They seem like simple questions, but in practice they are not. Many organizations continue to be challenged in having a clearly defined organizational purpose. The purpose is much stronger than the mission. The mission answers us why we exist, the purpose answers us how we impact, what we solve at the community level, with our collaborators, with the country, in short, with society in general.
Hence the importance that every organization has a clear definition of the purpose and adopts it as daily management to cause a sustainable impact of the business.
And who is responsible for creating, communicating, explaining, continuously reinforcing the purpose? Exactly, the main leader, the CEO. His primary responsibility is to create a purpose in which all employees, at all levels, are passionate about the clear contribution the organization makes to society, and that the organization promotes a high level of engagement by them.
Because of its impact, I always recommend organizations build a clear purpose, rather than focus on defining their mission. A purpose is of high impact, sustainability and an invaluable element of contribution to the values of the environment, social and corporate governance of the company (ASG / ESG).
Several investigations conclude that the purpose has a strong correlation with the level of engagement of the collaborators. In turn, we know that a high engagement has a positive and significant correlation with strong financial performance.
Employees look for decisions and leadership styles they can be proud to endorse, and they gravitate toward companies that have a clear, unequivocal, and positive impact on the world. This is an important feature of generation millennial and especially generation Z.
Purpose becomes personal and emotional
Like the vision, the purpose together with the organizational values are the pillars to build a high-impact organization, a sustainable organization, as long as there is a constant reinforcement of the main leader, and of his executive team, in the congruence of what he says and what he does. In other words, they are directly responsible for creating the alignment of everyone in the organization.
This is not achieved through internal communication processes (this is just a reinforcer), it is achieved through congruence, words, behaviors and actions, of all the main leaders.
The construction of a purpose must consider the following aspects:
1. Make it TRUE: Align the same from the own perspective of the shareholders
Connecting purpose to the heart of your company means reassessing its core: the stakeholder perspective, the vision, the strategy they pursue, the operations that drive them, and the organization itself. The shareholder perspective is critical to sustainability.
2. Be INCLUSIVE
When everyone in the organization participates with their opinion, good things happen. Building purpose by giving opportunity for diverse voices to be heard creates a powerful force, a commitment, to being stewards and champions. In turn, with this they create inclusion, much discussed, but little demonstrated in many organizations.