Five guiding principles to purpose-driven leadership

1. Clarify / Simplify / Customize your organization’s purpose

First, if not defined, you need to craft your organization’s unique and inspiring purpose. This is the starting point. Purpose is the organization’s reason for being and the difference it makes in the world. It is closely linked with, and it combines the vision, mission, and values, which together underscore the culture of an organization. Thus, to define your organization’s purpose you need to first clarify succinctly, the organization’s:

• Vision – what do we want to become
• Mission – what we do now
• Values – what are the principles we expect of ourselves and chose to abide by

In addition to the vision, mission and values, the organizational culture frames the organization’s purpose which must be clear, concise and expressed in simple language so that your employees can understand and identify with.

2. Have clarity on ‘your own’ purpose

Despite their background and culture, successful leaders must go to great lengths to contemplate and define their leadership purpose. You need to have clarity on your own purpose, and make sure you understand how this is aligned / interweaved with the organization’s overarching purpose. You need to be a purpose driven leader first before you can take others with you.

Purposeful organizations need leaders who know themselves and know what ticks them. Only when a leader is convinced of and is connected to their own meaningful purpose can they effectively be able to inspire and influence purpose-driven employees. So, it is very important to consider what your own purpose is before you try to. . . instill purpose in others!

3. Instill purpose in others

Leading with purpose means that not only you do have a purpose, but you inspire others to have this sense of purpose within them as well. Thus, once you have aligned your personal professional purpose to the company’s, you need to start sharing and promoting it with your people. It is important for employees to have a sense of not only what the organization does and how, but WHY, and the role they play in that.

Purpose must be cascaded down, it must be communicated and discussed regularly in staff meetings. The more conversations you have about the purpose, the more engagement you will achieve. You will need to convey to the employees how their distinct function affects the overall delivery of the company’s purpose. By showing how everyday tasks link to the overall organizational purpose and how people contribute towards its delivery, they will feel a co-ownership and commitment towards that purpose.

By doing so, you give your team a reason to believe, you give them a purpose. People start finding meaning in their own work which makes them excited, motivated and happy. Once a team has purpose, its members will collaborate and work together to make things happen.

4. Create a fearless, safe working environment

Once there is clarity on the people and organizational purpose, purposeful organizations need a fearless, safe, and trusted working environment to thrive and flourish. An environment where people can freely express ideas and are not afraid to make mistakes and be creative. This creativity will spark innovation, but it is clarity of purpose that will turn the innovative ideas into practical concepts. Thus, as a purposeful leader, one of your primary duties is to work constantly in creating such environment.

This is not an easy task, and as I explained in my article “How to create a psychologically safe working environment (May 21)”, this is a challenging journey. However, it is a prerequisite to purpose-driven leadership as collaboration, coordination and teamwork require a psychologically safe working environment and a culture of trust to come alive and provide any organization with a powerful competitive edge. You can hire the best talent out there, you can have the most compelling and clear purpose but, if the working environment is ‘toxic’, all is wasted.

5. Develop purposeful leaders to drive results and prepare for the future

Very few of you will be in your current position five to ten years from now. It is therefore imperative that you develop your people to become purposeful leaders to drive results, create value for your shareholders but also to carry the torch for the next generation.

It is important to remember that purpose is an intention so it is the people who will determine what and how it is implemented. Results depend on capable execution by the employees. There is no purpose-driven leadership framework without an emphasis on employee development. As said many times before …“you don’t build a business, you build people and then people build the business”. A purposeful leader’s legacy lies within the next generation of leaders that will succeed him.

These are my five guiding principles to a purpose-driven leadership.
Undoubtedly, purpose-driven organizations are set up for success, to outperform rivals and thrive. Creating a purpose-driven workplace is essential for employee engagement. And it is important to remember, that beyond salary, benefits and titles, employee happiness increasingly relies on their ability to find meaning in their work.
Purpose powers performance! Purpose is one of the enabling factors, the link that bridges the expectations’ gap between the organization’s leaders and its employees. When purpose is channeled in ways that enable people to see what the company’s vision is, and what is expected of them in achieving that vision, purpose can be a very powerful catalyst to performance, well-being and happiness!