a blessing to be there in such organization anyone would aspire to work for.

Purposeful leadership sees the best in others,?inspires them to be their best version of themselves, works on creating a culture of positivity and long-term growth. ?As John Maxwell profoundly says in the context, "Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge." Leaders with purpose works incessantly to create a culture of trust, respect and honor for everyone – which leads to enhanced collaboration, great team work, increasing productivity and overall organizational success.

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