The Power Of Purpose – Aligning Your Team With A Shared Vision

As today’s business environment grows in complexity under the fog of uncertainty, leaders everywhere are facing ever increasing pressure to deliver results and outperform competitors.

Unfortunately, this pressure can cause leaders to lose sight of what drives long-term success and growth – communicating a vision that connects operational goals to a collective purpose.

An examination of organizations that are not just succeeding, but thriving under these same challenging conditions reveals a common pattern: employees in these organizations are committed to the organization’s long-terms goals thanks to a shared vision that defines the “why” behind their efforts.

This also reveals a fundamental truth about leadership in the 21^st century – with rise of emergent technologies like AI and automation, leadership is no longer just about assigning tasks or monitoring productivity.

It’s about creating and communicating a shared vision that fosters a sense of purpose between your employees’ daily actions and the long-term goals of your organization.

And leaders can create this kind of purpose-driven workplace environment through the following practices:

1. Communicate the impact of their contributions

As leaders, we have the luxury of understanding the context of our team’s collective efforts. But this isn’t always apparent to our employees.

So help them understand the impact of their efforts in driving the organization’s defined purpose.

2. Use stories to create emotional context:

If you’ve ever attended one of my keynotes or workshops, you know I love to share stories to illustrate key points. The reason for this is simple – stories create an emotional response in people.

So share stories of how your team’s efforts have positively impacted customers or other stakeholders.

3. Keep your purpose front and center in all you do

Your organization’s purpose is not something that’s only discussed at annual team meetings, but should be reinforced through your actions, words, and decisions every day. It should be a living part of your organizational DNA.

To succeed at leadership today requires an understanding that it’s no longer simply about what you can accomplish. It’s also about your ability to inspire people to do the extraordinary thanks to the power of purpose.