Mission focused6/21/2023 ![]() Five Reasons Purpose-Driven Leadership is so Effective Mission-driven leadership comes from the heart. It requires talent and confidence. Mission-driven leaders teach managers how to align daily operations with the company's purpose, and they encourage understanding and passion for that mission among all employees. Nike is also extremely focused on their mission statement - “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” In fact, so ingrained is their mission that executives will unabashedly work the corporate mission statement into regular conversation. According to an interview in Fortune magazine, "The effect is something like actors in a musical suddenly breaking out into song: You know you’re witnessing a rehearsed performance, but it’s an effective one". “There’s a beautiful sifting and sorting process that happens with people who’ve been around the mission for a really long time.” The result is passionate employees who make decisions with the highly effective question: "What would Oprah do?" "Facebook’s mission is to give everyone in the world the power to share, and to make the world more open and connected. Connecting the world is one of the fundamental challenges of our generation, so this is a long-term effort. As long as we stay focused on that mission, we’re going to keep attracting talented people who share the same goal and want to make it a reality."Īnother business leader who fervently follows the mission in everything she does is Oprah Winfrey. As the founder of the OWN network, she makes all her decisions through her purpose (in fact, her purpose is so famous even her followers refer to it as the"Church of Oprah"). All of her employees, especially her two top executives, are entrenched in the mission. Read any interview with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, and he will always refer to the mission. He credits Facebook's achievement of expanding from 1,700 to 12,000 employees in five years, and still having a high performing culture, to adherence the mission. In a Fast Company interview Zuckerberg said: They boldly affirm what the company hopes to achieve and push toward the desired results. Mission-driven leaders help all employees and managers understand why their company exists. Some of the worlds most revered and successful leaders have all been zealous in their pursuit of their company purpose, but also in ensuring employees share the same enthusiasm. How Facebook, OWN and Nike Inspire their Workforce While these research findings might seem surprising to many, the reality is many of our top leaders have been inspiring their vast workforces with a noble purpose for decades. Properly articulated, a clear purpose makes it much easier to create new strategies and improve the allocation of resources, budgets and time. Without clarity of purpose, organisations waste enormous amounts of time and resources doing ‘busy work’ that leads to the wrong outcomes. Yet, most companies have a mission that does little to generate excitement or align a workforce to a compelling reason for being. They are often ambiguous and confusing. ![]() Employees who love their jobs are more productive, loyal and cost the company less over the long term. It also creates a high performance environment. According to Imperative’s research, purpose-oriented employees are 54% more likely to stay at a company for more than five years and 30% more likely to be high performers than those who work for a pay cheque. The reason it is so powerful is because it's the why - the emotional connection the business has to the world. Why the company exists. It's an outside-in perspective, rather than the more common inside-out approach used by most organisations. Humans are emotional beings and they buy-in to their workplace based on how much the purpose resonates with their own values. This is not a feel-good statement. It actually works towards pulling people forward especially in difficult times (and good). It helps people make better decisions and it generates tremendous energy that aligns everyone together towards a common cause. One of the common attributes of companies that have high performance workplace cultures is that they have a clear, well-specified purpose that states both how and why the company makes a positive impact to the world. It's their fundamental reason for existence beyond just making money. ![]()
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