Leadership Success: Keeping Sight of Your Purpose
As an organisation starts to achieve success, it gets bigger and bigger and those in leadership roles can easily fall into the trap of losing sight of the core purpose of the organisation.
It is understandable that people in leadership roles can easily lose sight of the purpose. After all, they are often judged on:
- The delivery of short term profit targets.
- The pace at which they make change in the performance of the organisation.
- Their ability to hit a whole bundle of performance metrics.
- The speed at which they grow and deliver returns for investors.
So what’s the answer to this challenge? Truth is there is no easy answer but there are things that those in leadership roles can do to increase their chances of keeping sight of the purpose.
Go back to basics regularly
In all the hustle and bustle of the day to day running of an organisation, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of never standing back from the here and now and ask the question, why does the organisation exist.
The immediate response which most will come up with are things like to make profits, increase shareholder value, customer satisfaction to name just a few.
Trouble is all these things only occur if the business or organisation is addressing what it was set out to do, so it is worthwhile taking time periodically to make sure that everyone is clear on why the organisation exists at all. It will help in times of conflict, when making decisions both short term and long term and ensure that efforts are directed to what matters most.
Get out of your office
While major decisions might be taken in meetings in board rooms, the execution of those decisions takes place on the shop floor or frontline. Getting out of your office gives the opportunity to see first hand what impact decisions are having on the organisation and those that it is seeking to serve. It also gives a strong message that you care about the employees who are tasked with making the big decisions work day to day.
Remember that no one is bigger than the organisation
Unless you are the owner of the business and the person who is providing most of the finance chances are that your services or expertise can easily be dispensed with. While people bring their own unique expertise and skills, they can be replaced. Keeping focus on the results rather than your own personal agenda can greatly benefit when it comes to keeping the core purpose of the organisation at the forefront of your mind.
Bottom Line – If you want to increase chances of delivering success in an organisation be clear about and then work on keeping your focus on the core purpose.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.