Why bother with purpose?

Published 6:00 pm Thursday, November 14, 2019

“The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy or passion.” — Terry Orlick

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Nietzche

Purpose and culture can seem so soft and fuzzy. Why should leaders spend the time to find the purpose of their organization and make it a critical part of everything they do?

Here are five reasons I gathered from a great article by Jim Hemerling and Cathy Carlisi of the Boston Consulting Group.

1 – Purpose Pays

I’ve written about how Jim Collin’s visionary companies outperformed the marketplace by 15x and how “conscious capitalism” companies outperformed by 8x or more.

Boston Consulting Group surveyed the leaders, employees and customers of 50 companies. They broke the companies into two groups – those with high purpose scores and those with low purpose scores.

They found that the high purpose group had twice as many top-performing companies (as measured by total shareholder return). More evidence that purpose pays.

2 – Rising Aspirations and Shifting Priorities

More and more leaders are committing to deliver on the “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profit. These leaders are striving to have a positive impact on the world and leave a legacy. At the same time many workers, especially millennials, are seeking workplaces that are an inclusive community working together to make a positive impact on the world.

This is another way purpose pays. Purposeful companies attract an engaged and talented workforce. These companies do not have to compete solely on pay because they offer more than a paycheck to their team members.

3 – Stability Through “Always On” Transformation

Sources of disruption are multiplying. This requires leading companies to always be transforming their models to compete. Purpose gives these companies a “North Star” to test these transformation efforts against. It allows always transforming companies to not lose what made them great in the first place.

4 – The Limits of Carrots and Sticks

Today’s best organizations realize the limits of carrots and sticks to motivate their workforce. They realize the need to appeal to their people’s heads and hearts. Studies have shown that our incomes, once above certain levels, have little impact on joy in our life.

Deep down, every good person wants to make a positive impact on the world. Purpose driven organizations help their people meet their financial and aspirational goals all in one place.

5 – Community In a Digital Work World

More and more business is done over the internet. Many team members will never meet face to face, but only through video chat. Yet, we all still crave community. Organizational purpose can make these digital connections more meaningful because everyone on the team is striving to accomplish something bigger than “just business.”

The clarity provided by a clear purpose, vision and values can create and maintain a culture in a digital world when most cultures used to be maintained and established by proximity.

If you are ready to get started creating more clarity and meaning in your organization, you check out our free “Values Driven Leadership” course at  https://valuesdrivenresults.com/resource-library/.

As always, you can reach me at 229.244.1559 if I can help in any way.