Making Work Matter More
At a time when the latest Gallup Poll shows a dispiriting lack of engagement among the nation’s workforce, leaders need to find better ways to align their team’s and organization’s purposes.
At my previous company, we employed a woman named Bethany in our regulatory department who was technically good—not great—at her job but showed truly great leadership potential. When we sat down and discussed what she wanted in life, her passion for the planet came shining through. She became a key player in our regenerative initiatives and, later, she became passionate about conscious leadership. Today, I’m proud to say she’s a part of the ScalePassion team.
Moving Bethany into a place where she could express her purpose not only fired her up but also made her more impactful as a teammate. Her example convinced me to make “strength of purpose” a key criterion for promotability in any organization I lead. Hiring for strength of purpose is one way to radiate purpose through your business. Here’s how to turn purpose into a power source in your organization:
Mentor–Make it a point to mentor your future leaders by giving them special projects, bringing them to important meetings or conferences, or simply taking them to lunch to learn more about them and their goals. Encourage your senior leadership to do the same with their up-and-comers.
Empower–The reason you hire people with serious marketing, sales, and operations chops is to get you out from under the day-to-day. The problem (admit it) is that your empowerment only extends through periods when things are going well. Miss a couple of sales or revenue goals and all that careful work you put in to empower your new leadership vanishes in an all-hands-on-deck call to get those numbers up today! Resist.
Trust–I know too many leaders who are afraid to share important figures, such as sales, profits, and other important numbers, and who don’t trust their leadership team to set their own goals and challenge their employees. However, my experience tells me that those in whom you entrust more power will habitually overreach rather than underreach. Extending trust and letting go of the reins is more fun than trying to maintain an iron grip.
Radiate–I like to begin meetings with a quick recitation of our mission and purpose as well as a key core value. It helps keep the “why” in front of us as we labor on the “what” and “how.” But I can’t be at every meeting, nor do I want to be. So, I rely on my leadership to radiate our mission and values to their teams—not once a year at a retreat but on a daily basis in team-meetings and even one-on-ones.
Measure–What gets measured matters, right? So, build your strategy not only around sales, revenues, and profits but also impact. Then learn how you can tie impact to those rising sales, revenues, and profits.
This is a big part of what we do at ScalePassion. Make purpose matter to every aspect of your business. So give us a call. Buy the book. Think bigger.