Purpose is a word that’s thrown around a lot in business, but it’s not often defined as clearly as it should be. Many companies say they have a mission, for example, when all they really mean is that their goal is to make money and grow their market share.
A mission is only one part of purpose—it’s about the bigger picture and how your organization contributes to society at large. Companies can have a strong sense of purpose without being profitable or growing fast; in fact, that’s often where the real value comes from.
Purpose is the glue that holds an organization together. It’s the reason why employees come to work every day, and it’s the reason why customers choose to do business with you over your competitors.
In other words, purpose makes a company more than just a business—it gives them a sense of meaning. And because people are inherently motivated by meaning, having a clear sense of purpose can create an incredible feeling of belonging or community within an organization—even if that community consists of thousands of employees across multiple countries!
Leaders might ask: how does instilling purpose positively impact and disrupt today’s normal business climate? To answer that, we’ll give you five different ways that purpose improves an organization:
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Purpose unifies. It provides the ability for a very different group of people, many of whom have very different backgrounds, perspectives, and opinions, to unify around a singular thing that tangibly makes their community better. It provides the ability to unify around a particular initiative that they have they all agree on.
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Purpose creates belonging. Rather than that place of work being centered on clock-in and clock-out, a purpose-driven organization instills a culture that inspires employees to go the extra mile because they believe in the community they are investing in. “Quiet quitting” has come about because too many leaders neglect to create a worthwhile work environment for employees. When an employee is able to clearly see a sense of belonging that’s deeper than the product or service that their company offers, they have an enhanced sense of purpose and will even go the extra mile to see the company’s mission fulfilled.
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Purpose deepens relationships. With a common bond between employees, both subordinates and peers alike, leaders who enact purpose can see a closer-knit organization and a culture worth belonging to.
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Purpose establishes meaning. Meaning in a company setting could be multidimensional. Especially in a large company, leaders should offer a broad range of avenues from which employees can pursue meaning, whether that be through volunteering, activism, etc. As long as it aligns with your corporate purpose, employees should feel free to invest in their own activities which give them meaning.
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Purpose cultivates loyalty. Gen-Z and millennials, as the stats show, are less loyal to companies on average. Beyond income, younger generations want to spend their time where they feel their purpose being fulfilled, either in themselves or in their broader community. How do leaders counteract this? Investing in the purposes and issues they care about. Leaders who successfully cultivate this kind of environment will see longer tenures from younger talent.
Purpose can be a positive disruptor
Disruption, in the corporate setting, is anything that would come in and change the norm in a marketplace or individual business. By changing the norm, decision makers can create a positive environment where the work is interesting, employees feel they’re well prepared, they have a good education or experience background to accomplish it, and they enjoy the business that they’re engaged in.
In the wake of the Great Resignation, as has been seen in the last two to three years, many are seeing a job as just a vehicle, a mechanism with no inherent purpose other than making money. Historically, a job was a place where many times a person built their closest relationships and friends. While that still happens occasionally, overall the work culture has shifted.
Now jobs are seen as more of a stepping stone. Younger generations like millennials (those born between 1980 and 1996) stay at jobs for less than three years on average.
Purpose can be a very positive disruptor to change those statistics of short-term employment. Instead of viewing a job as a means to a paycheck, corporate leaders should inspire people with a purpose beyond just a place to make a living.
What happens when corporate purpose gets derailed?
While pursuing a corporate purpose is a wonderful idea, sometimes purpose-driven initiatives don’t go as well as leaders expect. In those moments where purpose does find a challenge, leadership must adapt and recenter the company on a new goal.
Whether it’s crossed wires or a lack of enthusiasm with a particular initiative, or an outright purpose, how do you handle a breakdown in corporate purpose? Leaders have to approach purpose with the same level of grit or tenacity as the company must have toward a new product or a new service that doesn’t stick immediately. Successful companies learn from challenges rather than being defeated, and the same attitude applies to a purpose that doesn’t catch on immediately.
The tendency of leadership when purpose gets derailed is to say, “Let’s abandon it. Let’s just forget it.”
Instead of this defeatist mentality, leaders need to meet with their organization and talk to people openly and try to figure out why this particular direction of purpose wasn’t resonating with employees. Once they’ve met with employees and understand the shortcomings, it becomes easier to pivot and determine your company’s true last mile of purpose, just like you pivot in the marketplace when a product or service isn’t performing as well.
Leaders don’t just give up on their company. In the same way, they can’t give up on pursuing their corporate purpose.
Having leadership in that last mile of purpose is essential in your organization at different levels, all the way from the entry-level to the C-suite. When Purpose gets derailed, use your leadership teams to learn from the mistakes and develop a new approach that will inspire employees in every department to pursue meaning beyond finances.
Companies can operate without a strong sense of purpose, but they’re wasting their potential if they do.
The reason why purpose is becoming such an important topic of discussion is that the value of purpose has become more evident. More and more companies are realizing that they need to embrace purpose in order to stay relevant in today’s increasingly competitive environment.
Business school professor Jim Collins famously wrote about how companies can go from good to great, but he also wrote about how some companies will always be left behind (losing their place in history). In his book Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck — Why Some Thrive Despite Them All he writes: “No matter how you slice it, the story of leadership at its best has a moral arc that bends toward justice.” The same thing goes for companies: those who embrace their sense of purpose will succeed; those who don’t will fade away into obscurity.
A purposeful company not only inspires employees, it also empowers them. Employees are more likely to speak up and stand up for what’s right if they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Purposeful companies encourage employees to take action and speak out when they see wrongdoing happening in the workplace or elsewhere in society that affects the community.
Research from McKinsey found that millennials are more likely than previous generations to look for meaning at work, with 85% saying it is important for them to do so. They are also more likely than other generations—even baby boomers—to believe their job makes a difference in the world: 74% of millennials say this is true compared with 45% of baby boomers who say so.
Why Having a Clear Sense of Purpose Matters
Purpose is a defining element of any company. It’s the glue that holds your culture together while driving your company’s mission forward. A clear sense of purpose helps you attract and retain top talent, build customer loyalty, and stand out in an increasingly crowded market. Every organization should aim for purposeful growth if it wishes to find success in a modern marketplace.
Mark Bourgeois is an accomplished senior executive, both at a strategic and managerial level, with a strong history of providing leadership, innovation, business improvement, and change management.