How They’ll Achieve It & Why It Matters

Assuming we’ve fulfilled the part of our leadership responsibility that lies in tying our organization’s mission, vision, and values to a definite purpose and we’ve invested the effort to recognize what our team members have shown us to truly drive them, we have the key pieces in place to help them recognize exactly how those things connect with each other and why all the energy they put into both matters. Part of us doing this will be tied to us making sure they’re doing what we just covered and reflecting on the progress they’ve made over time. But it’s just as important that we continue painting a clear picture of the future that lies ahead. I have yet to meet a single person who’s willing to contribute everything they’ve got today for something they accomplished yesterday.

This is where the time we’ve invested into knowing each team member on an individual basis can provide a tremendous return. While we may be able to share a general message with our entire team, we’ll do much better to provide specific examples in one-on-one conversations. Earlier I shared how understanding how much the facility I worked in made from each muffler, and how having that perspective - as well as knowing exactly how many people were involved in building each of those mufflers - gave me incentive to make sure I learned everything I possibly could when I attended a workshop or conference so I would have a shot at applying that knowledge to improve our workplace. If I take that same idea back to how I could help the next operator who handled the parts I was stamping by making sure the pattern was to one edge of the allowed tolerance, I can see how even that made the extra work required so much more worth it. I can only imagine the difference had I understood at the time how any of that served our customer or how it connected to anything I was striving for personally.

Decades later, I can draw a few squiggly lines between those things and I can pull lessons from nearly every job I’ve had that serve me well today. But how much more effective would be in our leadership roles if we used all we understood about our organization's purpose, coupled that with what we’ve learned about our team members, and were incredibly specific with them in detailing why the things they value (collectively as a group and individually) matters and how the work they do each day contributes directly to achieving those things value most?

Just in case you’re wondering, that’s one of those rhetorical questions… I’m convinced that doing this would make us exponentially more effective as leaders. It may even yield that fifty-seven percent increase in discretionary effort and twenty percent improvement in individual productivity that I’ve been referring to throughout this look at leading with a clear purpose and through most of What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!)... And if we’re willing to explain exactly how we’re willing to help our team members grow in their roles to achieve this clear purpose, we may even be able to sustain those increases. With that in mind, we’ll wrap up this look at how we can help our team members identify and work toward a clear purpose next.