Harnessing The Power of Purpose

Photo credit: Alex Kotliarskyi of Unsplash.com

Harnessing The Power of Purpose

Leadership of any business must find clarity in their purpose beyond revenue. Of course, the bottom line is ever-so important to survival in our wacky economic times, but the man or woman on the assembly line must be able to see how they are valued in the overall scheme of things to fully adopt the Purpose Statement coming down from on high.

I found a great article that articulates this concept really well and I’d like to share the link with you here:

https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Five-ways-to-harness-the-power-of-purpose

The credentials of the authors for “Strategy+Business” are sound and experienced, and I think you will find their approach to this ongoing problem simple yet effective.

As I share my TRIP Technique ™ with my audiences I often talk about how Purpose can make or break how employees see their role in the company. To fully differentiate your business from your competitors you have to fully evaluate what makes you unique and why your customer should care.

When everyone from the CEO to the maintenance engineer are on the same page a sense of pride in your product or service will be very evident to your customers. Value creation begins with “pride of ownership” which is how you can stand out from the crowd.

It doesn’t really matter whether you are a one-man shop or have hundreds of employees, differentiating your company from everyone else in the industry is no small challenge, but by putting your own spin on who and what you are with down to earth language and implementation will make all the difference.

I often write here that you can have more than one purpose in your private life…a charity purpose, family purpose, or a hobby purpose, but in business it needs to be very precise, simple, and direct.

Remember these:

·       Got milk? (The California Milk Board)

·       Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s)

·       Built Ford tough! (Ford Motor Company)

·       Just do it (Nike)

·       The breakfast of champions (General Mills-Wheaties)

·       …and my favorite of all time the Hersey Company Almond Joy ad: “Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.”

I know that these are just product tag lines, but the same approach to your Purpose Statement will work just as well. Don’t use platitudes or clichés to get your point across because it will be recognized as not serious or productive. You can make it fun and serious if you work at it. Don't be in a rush, take your time for a quality Statement.

The old saying of you get out what you put in fits this challenge perfectly. Take time to make your Statement meaningful. Enlist the input from employees from all levels of your company, make it a contest, you may be surprised with what you get.

Remember to take a TRIP for a lifetime, not a trip of a lifetime.

In the end, it’s just one man’s opinion…mine.

Keith……