In what way is Purpose Important for life and work?
“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” – Steve Maraboli. We all have a purpose – the reasons we get up in the morning, the reason we are doing this or that. Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behaviour, shape goals, offer a sense of direction and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work. We will focus this interview on Purpose in a work context.
It is not a common practice to bring the word Purpose into the work environments. We are used to talking about KPIs, Goals, Performance-driven metrics…
That’s correct. However, many companies are becoming aware that their partners, suppliers, customers, and employees are paying more attention to it as part of a wider assessment of the role of a company in society today. There is a push to define a role for a company, beyond making a profit, which will positively affect their valuation – this is their purpose. Younger employees are increasingly putting pressure on companies to define and live up to their purpose. Surveys consistently show that the younger generations value purpose at work – a LinkedIn survey showed that 86% of younger employees were willing to give up title and compensation to work in a company aligned with their values.
So what would you say is driving this increased focus on purpose?
Over the last 100 or so years, management has focused on increasing profits by improving the performance of individual employees rather than on strengthening teams and systems. Yet, we have found that for a group of people to deliver excellence together, they need to have aligned views – i.e. a shared purpose. Without an inspiring ‘why’, a group of individuals remains a group; they do not become a team.
Yet, its key for me to mention here that, ‘purpose’ may have become something of a fad in the work environment, in some ways it is a victim of its own success! HBR conducted research on “purpose”, and they found that the primary cause of confusion around “purpose” in an organisation is that it is used in three senses which are not delineated:
- competence (“the function that our product serves”);
- culture (“the intent with which we run our business”);
- cause (“the social good to which we aspire”).
They found that cause-based purposes seem to get the most attention as companies who push for societal change are more visible. However, whilst every company needs purpose, HBR research postulated that not every purpose needs to be a social cause.
So where do you stand in this debate?
This is exactly what we believe – that ‘purpose’ is not always about social cause! If we look at ‘culture’ (one of the HBR pillars), there is a place for a network/hierarchy of purposes that relates: to the organisation, to the functions, to the teams, to the projects and to an individual. When teams and employees are aligned around a purpose, aligned with what they are trying to achieve, in order to meet the needs of the various stakeholders, they become fully engaged and committed to achieve the outcome required. That is why we have developed a new team coaching framework around this belief called “Purpose-Connected™”.
Fantastic would like to hear more so will come on to this later – how do you get people engaged?
We are working with a set of alternative leadership KPIs that are starting to gain traction:
- Keep People Interested
- Keep People Informed
- Keep People Involved
- Keep People Inspired
The Purpose-Connected framework helps to identify the actions in support of these KPIs. So, by aligning around a purpose and building the connections to deliver on that purpose, employees work in a lane that they are passionate about and use their natural gifts, so they are more likely to be drawn to and enjoy their work – they become engaged!
Let’s turn to why our focus on “Purpose” is so critical now?
More than ever before, successful organisations will be those that are positioned to adapt and thrive in an increasingly ambiguous and changing environment. We have seen this in recent years, post-covid and with the changing macroeconomic environment.
As organizational structures become increasingly de-centralised, leaders will need to take less of a ‘control approach’ and place more power and accountability in the hands of their employees – aligning around a purpose enables empowerment across the organisation, people are committed to and know the direction they are aiming for.
In addition, purpose provides the foundation for a strong culture which propels teams and strategies forward creating a high growth company. Therefore, it helps reduce tensions between teams and employees, creating optimum conditions for growth
And, if you want to stop the ‘great resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting’, start with purpose…..
Continuing on that theme… How can purpose lead the business into success and growth?
Finding the right purpose sits at the intersection of various business agendas given that business functions will have a specific perspective on purpose – for example:
- For marketing and sales – an aligned purpose can help win customers and enhance customer loyalty
- For HR – it can attract, engage and retain employees
- For governance and sustainability – it can enhance environmental, social and governance performance
- For strategy and finance – it can guide how resources are allocated and risks are managed
In a purpose-led team, the ‘why’ becomes the beating heart of the team. People stop working in silos, start to resolve conflicts and change their way of working. A truly compelling purpose uplifts people, performance and profit as people feel energized by their day-to-day work
Many leaders are often too focused on pushing their team to hit certain targets, when what they should really focus on is how they can motivate and inspire them to improve. They need to show the way by displaying the ability to drive their people to reach greater heights through demonstrating the qualities employees will follow by choice – developing a purpose that builds passion and gives meaning to their role.
