Competence Connects to the Organizational Purpose

As we wrapped up our looks at identifying our own specific purpose and helping each of our team members reach their individual purpose, I referenced the keynote session that Cindy and I frequently share called Building Buy-In Around a Clear Mission & Vision, specifically the emphasis we place on tying the tasks we do to what our mission or vision statements say our organization is working toward. Connecting our own tasks to the organization’s mission or vision shouldn’t be all that difficult for anyone in a leadership role; if someone can’t, I’d have some major concerns about them supervising or managing others, and they’re certainly not leading… When we’re able to do that, it shouldn’t take much more effort to connect our own purpose with that of the company as a whole. But providing that same kind of clarity for each of our team members will require more!

As we looked at what being part of something that really matters does for each of our team members, I shared how important it is for a leader to be competent in the tasks the individuals on their team perform each day so they can help them connect those activities to a purpose they’re motivated by personally. For our purposes here, especially since I’m actively challenging you to build this into your daily leadership routine, I want you to think about how you can use what you know about each role within your area of responsibility to be intentional in connecting those required tasks back to not just a mission or vision statement, but how executing those tasks well will indeed contribute directly to achieving the purpose the entire organization needs to be focused on.

I’ll say it once more with hopes of making it stick; a blanket statement will not get the job done here! We need to be able to articulate how even the basic pieces have a lasting impact, and we can’t do that when we’re not at least competent in what our team members are required to do. Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not suggesting that we need to be an expert in everything! Just that we need to understand the work they’re doing. In helping at least a dozen organizations implement or enhance their performance evaluation process, I’ve set this same expectation for supervisors and managers to be competent in the roles they’re evaluating. When they review performance with a team member, a general score or a proverbial pat on the back provides little value. But when that supervisor or manager can give specific examples of how that individual’s performance contributed to (or took away from) the company’s profitability, they provide the person being evaluated with a clear picture of what they’re doing well or what they need to do to improve. This same level of competence is critical in helping our team members connect what we expect them to do with the purpose we’re working with them to achieve.

Being aware of how we’re wired can help us manage our performance and connect our own purpose with that of our organization. Learning to recognize the emotions of our team members, and thereby understand more about how they’re wired to behave and communicate, can help us connect their work to our organizational purpose even more effectively. It can help us share that message in the exact way they need to receive it, so that’s what we’ll look at next…