Purpose
Welcome to another year, and another round of jokes about not keeping New Year’s resolutions. To-wit: The 13 funniest tweets about New Year’s resolutions.
All joking aside, those who will make this year a true success are not focused on their New Year’s resolutions – about what they will start doing or stop doing. Instead, they are focused on their why. They’ve taken the time to connect the dots of who they are with what they do. And that is a very powerful motivator.
This year, don’t resolve to do two or three small things differently. Instead, take the time to connect with your why. What can you do to make an enduring impact? Here are three simple questions to get you started.
1. What did you want to be before the world ‘should’ on you? You know. “You should go into accounting.” “You should take over your father’s law practice.” “You should study medicine.” As Mark Albion writes in More Than Money, “It’s easy to slide into a career that matches your skills but not your deepest desires. When you get good at something you don’t want to do, you feel as if you’re dying a little bit each day – that your soul is being sucked out of you. Worse yet, it takes time to realize what’s going on.”
2. What did you want to do when you were eleven or twelve? In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham suggests that we remember our ‘yearnings’. He writes, “Perhaps because of your genes, or your early experiences, as a child you found yourself drawn to some activities and repelled by others. While your brother was chasing his friends around the yard, you settled down to tinker with the sprinkler head, pulling it apart so that you could figure out how it worked. Your analytical mind was already making its presence known.” Your purpose is hiding right beneath the surface of your life. It threads between the major events of your life and opens windows of opportunity.
3. What legacy do you want to leave? Author Michael Gerber takes this idea to an extreme in his book, The E-Myth Revisited. He asks that you imagine attending your own funeral. All of your friends, your family, and your business associate are there. Picture yourself lying in the box in the center of the room, then listen. Imagine what your colleagues would say about you. Would they talk about the margins you gained? The deals you closed? The efficiencies you implemented? Or, would they talk about the value you left behind? How you helped them grow? How they are better off because they knew you? Starting today, you have the power to shape these conversations.
Rather than rushing to the gym or buying an organizer, take some time this month to connect with your why. There’s no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Find your passion. Connect with your why. Work on purpose.
Question: Do you know someone who is guided by a clear sense of purpose? What differences do you see in their daily behavior?
Interested in finding your WHY? Watch my SUE Talk about the importance of placing significance over success and connecting who you are with what you do.
![Simon Sinek Explains the Trust Gap in Your Organization]()
Purpose
In the third most popular TED Talk of all time, Simon Sinek inspired leaders to reconnect with their organizational why. In just 18 minutes and with a rough sketch of concentric circles on a flip chart, Sinek shared what he said was “probably the world’s simplest idea.” Most organizations focus on what they do and how they do it. But only the most inspired organizations have leaders who start with why they do it first. And for companies like Apple, and people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Wright Brothers, starting with why was the fundamental difference between success and obscurity.
In a less popular but equally profound TED Talk, Sinek turned again to the flip chart. In “First why and then trust,” Sinek illustrates why organizations must clarify and codify their why. Imagine a simple x, y graph. At the (0,0) coordinates, where x and y meet, is the genesis of an organization. At (0,0), x equals what and y equals, well, why. At that genesis, the what and the why are perfectly aligned. When a company launches, the founders are inspired by a big idea. They put some money together, and off they go.
At first, it’s easy for the founders to share their vision with their handful of employees. Customers are soon attracted and life is good. The what and the why lines grow in parallel on the chart. But, as Sinek explains, “the single biggest challenge that an organization will ever face is its own success.” Here’s why. The more successful an organization becomes, the more people it has to hire based on what they do. The company’s what keeps growing. “The problem is,” Sinek explains, “why they do it starts to go fuzzy.” And as the what and why lines separate, a trust gap occurs.
Consider this example that Sinek gives about trust in America since World War II:
The country rallied together to fight in a war in which they were united and unified behind a common cause. After the war, veterans took advantage of the GI Bill to get low-interest loans or cover tuition to attend college or trade schools. When they entered the job market, they applied the same sense of loyalty to their companies as they had to their country. “The problem is,” says Sinek, “as we started to become more affluent, and the wealth of country started to grow, that sense of purpose — that sense of trust — didn’t grow with it.”