Interesting to hear…. so what are the key challenges that leaders face when creating purpose driven cultures?
Some of the biggest challenges that companies face today are not caused by the individuals, teams, or functions, rather they lie in the connections between them – this has been amplified by remote working. When leaders enable these connections, employees can become fully engaged and motivated to achieve the best possible outcomes. So, the role of today’s leaders is to enable the connections, aligned around purpose, in order to bring together teams and resources.
Collective intelligence is the only way to solve complex problems. A leader’s ability to collaborate, build trust-based relationships, build a passion for learning and breakdown silos is key in unleashing the potential of an organisation’s capabilities.
It might be tempting to revert to “command and control management during this period of change and upheaval but it’s too late for that, even if it was ever a good idea. The flow of the new work wave is now powerfully towards empowerment and staff engagement and the time to act is now. Successful organisations emerging are those whose leaders are mastering the art – and the skills – of engaging and unlocking individual talent, team synergy and discretionary effort.
This is not easy – what tools are available to help leaders on their journey?
This dilemma was very apparent during lockdown with the leaders we were coaching as they struggled with the issues of operating in a new paradigm: remote working, rapid change and having to make decisions without all the data.
So we have developed an approach, called Purpose-Connected™, which builds on this accelerated transformation and supports leaders to provide an environment where employees can:
- clearly see how their own ‘team-purpose’ contributes to the group’s broader objectives and purpose (hierarchy of purpose)
- connect with other teams to ensure they are delivering on group/function goals by aligning around a common purpose – teams which align around a collective purpose are more likely to succeed.
- become fully engaged and motivated to achieve the best possible outcome
So what is Purpose-Connected™?
Purpose-Connected is a team coaching approach, which aims to co-create value for customers and stakeholders to accelerate an organisation’s growth (by adapting to today’s environment.) and the creation of a unique framework:
- With Purpose-Connected™, the focus is on the leadership team as a collective entity not on the individuals. It is a facilitated way for teams, departments, and organisations to connect by aligning around an agreed purpose.
- Purpose-Connected™ is about creating a culture that enables a high degree of flexibility, employee engagement, decision-making with limited data, and agile innovation. This is enabled through a set of connectors between and within teams/departments.
- The Purpose-Connected™ Practice has robust roots in established management and coaching models, as well as incorporating the latest thinking in leadership and organisational development. It is based on current theory, incorporating aspects of Systemic-Team Coaching
Can you share with us how the framework works in practice?
The Purpose-Connected® Framework is built around key foundational enablers, which are influenced by external drivers of change. The enablers consist of Core Enablers (Accountability, Decision Making, Processes) and Growth Enablers (Agility, Innovation, Continuous Learning) which underpin Purpose and Connection. By exploring the enablers with members of the team, we can establish where the team sits in their delivery of these enablers, their purpose and the connections that may or may not be in place to support delivering around the purpose. In summary, we support an organisation to find and enhance the connectors that align around a network/hierarchy of purpose at an organisation, function/group, and team/project level.
And lastly,
‘Everything in life is connected – the point is to know it and understand it’
and this is what we believe is the key to unlocking growth and success for today’s organisations.
Lynne Gillon
Executive Coach
About Lynne:
Lynne brings a broad business and leadership background to her coaching practice, from her career at start-ups and multinational organisations in the technology sector. Most recently, she spent 12 years at Oracle Corp. (S&P 100) in Alliance & Channels in the ECEMEA region and latterly, in Customer Success for EMEA. Lynne’s expertise covers all aspects of Executive Coaching and Team Coaching – by co-creating a framework for each individual and team, she ensures that learning is supported with clear action plans.
More at: www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-gillon-987109
