Doubling Up on Purpose

The word ‘Purpose’ has been so over-used in marketing circles. But here’s a fresh perspective on it: From employees.

If Purpose is about why an organisation does what it does. That ‘why’ can certainly be a source of inspiration for employees and give them ‘boasting rights’.

Here’s how.

At a major telecoms provider, their engineers and technicians in the past would have said that their jobs were to build mobile network base stations. Not a very exciting topic for a social conversation outside of work!

But when the Purpose of that organisation was expressed as ‘we’re building an all communicating world’ that sounded much more exciting. It gave their employees the opportunity to ‘boast’ about what they are contributing to us all. And that was motivating for them.

Beyond this, there’s a golden opportunity to motivate and inspire employees even more. It’s through combining your organisation’s Purpose with the Personal Purpose of everyone working there – in a tailored way.

AI neatly summarises everything that’s been written about Personal Purpose in this way:

It’s the overarching, meaningful reason for living that provides direction and meaning to one's life, often encompassing values, passions, and a desire to make a contribution beyond oneself.

Looking at those encompassing works in turn.

First Values. It’s certainly motivating for employees when the organisation’s values inspire their own personal values.

That’s why values need to have true personal meaning and not just be platitudes such as innovative, trust or integrity.

Vodafone is the best example of the inspiration that’s needed. Their words were Red, Rock Solid and Restless. That conjures up a clear image of what their employees need to be. The platitudinal alternatives would have been Passionate, Reliable and Energetic. Very boring!

Secondly Passion itself. So many leaders bemoan the fact that their employees aren’t as passionate about the organisation as they are. Maybe that’s due to leaders having more skin in the game so they must be passionate about the organisation’s success. But it’s more than that.

The mistake these leaders make is that passion amongst their people doesn’t come from thin air. Employees need to be given something to be passionate about. On a bigger scale this can relate back to why the organisation does what it does.  Being passionate about improving customers’ lives even in just a small way.

Passion is even deeper than that. It’s a key driver of what we do as humans. So, employees need to be encouraged to pursue their passion as much as possible within their working lives. This may be around a passion to always help others or to specialise in a particular function that excites them. Both should be encouraged.

Finally, Purpose itself. This is where alignment is most important.

Even in modest ways, most of us can choose the kind of work that we want to do. So, it’s crucial for prospective employers and employees to seek out a match.

Richard Hytner, Adjunct Professor at London Business School offers five tips on finding your Personal Purpose when pursuing a career. The last of these tips is that it’s not all about you. We should be more interested in other people’s Personal Purpose than just in our own. You’ll then learn a lot more about them and see how to help each other.

Employers need to encourage this as well as employees between themselves.

Purpose isn’t about some lofty claim to attract customers. It needs to complement what employees are looking to achieve too.

Richard quotes a fellow LBS professor, saying prospective employees should ask themselves this: ‘which places are most likely to support and help me be myself more, with skill?’

When that works for all parties, it’s a true match. Mutual success will surely follow.

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