What’s the Purpose of Finding Purpose?
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
Whose purpose am I dancing to?
I get at least six emails a week telling me that the sender, having skimmed our website, “understands us and has the magic formula” to grow our business 10 times. Those solicitations leave me wondering…
If you have the secret to growing a business like that, why do you need to send out a massive number of emails?
Does it actually work, or do the businesses employing this approach not know any other way to attract customers? If you mail out 1,000 such invitations and you only get a one percent response, is it effective?
Which brings me to this: What is the purpose of such an approach? “Purpose” is an increasingly popular topic of business literature advocating its importance. A couple of examples:
From Harvard Business Review, March-April 2020:
Purpose has become something of a fad and a victim of its own success. Companies are aware that their customers and employees are paying more attention to it as part of a wider reassessment of the role of corporations in society. BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, and other major investors are urging executives to articulate a role for their companies beyond profit making, implying that doing so will affect their valuation. But despite its sudden elevation in corporate life, purpose remains a confusing subject of sharply polarized debate.
From The McKinsey Quarterly, April 22, 2020:
Only seven percent of Fortune 500 CEOs believe their companies should “mainly focus on making profits and not be distracted by social goals.” And with good reason. While shareholder capitalism has catalyzed enormous progress, it also has struggled to address deeply vexing issues such as climate change and income inequality—or, looking forward, the employment implications of artificial intelligence.
But where do we go from here? How do we deliver a sense of purpose across a wide range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities? Doing so means moving from business as usual to a less traveled path that may feel like “painting outside the lines.”
Whereas I believe purpose-led endeavors are more productive, the wheels get wobbly when the stated purpose of most organizations gets “applied to the road.” I suspect for most organizations, “purpose” is more of an advertising strategy than a rudder to the business. To test your organization’s commitment to purpose, ask if it holds up when the following concerns arise:
Are we going too far beyond our core mandate?
Does it mean we’ll lose focus on bottom-line results?
Will transparency expose painful tensions better left unexamined?
Will our boards, management teams, employees and stakeholders want to follow us, or will they think we have gone adrift?”
Where are you in the conversation of purpose?
Does your organization live its purpose, if they even have stated one? How about your purpose in going to work? For most, I suspect, working flies on needing to earn a living, which is a purpose, even if it lacks spark.
I do not believe there is a lack of meaningful purpose in our endeavors; I just think it is buried within us. Most businesses are started with a larger intent than earning a profit, and I do believe most people would work, even if they did not have to. Then, somewhere in the fray, the spark that drives our expression in these endeavors slowly gets dulled.
“The great resignation” during COVID has a lot of people rethinking, “What am I doing?” That sounds a lot like reconnecting to purpose.
People and organizations that operate with a clear sense of purpose perform at higher levels, contribute to the community and do so with impressive levels of satisfaction. Your purpose does not have to be noble, just true to yourself, whether you have a business or work in a business.
Behind every action, there is intention.
Often they seem to be reactionary. I do think purpose, true purpose, is a matter of the heart. If organizations that have a true purpose perform at significantly higher levels, such as the companies that follow John Mackey’s Conscious Capitalism movement, then what would it mean for you and me to realize our own and let purpose guide our actions?
That, I think, would take a deep dive into what is in our hearts – something we are all capable of – if we just take time off from sending a gazillion emails.
Some Steps to Get to Purpose:
Why does this business exist or why do I exist (from my point of view?)
What value does the business create? What value do I create?
If I know what I or we are up to, can I reverse engineer to purpose?
If my organization has a stated purpose, do our people know what it is and do they believe we live it? Do I have a purpose, and do I behave consistently with it?
Do I share about purpose both inside and outside?
Continuing to look,
Comment below
or
Fundamental of the Week #13: FIND A WAY
Look for how we can do it rather than explaining why it can’t be done. Take personal responsibility. Be innovative, assertive and take initiative.
Momentum Consulting offers executive business coaching, top-level executive consulting, team trainings and team off-sites to build and transform your business to the next level. Inquire about business consulting and leadership coaching today.