Sinek goes on to describe how trust continued to fall through the 1960’s (the hippie movement), the 1970’s (the Me generation), the 1980’s (think greed is good), and the 1990’s (the dot.com bubble). Over the decades, the country became more and more affluent, but lost touch with its sense of purpose.
Here’s the key takeaway for your organization: the answer to why your organization exists can no longer be simply, “to make a profit.” If you don’t codify, clarify and deploy your why, you’ll have an unsustainable business model and no competitive advantage.
Question: Do you know your organization’s “why”?
Do you know how to codify, clarify, and deploy your organizational purpose? Get our Summer special of 15% off a 2-hour workshop on What’s Your ROP? (Return on Purpose) between now and September 31, 2017. Get a list of available dates and learn more about the program by emailing me directly at info@executiveexcellence.com. [Read more about our Purpose Alignment services.]
![Simon Sinek Explains the Trust Gap in Your Organization]()
Purpose
Organizational success doesn’t happen by luck. It’s intentional. As author and noted TED Speaker Simon Sinek tells us, those that succeed in the long-term are clear not only about what they do, and how they do it — they’re also crystal clear about their why.
Next week, I will be co-facilitating The Re:Imagine Leadership Summit with Dr. Tony Baron. It’s a day that will include candid conversations with executives from a variety of purpose-driven organizations. They’ll share their why, along with stories about how they lead high-performance organizations grounded in purpose.
It is my honor to introduce you to our Purpose Panel executives, and to invite you to join us to hear them in person at the Summit.
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JOE MUSSELMAN
In 2012, just 13% of Navy SEALs had job offers when they got out of the service. By comparison, 98% of Wharton MBA graduates received 2-3 job offers at graduation. That was an injustice that Joe Musselman set out to correct in 2013 that led to the launch of The Honor Foundation. THF is a world-class, 120-hour, MBA-style nonprofit program that helps Navy SEALs and other Special Operations forces successfully transition from military service and back into the corporate world. To date, THF has graduated 200 Fellows, including 1 of only 5 women SEALs in the world. Their goal is to impact 65,000 members of the Special Ops community by 2020. The program begins with 4 weeks of purpose training to help the students get grounded in their why before they move on to what’s next.
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RACHELLE SNOOK
You may know WD-40 as the blue and yellow can that sits under the sink, in the garage, and in the toolboxes of every household in the America. What you may not know, is that the WD-40 “tribe” is a purpose-driven, high-performing culture. Rachelle Snook, WD-40’s Global Talent Acquisition Manager has played an integral role in that dedication to culture. She carefully recruits candidates for culture fit, and she helps new members transition into the tribe. From Day One, she makes sure every tribe members knows their potential career path, including salary ranges, for any position they are interested in applying for. With an annual employee engagement index of over 90%, Rachelle knows first-hand how purpose maximization is connected to profit maximization.
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DAMIAN MCKINNEY
When Damian McKinney began his career in commercial real estate over 35 years ago, he noticed two framed posters in a senior executive’s office: one said “Poverty Sucks” and the other said “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Against that backdrop, Damian has insisted on reclaiming leadership and redefining success. He used his parents for inspiration and worked to model what they had instilled in him – that leaders have a responsibility to use their power to benefit others. To use their position to be of service to their team, to their organizations, and to the community at large. As Founder and CEO of McKinney Advisory Group, Damian uses his global platform to teach others about his purpose driven approach to leadership.
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DEAN CARTER
Although he looks like he walked off the pages of a Patagonia catalogue, Dean Carter took an unlikely path to end up there two years ago. He started his career at well-known retail brands like Pearle Vision, Pier 1 Imports, and Fossil. Just before joining Patagonia, he was the Chief HR Officer for Sears Holdings Corporation. Suffice it to say, Dean has worked for organizations where operating efficiency and return on shareholder value far outweighed social and environmental responsibility. His background gives him a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on the impact of culture on performance. Today, he uses his insight to help Patagonia live out its mission statement: to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire, and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
Question: How would you calculate the ROP (return on purpose) at your organization?
