Being a successful leader is about more than making decisions and planning strategic direction. More than ever before, leadership must be guided by purpose.
Why? Because purpose-driven leaders inspire stronger performance from their teams, which has a marked impact on their organisations. Numerous studies have revealed striking and wide-ranging benefits.
Purpose-oriented companies enjoy 30% higher levels of innovation and 40% higher workforce retention than their rivals, according to research from Deloitte. Furthermore, a study from DDI, The Conference Board, and EY discovered that leaders who work in organisations with a defined purpose statement are twice as likely to derive meaning from their work and report 60% higher energy levels.
Awareness of purpose-driven leadership, and its many positive impacts, has been growing in recent years. But this understanding has been dramatically accelerated by COVID-19.
Consider how four-fifths of consumers say they will remember which companies “did the right thing by their workers” throughout the pandemic, from implementing safety measures to taking efforts to prevent redundancies. Three-quarters insist that even long after the crisis ends, they won’t forget businesses that failed to do so. Organisations driven by purpose are more likely to make the “right call” during challenging times.
Given all of this, it is concerning that less than one-fifth of leaders say they have a strong sense of their individual purpose. An inauthentic attempt at purpose will not inspire positive behaviours; indeed, it may do the exact opposite.
With that in mind, in this guide, we discuss what it means to lead with purpose, explain how to define your own purpose as a leader, and examine how to translate that purpose into meaningful action.
What Does It Mean to Lead With Purpose?
Perhaps one of the biggest barriers for leaders seeking to define their own purpose is a lack of understanding about what “purpose” actually means.
After all, it’s a nebulous term. Does it refer to the reason we do something? Our own personal sense of resolve or determination? Our intentions or objectives? Or something else entirely?
In Episode 5 of our podcast series Leadership in Transformation, we directed that question to Marie-Philippe Vanheems, a mechanical engineer with over 15 years of experience in operational excellence who helps conscious leaders transform their business from startups into big corporations.
According to Marie-Philippe, “purpose” is made up of two elements:
- Your vision: What you want to bring to society in the future. This can change over time. “For instance, for me, my actual vision is equity and freedom at the workplace, this is what I’m striving for,” Marie-Philippe explains. “But in five years I can change my vision, what I want to bring to the world.”
- Your “Why”: The driving force behind your actions; what you might call your raison d’être. This never changes. Marie-Philippe describes it as the “soul” of a leader or organisation: “For instance, when you have Apple, the drive of Apple is ‘think different’.”
In many ways, confusion around the term “purpose” stems from the fact that businesses have been slow to focus on it and the benefits it provides. But why has this happened?
Marie-Philippe has her own theory.
Firstly, she believes it is down to the traditional attitudes that still pervade many organisations today. “Still the performance is number one, and performance is related to the profit of the company.”
Secondly, she says there is still too great a focus on male-centric leadership characteristics. “I don’t say men and women,” Marie-Philippe notes. Rather, she means traditional masculine traits like competitiveness, dominance, and directness. “When you look at the world a bit more … on the vulnerable side, and you develop – men and women – your feminine side, then you have much more this purpose-driven way.”
How to Define Your Own Purpose
Everyone wants to think that the work they do is meaningful, and that they are making a positive impact on the world. But those things are naturally subjective. One person’s idea of “making a positive impact” could be very different to another’s. Each of us has our own unique sense of purpose; it is up to us to define it.
Daunting as this may sound, there are numerous methods to defining our own purpose. As a starting point, Deloitte recommends following a three-step process:
- Understand what matters to you: List all the things that are most important to you. Be spontaneous and think big. You might consider things like the people you love; the talents and passions you possess; the activities you enjoy; and the characteristics that define you. Keep going until you have at least 25 points on your list.
- Hone in on your “non-negotiables”: Look again at your original list. Filter out the things that don’t truly matter to you, and combine similar entries. Edit it down until you are left with just five words or phrases. These are your “lines in the sand”; the things that make the biggest difference in your life, and that you would not be prepared to change.
- Create a short narrative: Take those five words or phrases and combine them into a brief narrative that represents your “North Star” – a purpose statement that outlines what you care most about in life, and why it matters.
To get yourself in the right headspace for this process, start by asking yourself some searching questions like:
- What did I especially love doing when I was a child? How did it make me feel?
- What activities would bring more happiness and meaning to my life?
- What are the most challenging experiences I’ve faced in life, and what impact did they have on me?
- If I could be doing anything in the world right now, what would it be?
- What can I do in my work or personal life to feel like my actions matter more?
Many of the answers will likely be things you have not considered before, or not fully explored. You may even be surprised by the results. This is because, in a results-driven world, we are used to focusing on our most immediate tasks, pressures, challenges, and priorities, leaving us little bandwidth to consider what actually makes us happy and gives us purpose.
How to Translate Purpose to Action
Understanding our own sense of purpose is only the starting point. The next step is to turn it into real impact. Without being attached to specific action points, your purpose is little more than some nice words that are easily forgotten during busy periods or times of crisis.
Having created your purpose statement (or “North Star”), use this roadmap to translate it into meaningful action:
- Use language from your purpose statement to define three to five-year goals: This is a good starting point for bringing action to your purpose. Three to five years is far enough away that even disillusioned leaders should be able to picture making meaningful change to their life by then; but not so far as to be unimaginable, or to spark complacency. The goal could be to secure a certain job or work for a certain organisation, but the focus should be on the type of leader you want to be.
- Set one to two-year goals: In this shorter timeframe, long-term actions and short-term realities begin to converge. Consider the types of responsibilities you should be taking on, and how you can find the time to focus on more distant objectives. For instance, you may commit to spending 5% of your time on tasks that are not specifically related to your “day job”, but that align 100% with your purpose and allow people to see your strengths in these areas.
- Set critical steps to achieving immediate goals: This step is not about creating an exhaustive list of your day-to-day actions and responsibilities. Instead, it is about roadmapping the key activities and results that are most critical to reaching your longer-term objectives. You may find that actions you previously thought essential now seem much less important.
- Consider the key relationships required to deliver your goals: While your purpose should be deeply personal to you, you will likely need the support of other people in your professional and home life if you are to live by it 100% of the time. For instance, you may need to work closely with fellow leaders or the board of directors to help you take on new responsibilities that bring greater purpose to your work.
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