Without individual purpose, there is no personal vision to align to the organisational vision. Thus, the second powerful step in getting alignment is to help our employees discover their purpose in life, understanding that the purpose is often transitory and may change every 3-7 years or so. Not unlike an organisational vision, really.
They are then able to use their capability and experience and personal leadership skills to set a course for themselves, and for their teams, that is aligned with the vision and mission. For many other people, however, this is not enough. Despite our best efforts of communicating, we do not click with their personal “what’s in it for me?” factors.
A key part of maintaining an organization’s alignment to its mission and vision is to create a framework and processes that are consistent and intentional and in which mission and vision are at the center of all interactions. With that goal in mind, let’s take a look at a specific way an organization can keep mission and vision front and center.
Not unlike an organisational vision, really. Personal visions usually encompass something about financial, family or social wellbeing. Usually, outcomes of the organisational strategy to achieve the vision can be reframed to show how achieving those organisational outcomes can closely support personal visions.
People2Strategy recognizes that each employee presents individual opportunities and provides supervisors with the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate workable interventions.
People2Strategy provides a competency driven framework for leaders, at all levels, to develop the attributes required to lead for success.
Aligning a sense of purpose between a company’s leaders and its employees is easier said than done. Many teams work in a state of confusion or ignorance about their company’s overarching goals. In fact, according to a study by Strategy&, only 28% of workers feel connected to a sense of purpose in their workplace.
Conversely, purpose has a galvanizing effect on all team members when it’s lifted up and prioritized at the executive level, and simply being exposed to a clear sense of purpose can be transformative.
What does a purpose-driven company look like, and how can leaders help create one? Here are three starting points that will empower you to connect your team members to their sense of purpose — before they start drifting away:
The starting point is to have a vision and a mission. Let me be particular here: when I say vision, I mean several sentences that describe what it is like for our clients, employees, the general public – and regulators, if necessary – to work with us. It also describes our position in the world, all in present tense. I do not mean a memorable sentence or phrase that has been wordsmithed so much to become so pithy that it loses meaning, because the value each word holds may be interpreted so differently by different people. Unfortunately, as a side issue, this remains the norm for vision statements.
Not unlike an organisational vision, really. Personal visions usually encompass something about financial, family or social wellbeing. Usually, outcomes of the organisational strategy to achieve the vision can be reframed to show how achieving those organisational outcomes can closely support personal visions.
Thus, the second powerful step in getting alignment is to help our employees discover their purpose in life, understanding that the purpose is often transitory and may change every 3-7 years or so. Not unlike an organisational vision, really.
Most engagement surveys I see, however, only provide lag indicators of engagement, with little information discernable in the data to inform how to engage our employees such that enough of them can see alignment between their personal desires and the organisation’s vision and mission. In other words, you might learn whether or not your people are engaged, but not how to go on and engage them properly.
In my experience, getting increased alignment between employees’ visions for themselves and the organisational vision presupposes employees have a vision for themselves in the first place. My observation is that this is often missing. People, as a rule, don’t discover their purpose in life until late in life, if at all; the ones that do are usually too busy going out disrupting entire industries to bother spending time working for us.
A key part of maintaining an organization’s alignment to its mission and vision is to create a framework and processes that are consistent and intentional and in which mission and vision are at the center of all interactions.
That’s what a leader wants in the first place: to connect daily practice with purpose. As employees understand what constitutes the types of activities and events that the organization publishes or communicates, they will embark on activities that are story-worthy and offer their own ideas.
In order to share inspiring mission-driven stories, put these strategies in place: 1. Establish Agreement on What Comprises Mission-driven Behavior. Leaders should identify what it means to act in a way that strives to fulfill the mission of the organization.