Creating a Purpose-Driven Culture
Connecting work to a personal sense of purpose is one of the most powerful motivators at a leader’s disposal when creating and optimizing a high-performing organization of fully engaged individuals. Clear and understandable mission, vision, and value statements coupled with aligned strategic objectives and operating model provide excellent opportunities to connect with an employee’s personal sense of individual purpose.
This linkage will go a long way to empowering individuals with a sense of personal ownership and accountability for the work that will propel your company forward. Furthermore, appealing to individual sense of purpose becomes even more important as the proportion of Generations Y and Z, who trend towards making employment choices based on how aligned their work is to their personal values, increases.
I have consistently heard from individuals I had the privilege of leading that they had never worked so hard and they loved it. The number one reason each person cited for their motivation and level of engagement was not salary, bonuses, or vacation time. It was that they believed that what they were doing provided them with a productive outlet for their personal calling in life.
In this article, I have outlined 5 key elements of a purpose-driven strategic framework that enables this depth of connection to purpose to create clarity for you, your team, and your customers as to why the strategy you have created and the work you are doing are worthwhile.
5 Elements to Promote a Purpose-Driven Culture
Helping individuals to connect their personal sense of purpose with their work is an incredibly powerful way to maximize workforce engagement. When effectively synchronized and made real for people, the five elements of a purpose-driven strategic framework collectively provide a true north that defines not only the “why” behind the work but ”how” everyone is expected to behave and perform.
I have outlined five interconnected anchor points upon which to build this type of meaningful connection. Each cascades in order into the next to help employees connect their day-to-day efforts to the mission, vision and strategy of the company.
1. Mission – Why We Exist
Mission statements create clarity on why a company exists. This reason for being should roll off the tongue for any member of your company from the CEO to the frontline staff. If you already have a mission statement and find it difficult to remember, consider how you could paraphrase it into a few memorable words so others can more easily grasp the fundamental idea.
2. Vision – Who We Aspire to Be
Vision statements declare aspiration and general direction for a company by asking, “what do we, as a company, want to be (and be known for)?” Keep it simple and easy to remember. This is fundamentally a call to action that colors strategy and should be made as real and tangible for employees as possible.
3. Values – How We Conduct Ourselves
Company values are the foundational expectations for how individuals are expected to consistently conduct themselves in their everyday work. Values reflect behaviors and beliefs that define the collective heart of a company and communicate, louder than any words, what others in the market can expect when choosing whether to work with you. Are you known as respectful and collaborative or disorganized and lacking in integrity? Company values should be encompassing enough yet easy to remember in the moment. (I have been asked, “if we do not explicitly call out a behavior as a specific company value, does that mean it’s not important?” The answer is “no” – company values are not exclusive. They are the basis upon which adjacent behaviors that fuel company performance manifest.
4. Strategic Objectives – What We Will Focus on to Achieve Our Vision
Knowing why you exist, who you aspire to be, and how you will conduct yourselves to get there provides the backdrop for your strategic objectives. Strategic objectives are high level reflections of what needs to occur to realize the future state vision for the company. Keep the number of objectives manageable and promote an enterprise-wide, laser-like focus on them.
5. Operating Model – How We Organize Ourselves to Execute the Strategy
The operating model links strategy to operations and should be designed to enable achievement of strategic objectives. Saving the operating model design to the end of the process is a perfect example of form following function. Whereas many leaders and team members often first seek to orient themselves by creating a tangible organizational chart, doing so before clarifying the preceding elements can pose huge risks for confusion, wasted resources, and drag on your ability to execute quickly.
Making the Connection
To fully activate your purpose-driven strategic framework, finding effective ways to connect it to individuals’ sense of personal purpose is paramount. Here are some tested tips that can help:
- Start with Yourself If you do not know how to connect your own personal purpose to the strategic framework, it will be very difficult to facilitate this for others. Articulate what kind of mark you want to leave on the world – it can be simply stated, e.g., “helping others be healthy so they can enjoy life”, “advocating for those without voices”. Then describe how your purpose manifests within each aspect of the strategic framework.
- Practice Repetition Take every opportunity to recap the components of the framework for yourself and others; specifically, mission, vision, and values and, as relevant, strategic objectives and the operating model. For example, consistently start meetings with this type of level-setting and normalize the ability for individuals to voice how they see their personal sense of purpose connecting to the work. I typically ask someone in advance of a meeting to be prepared to share an example of how they feel connected to a specific aspect of the framework (e.g., picking one of the values). Regularly discuss components of the framework during 1:1 meetings with direct reports.
- Be Tangible Share examples of what connection to purpose looks like. Ask team members what it is about the company’s purpose-driven strategic framework that resonates for them most. For holiday gifts for my team one year, I collected statements from each person about their personal sense of purpose and what drew them to our work. These were compiled along with their photos into an album and copies were made for each team member. What we learned about one another’s experiences and personal sense of purpose was powerful, inspiring, and created a shared connection to purpose.
- Positively Reinforce When you observe someone doing something that aligns with any aspect of the framework, provide them with specific feedback on what you saw, the relevant aspect(s) of the framework, and how you think their actions connected work and personal purpose. I try to do this, if not in the moment, within 24 hours while it is still fresh in everyone’s minds. I also keep track of these examples for inclusion in performance reviews.
- Be Authentic Use easy to understand words, be sincere, and customize messaging for each individual. Invest the time and seek to understand what drives each individual you encounter and what draws them to the work. Jargon and corporate speak will feel scripted and impersonal. Erroneous assumptions about what an individual’s sense of purpose is will feel insincere. Both of these pitfalls will rapidly suck the vibrancy out of the strategic framework pushing people away from rather than connecting them closer to a personal sense of ownership in the company’s efforts.
Conclusion
There is much to be said on the topic of creating productive company culture and the purpose-driven strategic framework is just one. With that said, I have found it to be well worth the investment of time and energy and one of the most durable ways to engage and cultivate high-performing individuals, teams, and companies.
For questions or to find out how EverSparq can help, contact info@eversparq.com.
