Creating a long-lasting strategic foundation for your organization is not easy. Many leaders struggle in creating a successful strategy—often because the organization’s purpose is not clear.
A good strategy offers clarity to stakeholders, both on what the company is doing and where it plans to go in the future. If the path is clear, measuring and monitoring the execution is far easier. A clear purpose statement summarizes why a company exists. It answers the questions: why is the organization needed, who are its customers, and what do they value? Without these answers, a strategy isn’t specific or actionable enough to show the what and the where.
This is the challenge. An unclear purpose statement can lead stakeholders, customers, employees, and even leaders to be unclear on what problems the organization solves and why they should care. Yet, in clarifying your organization’s purpose, you lay the groundwork for a solid strategic foundation and ensure the future success of the company.
Whether you are a new company in the early stages of development or a veteran organization reevaluating your strategy for today’s world, knowing how to identify, clarify, and communicate your purpose is essential in building a successful strategy.
Where Does Purpose Come From?
Purpose often comes from the heart and mind of the founder. Why did they start the company in the first place? What problem were they trying to address and what solution were they trying to provide to the world, to their audience?
Usually, an organization summarizes the answer to all of these big questions in a purpose statement. (Some people call this a mission statement. For the sake of this piece, I am not going to differentiate between the two as I find they overlap quite a bit.) Being the root of the organization’s identity, purpose statements typically do not change often. But they can and should be incrementally updated in order to provide clarity and new value for stakeholders.
This opportunity can arise when a purpose statement’s intent is unclear, when it is communicated poorly, or when it is outdated. Incremental changes such as these open up the possibility for diverse thinking, creativity, innovation, and even the possibility of including new stakeholders.
How Do You Create a Purpose Worth Existing For?
I’ve often worked with organizations that follow a purpose based on past values and ideas rather than taking the time to reflect on them or update them for the times. Many may think, this is the way things have always been, why change them now? Or perhaps that it’s too much work for a constantly changing world—if we update our purpose now, it could be out-of-date by tomorrow. These are all contributing factors to a lackluster and underperforming strategy.
But this is avoidable. To either create or clarify your purpose statement, you must ask yourself these questions:
- Why does the business exist? What is the problem it hopes to address or the solution it hopes to provide?
- Who is our audience? Who are our stakeholders? Are we clearly communicating the purpose to them? Do they understand it? Does it resonate with them?
- Can the purpose statement stand the test of time—will it live and be understood beyond its founder’s time within the organization?
- How will the purpose guide the day-to-day decisions and actions of the company?
Answer these questions, and you are on your way to a more specific and successful purpose statement—and, therefore, a stronger strategic foundation. Without both, you cannot provide value. An unclear purpose both confuses the stakeholders and robs you of the opportunity to attract the right talent and resources to execute your strategy. Remember, what is in the heart of the founder may be very different from the day-to-day implementation. This is why you should occasionally reevaluate and clarify your purpose statement to ensure relevancy.
How Do You Communicate Your Purpose?
A purpose statement should be short and simple, preferably around 12 words. It should be relatable, emotionally evocative, and memorable. You want your purpose statement to be easy to share, and to be shared often. Think creatively about the different ways and places that you can demonstrate your organization’s purpose.
The end goal is to connect with as many potential customers and stakeholders as possible. Every time someone interacts with your company, they should be invited to serve that purpose with you. Using both the founder’s story and use-case stories—how your organization actually lives out its purpose—can be an effective way of communicating your purpose. These are the elements that attract the right collaborators, and if you implement these consistently, your purpose will be effective.
Identifying, clarifying, and communicating your purpose may be challenging, but it is not impossible. In doing so, you lay the groundwork for a strong strategy that will propel your organization into the future. Refer back to your purpose in times of disruption, and in times of peace, to ensure that you are still fulfilling your purpose and that your purpose is still relevant. If this is not the case, it may be time to innovate your purpose once more.
For more on how to prepare for, create, and optimize your strategy, pre-order Dr. Baiya, Ron Price, and Professor Timothy Waema’s latest book Optimizing Strategy For Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive.
Originally published in Personal Excellence presented by HR.com. | Header Photo by Robert Stump on Unsplash.
