Have you ever met a championship-caliber basketball player under 6 feet tall? Or a horse jockey taller than 6 feet? Probably not . . . and there’s a reason. We’re all designed to do certain things well. I would say we’re designed for a specific purpose. When we go against that purpose, we fail or live in a state of mediocrity.
Business bodies are designed to do certain things well . . . for a specific purpose. When a business goes against its purpose, the business fails or provides a mediocre service/product to its clients. If we want to be champions in our niche market, we must follow what our business is designed to do!
Have You Lost Your Business Purpose?
Too many times, I’ve seen a business lose its purpose from what the founder originally intended. The business overwhelms them and they start hiring different people to fill various roles, changing the structure to meet demand, and creating incentives to drive the right behaviors. Much like in our personal lives, we lose our purpose when life overwhelms us. Even when we know we’re created for something greater and that our gifts and talents are underutilized; we take the path of least resistance, going against our instinct. We start taking different personas (different people), sometimes physically altering our body (changing structure), and rationalizing (creating incentives) how we got here.
One of my clients did just that! Their business was founded on serving their clients through a niche they formed. They grew and the business got complicated. They created various departments which created a silo’d structure. They hired people that did not fit their culture. They tried different incentives to drive performance but it didn’t work. They had lost their purpose and became stagnant! They needed help!
3 Things to Re-ignite Your Purpose!
The first thing I did with my client was help the leadership team create their Accountability Chart. During this exercise, they focused on the right structure for the company to take them to the next level . . . not the current structure they have now, not the structure based on their current people, but the right structure that will serve them well (their purpose). We also identified the key roles for each major function. It’s amazing what discussions happen when you do these simple things. They found root causes of issues (miscommunication, customer complaints, process breakdowns) from how they were structured. Your company has an ideal structure, just like we have an ideal body structure for our specific purpose. It takes discovering it through dialogue with your leadership team.
Then I helped them define their Core Values. Once they had their structure and roles crystal clear, we defined what behaviors they wanted from their people; instead of others defining the behaviors they wanted. I used a tool called the People Analyzer to test what are true Core Values to them (the “who”), not Aspirational or Permission-to-Play Values.
Then I helped them discover their Core Focus. The Core Focus is broken up into two main categories: 1) Purpose, Cause or Passion, and 2) Niche. The first part is going back to their initial purpose or re-discovering a higher level purpose that has evolved for the business. It’s defining what the business is designed to do (the “why”)! The second part is defining the unique service you provide in the market that you serve through your purpose (the “what”).
So once you know who you are (Core Values), what you do (Niche), and why you do it (Purpose), it forms the soul of your organization.
Are You Ready for Significance?
Imagine you have the right structure . . . the structure you were designed for, not a structure fabricated by the demands outside of your purpose. Everyone is functioning in their roles using their own unique abilities.
Imagine everyone on your team aligned with the same values, exhibiting behaviors that define your culture.
Imagine having clarity on your purpose and your team driving every effort towards that purpose.
What would your company look like? How would your employees’ lives be enhanced? What kind of impact would you make with your clients?
So Ask Yourself
Has your business lost its purpose? Take the first step by looking at your structure to see if you’ve created a business body that doesn’t serve your purpose. You will be surprised at what issues pop up from that discovery process.
Take the Organizational Checkup to gauge the health of your company! For more information on creating a healthy business lifestyle, read about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
To Your Business Health!