Are your employees just working or are they truly contributing?

As we have uncovered the two secrets to building a cohesive and motivated culture, safety and vulnerability, it’s time for the third and final ingredient - purpose.

Finding your company’s purpose

A unifying purpose drives culture.

“Purpose is not a mere tagline or marketing campaign; it is a company’s fundamental reason for being – what it does every day to create value. Purpose is not the sole pursuit of profits but the animating force for achieving them.” — Larry Fink, BlackRock Investments.

A purpose doesn’t need to be incredibly specific, but it should serve as your lighthouse - the inspirational motive that supports everything your employees do.

For example, at FABA Technology, our purpose is not about providing the right team, it’s to deliver the best quality of codes and strive to be the top Offshore Development service provider in the region.

Why it’s necessary to drive your employees with purpose

Research from Deloitte shows that “mission-driven” companies have 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of retention. Here’s a clearer look at how.

For starters, a purpose-driven culture encourages employees to feel empowered and, as a result, give their best at their job. They will be more productive, engaged, and driven in this setting.

A purpose-driven culture prioritizes ****staff growth ****and development while also promoting experimentation and innovation. This will boost organizational agility and speed up changes.

Furthermore, employees who are involved with their company's purpose are considerably more likely to stay in their employment for a longer period of time, which improves retention rates.

How do you establish your purpose?

Name and rank your priorities Leaders must develop a clear vision and objective, and prioritizing tasks is frequently the first step. The most important endeavor is to develop and sustain the organization itself.

Over-communicate your priorities When the purpose is communicated with clarity, both individual and financial performance improve. Employees need to feel the purpose in their work and understand how their job and duties contribute to the overall success of the company. Employees that are motivated by a higher purpose will be more engaged and will be able to work more autonomously and productively.

Figure when to be proficient and when to be creative Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar, regards the two teams that every company has as the Ugly Baby and the Hungry Beast. Ugly Baby represents new ideas, they need nurturing – effort, time, and patience – to grow and become beautiful. The Beast, on the other hand, is the need to keep producing new stuff and products while reducing the cost to the minimum. While continuous output is important for enterprise sustenance, making something great should be the goal. Ed suggests that the key is to maintain a balance between the need to keep producing, while also protecting new ideas from being exposed to the ‘Beasts’ too quickly, in order for the new ideas to achieve true greatness.

Embrace the catchphrase Encourage your team to identify a fun catchphrase that clarifies your mission and purpose. This will be memorable to the team and nudge their behavior towards what you seek to achieve.

Focus on bar-setting behaviors It is often the simplest of habits that lead to large differences in an outcome. Leaders should focus on these details and reward the hard, behind-the-scenes work done by members of the team. This work often sets the bar for the entire team effort.

Measure what really matters

Here at FABA, we use a goal-setting system called OKR — short for Objectives and Key Results. As the name implies, it has two components:

• Objectives - the goals you want to achieve: it should be short, engaging, motivational, and challenging
• Key Results - a set of quantitative and measurable metrics that measure your progress: one objective should have a set of 2 to 5 key results

The 5Ps of establishing purpose

Not the 4Ps Pizza, though having a pizza Friday should be a great start for building your company’s culture.

Purpose should be systemic and rational, but also emotional; it should resonate with members of your organization and inform their decision-making. A team at McKinsey Insights has come up with The 5Ps framework that organizations can use to make purpose real, steer clear of blowback, and unlock meaningful value.

**1. Portfolio strategy and products: “**what” your business provides, the “where to play” and “how to play” choices you make to best serve your customers

2. People and culture: the talents and the talent management you deploy

3. Processes and systems: the operation you adapt to meet your targets and how you ensure that everyone in the organization is in line with your purpose

4. Performance metrics: the objective measurements and incentives you use to assess your goals, how your company is going, and how you generate and distribute incentives to make your organization's mission tangible

5. Positions and engagements: how you align your external positions and affiliations to be consistent with, and consistently deliver on, the purpose your company has defined

These elements are depicted in the exhibit below.

Along with psychological safety and vulnerability, purpose creates pillars for building a healthy and prospering culture. Purpose is intangible, it must be felt and experienced. As you establish and communicate your purpose clearly within the organization, you are driving your business ahead by empowering and inspiring your people to become more productive and creative.