![Simon Sinek Explains the Trust Gap in Your Organization]()
Purpose
Yesterday, I had the honor of speaking at the American Public Transit Authority Annual CEOs Summit in San Diego. The Summit was attended by about 150 public transit executives from across the country.
Like many other industries in the U.S., public transit faces an uncertain future. Regulatory uncertainty – where does public transit fit in the new Administration’s infrastructure plan? Macroeconomic uncertainty – when the economy is up, gas and cars are affordable, so transit ridership is down. Disruptive uncertainty – will ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft complement or erode public transit services?
No industry is immune. Uncertainty will remain high for the foreseeable future. Forecasts are likely to be wrong. The world is no longer predictable or stable.
During times of uncertainty, it is the leader’s role to bring order to chaos, calm nerves, and manifest a non-anxious presence. One of the most effective ways to do this, is to reground people around organizational purpose. Now is the time to clarify and renew your commitment to the bigger impact – collectively – that your organization is making in the world.
To that end, I challenge you to honestly assess where your organization falls in the 5 Levels of Purpose:
Level 1: Our organization has not clarified or codified its purpose.
Level 2: I couldn’t tell you what our purpose is without looking on the website – and that’s probably true for most of our employees as well.
Level 3: Our organization has a purpose, but we don’t actively use it to inspire employees.
Level 4: Our organization has a purpose that inspires our employees, but we don’t take purpose into account when making business decisions.
Level 5: Our organization has a clearly defined purpose that is hardwired into our DNA. It inspires our employees and guides our business decisions.
If your answer fell between Levels 1 through 3, you have an untapped resource that will help you stabilize your team, and inspire them to work together to make a collective impact. If you answered Level 4, work to hardwire purpose into your business decisions. Think about what you measure, what you reward, and what you ignore. Are they in line with your organizational purpose?
Level 5 companies like Patagonia call purpose “Our Reason for Being”. At Level 5, you’re not immune from uncertainty, but you are clear about why the world is better off because your organization exists. Having clarity of purpose is like having a North Star. It will keep you on your path, and help you make decisions that will sustain you through the chaos.
Question: Have you worked for an organization with a clear sense of purpose? How did that impact you as an employee?
Interested in getting more content like this? Subscribe to CEE News!
CEE News is designed to help you with the challenges you face every day by sharing infographics, white papers, best practices, and spotlighting businesses that are getting it right. I hope you’ll subscribe to CEE News and it becomes a resource that continually adds value to your walk as a leader. If I can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
![Simon Sinek Explains the Trust Gap in Your Organization]()
Purpose
It’s only the 3rd of January, and already the jokes about not keeping New Year’s resolutions are flying. London’s Telegraph just posted “The 13 funniest tweets about New Year’s resolutions.”
Those who will make 2017 a true success are not focused on their New Year’s resolutions – about what they will start doing or stop doing. Instead, they are focused on their why. They’ve taken the time to connect the dots of who they are with what they do. And that is very powerful motivator.
This year, don’t resolve to do two or three small things differently. Instead, take the time to connect with your why. What can you do to make an enduring impact? Here are three simple questions to get you started.
1. What did you want to be before the world ‘should’ on you? You know. “You should go into accounting.” “You should take over your father’s law practice.” “You should study medicine.” As Mark Albion writes in More Than Money, “It’s easy to slide into a career that matches your skills but not your deepest desires. When you get good at something you don’t want to do, you feel as if you’re dying a little bit each day – that your soul is being sucked out of you. Worse yet, it takes time to realize what’s going on.”
