Leading Everyday, On Purpose!

That last question was NOT rhetorical! Are you really willing to go the extra mile to identify the clear purpose that drives you? Are you really willing to provide the kind of clarity around your organization’s purpose that each team member understands how the work they do contributes and exactly who benefits from it? And are you really willing to help them see who they’re impacting as they work to achieve a clear purpose of their own - one that you’ve helped them connect back to your organizational purpose?

Much of what we’ve looked at through this process may seem soft, or even touchy-feely… Don’t be fooled by what far too many hard-ass executives use as an excuse to avoid developing the kind of real leadership and influence with their teams that gets measurable results. For close to a decade now, I’ve closed every lesson that Cindy and I share by challenging everyone we’re with to detail the one thing they can put in place right away that will have an immediate impact on the productivity and profitability within their area of responsibility. Before leaving you with that same challenge here, I want you to consider one last time how much of a tangible impact you can have by earning your team’s engagement by leading with a clear purpose. One last time, here’s the piece from the Harvard Business Review article called Things They Do For Love, that I’ve been sharing with every group I speak with:

“Company leaders won’t be surprised that employee engagement—the extent to which workers commit to something or someone in their organizations—influences performance and retention. But they may be surprised by how much engagement matters. Increased commitment can lead to a 57% improvement in discretionary effort—that is, employees’ willingness to exceed duty’s call. That greater effort produces, on average, a 20% individual performance improvement and an 87% reduction in the desire to pull up stakes, according to the Corporate Leadership Council, which surveyed more than 50,000 employees in more than 59 organizations worldwide.”

By simply asking folks in each group, all of whom have been top performers in their respective organizations, to compare their own discretionary effort for the worst manager they’ve work for to the best leader they’ve worked for, I’ve seen to wrinkled forehead and scowls of doubt for this strong statement immediately replaced by heads nodding in agreement. Don’t misunderstand this as me suggesting some sort of scheme to get rich quick by manipulating your team. It’s anything but that. If anything, the work required will be more difficult at any given time. But the long term results, as well as the fulfillment we gain as leaders, will dwarf what we’d ever hope to achieve any other way. Do to this well over time, we need to always remember that everything we do as we lead with a clear purpose has to be ON PURPOSE!