Transforming The ELT (Part 1 of 5): Through PURPOSE
“What purpose do we serve in the world? In the market?”
“What would our industry look like if we didn’t exist?!”
“How are we going to distinguish ourselves in the marketplace?”
“How do we all rally around shared goals and have the whole of the organization rally around them, too?”
“How do we share in our collective impact/gains?”
These are the kinds of questions an enterprise leadership team asks, among many others.
And the answers do not come in a vacuum, or from a group of people with siloed perspectives. The answers come from an enterprise-wide, collective approach of engaging the entire team and organization, one that is challenged to look critically at their operations from a purpose-centric and values-based viewpoint.
For one of our clients who answered these questions, their answer was clear:
Net Promoter Score (NPS).
While this might not initially sound too inspiring, for them, this was the key – the thing their whole team could rally around, take shared responsibility for, and use to stand apart from others in their field. By everyone taking personal ownership around increasing the NPS, they felt a sense of pride and passion to elevate the guest experience. And when guests were happy, visitations increased, revenue increased, and EBITDA followed – a win-win for everyone. So much so, they won industry awards within the first year to prove it!
But wait…
What about the person in a back office role who is multiple layers away from any direct guest interaction? How would that individual contribute, and more so, how could they possibly share in this passion and purpose?
This is where a true enterprise leadership approach comes into play not only as a strategy, but also a mindset shift that changes one’s perspective, and therefore their behavior. When this shift happens, every single person across the organization begins to see themselves as an ambassador for the guest experience, a critical part of the whole – from the back-office line employees, to the guest-facing supervisors, all the way up to the C-suite.
In this fashion, everyone across the organization is a leader and an extension of each other’s Enterprise Leadership Team, taking accountability for not only their immediate responsibilities, but everyone else’s too, and ultimately the organization’s results and purpose for being.
How Do You See Yourself?
In another client scenario, when working with regional leaders in the same role across one organization, we challenged them to think differently about themselves and their roles. Though they were performing the same role and knew better than anyone what challenges the others faced, the reality was that they were competing for resources across multiple locations, geographies, and countries – working in their own separate silos, hoarding both their wins and their challenges to themselves, and operating in ways wholly disconnected from potential support or resources from others on their wider team. Even worse, this disconnect rolled up to senior leadership, making it almost impossible for data-driven decisions to be made for the whole of the organization.
So when those managers individually and collectively answered the questions at the beginning of this article, we learned some pretty crucial information about how they saw themselves:
the majority of them felt siloed in their efforts, and therefore lonely in their pursuits;
they were unsure of their purpose and even less sure of their support network;
they were not confident in their leadership capabilities;
they felt disconnected from the wider team;
and they felt under-resourced.
We also learned vital information about how they wanted to see themselves – as an integral part of the whole with a clear purpose and direction, united in their efforts, supported by each other with resources and knowledge, confident in their leadership skills and abilities, and engaged with others on their team.
We knew that in order to bridge this gap between where they felt they were and where they wanted to be, they required a different type of leadership approach. What they needed was not a siloed view of managing their separate entities, but rather a purpose-driven, holistic approach that allowed them to tackle their goals and challenges as one united front, sharing advice, stories, knowledge, ideas, resources and more along the way.
In short, they needed to take an Enterprise approach to the way they led.
And the first step in doing this, we quickly realized, was getting them united around a shared purpose – which, as my team defines it, is part of a team’s guiding light. Your purpose is your shared mission and vision for your company as a whole, the thing you are working towards, as well as the values and strategies according to which you operate.
We knew that if these regional managers could define and unite behind a shared purpose that tied back to their own personal purpose, they would be able to connect as teammates and collectively move forward together, taking an enterprise approach to how they faced their challenges. Doing this in turn provided clarity and empowerment in how they showed up as leaders, a shared sense of responsibility in finding solutions to issues and challenges, and a sense of camaraderie that trickled down into the wider organization.
And herein lies the true lesson of the work we did with this team: When everyone considers themselves a leader and takes an enterprise view of their role, they inherently share responsibility for the whole company’s success.
Which means no one is ever alone in their pursuits, resources are identified and accessed more easily, ideas flourish, burn-out is reduced because the weight of reaching goals is shared, and teams are more connected and supportive because they’re all united around that vital, foundational element of a true enterprise team: Purpose.
As one article from the Harvard Business Review shares: “Purpose is not just a lofty ideal; it has practical implications for your company’s financial health and competitiveness. People who find meaning in their work don’t hoard their energy and dedication. They give them freely… They grow rather than stagnate. They do more – and they do it better.”
Aligning Around Purpose
From the organization as a whole, to the separate teams within it, down to each individual – when everyone is aligned around the same purpose, they become enterprise leaders, sharing their part in driving the company towards reaching its overarching goals.
Interested in understanding how well your own team is aligned around a shared purpose? The following statements can be rated on a scale of 1-4 (1 being strongly disagree and 4 being strongly agree). This is a great place to start along your journey toward being an enterprise leadership team, and you can have your teammates answer them, as well.
Purpose: The critical ingredient of all high-performing, enterprise teams is shared purpose. When an entire team rallies around shared goals and strategies that directly align with the mission, vision and values of the organization, the momentum is unstoppable.
1. Our team has a clear purpose with a stated mission and vision that support the larger organization.
2. Our team’s mission, vision, and values align with my own personal purpose and values.
3. The organization’s values are central to decisions and behaviors across our team.
4. Our team has well-defined, shared goals and accountabilities that directly contribute to the organization’s strategy.
5. My individual goals and priorities align directly with our team’s goals and priorities.
As you move towards implementing an enterprise approach to leadership at all levels, here are also some tips for defining your team’s shared purpose and how to hold each other accountable towards it:
Get clear on shared team values – Values are the foundation of everything we do at the individual, team and organizational levels. When you’re clear on these, it will be easier to define your ways of working and leading moving forward.
Create compelling team goals and milestones – Creating goals and milestones that everyone can get behind not only creates a shared vision that can rally your team, but it also encourages a shared sense of achievement when these are met.
Share personal purpose and values with one another – Sharing your personal purpose invites others to connect with you as an individual, strengthening your bond as teammates and supporting a sense of camaraderie that will carry you through future challenges.
Recognize one another based on individual values – Recognizing one another based on individual values shows that you care about people for who they are, which further encourages connection, transparency, and collaboration on your team, allowing you to unite behind a shared purpose.
Be sure to look out for next month’s article, the second in our 5-month series around Transforming the ELT by way of our proprietary PRIDE model, where we’ll focus on the importance of Roles when building an enterprise team.
Integrated Growth has been developing leaders, mobilizing teams, and transforming organizations since 1998. Founded by Gretchen Reid, their team of highly skilled consultants and executive coaches are known for building award winning leadership development programs, facilitating strategic planning and team development initiatives, and providing executive coaching to help you achieve your greatest mission. We invite you to schedule a free consultation or visit www.integratedgrowth.com for more information.
AUTHOR – Gretchen Reid is the Founder and Chief Change and Leadership Architect for Integrated Growth. She has spent over 25 years coaching leaders and creating award-winning Leadership and Talent Development Programs, directly contributing to multiple awards for her clients, including Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Forbes America’s Best Employers List, Forbes Best Employer for Diversity, and ASTD BEST. She is an Adjunct Professor of Change Management in the Strategic HR Masters Program, Denver University, University College. (MS, Career and Human Resource Development, Rochester Institute of Technology, BA, Psychology & Business Management, University of Rochester)