2. What did you want to do when you were eleven or twelve? In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham suggests that we remember our ‘yearnings’. He writes, “Perhaps because of your genes, or your early experiences, as a child you found yourself drawn to some activities and repelled by others. While your brother was chasing his friends around the yard, you settled down to tinker with the sprinkler head, pulling it apart so that you could figure out how it worked. Your analytical mind was already making its presence known.” Your purpose is hiding right beneath the surface of your life. It threads between the major events of your life and opens windows of opportunity.
3. What legacy do you want to leave? Author Michael Gerber takes this idea to an extreme in his book, The E-Myth Revisited. He asks that you imagine attending your own funeral. All of your friends, your family, and your business associate are there. Picture yourself lying in the box in the center of the room, then listen. Imagine what your colleagues would say about you. Would they talk about the margins you gained? The deals you closed? The efficiencies you implemented? Or, would they talk about the value you left behind? How you helped them grow? How they are better off because they knew you? Starting today, you have the power to shape these conversations.
Rather than rushing to the gym or buying an organizer, take some time this month to connect with your why. There’s no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Find your passion. Connect with your why. Work on purpose.
Question: Do you know someone who is guided by a clear sense of purpose? What differences do you see in their daily behavior?
Interested in finding your WHY? Watch my recent SUE Talk on the importance of placing significance over success and connecting who you are with what you do.
Interested in getting more content like this? Subscribe to CEE News!
CEE News is designed to help you with the challenges you face every day by sharing infographics, white papers, best practices, and spotlighting businesses that are getting it right. I hope you’ll subscribe to CEE News and it becomes a resource that continually adds value to your walk as a leader. If I can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
![Simon Sinek Explains the Trust Gap in Your Organization]()
Purpose
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced an audacious goal. Before a joint session of Congress, Kennedy laid out a compelling vision: to put a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade.
It is estimated that on the night of that speech we knew only about 15% of what we needed to accomplish that goal. But on July 20, 1969, millions of people around the world watched in awe as Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.
In the eight years between President Kennedy’s and Commander Armstrong’s profound words, nearly 500,000 people, through dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance, worked tirelessly to reach that goal. It was something that many, including Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center, were not sure could be reached. What was it about Kennedy’s words that stirred so many to achieve this nearly impossible feat?
“Kennedy invited us into a cause,” write Kevin and Jackie Freiberg in their book Cause! “He asked us to be part of something BIGGER, to bring our gifts and talents to solve a problem,” they write. In short, it galvanized half a million people around a purpose.
The question of purpose — the need to connect the why to the what and how — is the essence of what it means to exist. It’s the question of insatiably curious 4-year olds. It’s the question young adults seek to answer when traditional education falls short. It’s the question on the minds of the Millennial workforce, today’s consumers, and discerning shareholders when considering whether to work for, buy from, or invest in your company.
Today’s organizations sit at a tipping point. The answer to the question of why a company exists can no longer be simply “to make a profit.”
Consider these trends behind this tipping point:
- 3.6 billion people along with their shared knowledge, social contacts, and computing power are rapidly becoming a collective force of unprecedented power.
- 73% of Millennials believe businesses can have a positive social impact on the world, and they are optimistic about playing a role in that change.
- 90% of U.S. consumers say they would switch brands to one associated with a cause, given comparable price and quality.
- 20% of shareholder-sponsored proposals of U.S. public companies focus on environmental and social concerns.
Traditional business based on the factory model is dying. Factories are filled with bureaucracy and clock watchers. Factories are focused on the what and the how. Successful organizations of the 21st century thrive in the why. They are driven by engaged people who know that their collective effort has meaning beyond a paycheck.
The case for defining and living your organizational purpose has never been more compelling. Today’s workforce, consumers, and shareholders don’t want to buy what you do. They want to buy into what you do. Find your inner compass and get clear about why the world is better because you exist.
Question: Have you worked for an organization with a clear sense of purpose? How did that impact you as an employee?
Whether you’re a start up, or you need a restart, we can help you connect to the backbone of what you exist to do. Check out our Purpose Alignment services or email me at snasim@executiveexcellence.com directly to set-up a free 30 minute consultation.
