Why Purpose?
On a personal level, a strong sense of purpose improves effectiveness, satisfaction and overall well-being. On a professional level, it enhances productivity, resilience, and employee retention. It promotes a sense of ownership of one’s role and responsibilities. Among leaders it is undoubtedly one of the intangible qualities that draws others in and inspires commitment, hard work and results.
The suggestion (increasingly debated), that Millennials seek greater meaning in their work has been well-publicised. Millennials value “opportunities to learn and grow” in evaluating their career, according to Gallup (2016). Over half of millennials would avoid working in a particular sector if they believed it had a negative social impact, according to a PwC poll.
The absence of clear purpose can lead to corporate misbehaviour, low job satisfaction and increasing labour turnover. This paper from the Brookings Institute argues that the focus on shareholder value as the sole purpose of business has encouraged corporate misbehaviour. The chief economist for employer-review website Glassdoor writes that “one of the most striking results we’ve found is that, across all income levels, the top predictor of workplace satisfaction is not pay: It is the culture and values of the organization…”
Business, Purpose and the Creation of Social Value
Not all businesses have noble, awe-inspiring purpose. Yet the potential to dramatically improve lives while also generating a healthy profit is perhaps the most compelling motivation for businesses today.
Businesses are increasingly recognising the vast opportunities to engage in meeting the world’s unmet needs (water, food, housing, sanitation, healthcare, education, etc) while simultaneously advancing their own commercial objectives. Sadly, much of this discussion is still side-lined to the realm of CSR or sustainability, and thus not prioritised at the level of business decision-making.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), formulated by the United Nations, is one significant attempt to engage the international business community more directly into purpose-driven commercial activities. Yet progress toward achieving results on the SDG's has been slow and sentiment is largely pessimistic as highlighted in this two-year anniversary review by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
This year at the United Nations General Assembly week, "Purpose" seemed to be a buzzword for corporate attendees. As reported by the New York Times, the invitation to business leaders was to "galvanize a movement of businesses with purpose at its heart." Though it was not clear that many knew what that meant in practical terms, beyond the public relations value.
Leaders who ignore these trends however are not just missing out on potential business opportunities, they risk alienating or driving away the best talent. In our experiential leadership programmes, we have seen countless times how a genuine sense of purpose can be the critical turning point for teams working through difficult periods and seeking to secure commitments from others.
