My favourite two questions to ask leaders of organisations are:
- Where are you going?
- Why should anyone follow you?
There is actually a third question that may be even more important and help you to answer question 2 above. That question is:
“Why are you going?”
The answer to this question is commonly articulated in organisations as a Mission Statement but the problem is that this frequently becomes no more than a statement on a website, in company literature or a poster on the office wall.
A real answer to this question provides a sense of purpose. Purpose underpins ambition and the perseverance to see an individual or a business through difficult times.
Purpose
Even private, commercial, organisations exist to do more than simply make money. If making money is an organisation’s sole purpose, it is unlikely to be an engaging company to work for or have long term success. The most enduring companies are clear about why they exist. For example: Disney – to make people happy; Apple – to be a creator of change in the world; Amazon – to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to online.
To facilitate a senior management team to articulate their organisation’s purpose I ask:
- “Why is it important that this company continues to exist?”
- Ask “Why” several times For example,”Why do we make computers?” and then ask “Why” to the answer to that. Etc. (this is similar to the ‘5 Whys’ problem solving methodology)
The output from these exercises will still need some wordsmithing but 80/20 you should arrive at the essence of your organisations purpose which can be turned into a really meaningful Mission Statement rather than a bland statement that is often seen in organisations.
Core Values
The other part of the answer to “Why are we going?” lies in Values – literally what is important to the organisation; what the organisation values. Many organisations have a list of Values such as Integrity, Respect or Trust but that is not what we are trying to get at here, particularly as they are rarely adhered to, remaining as lists on a wall or in company documentation. By Core Values we mean a small set of timeless, guiding principles that require no external justification, they just are! They define what the organisation stands for, even if these Values are so core that an organisation is unlikely to have more than 3 or 5 of them.
To articulate Core Values it is helpful to put together a group of the most respected employees who are akin to the DNA of the organisation (note that they are sometimes not the most senior). Ask them “If you were to recreate the best attributes of your organisation in a parallel universe, what would they be?” or “Why do you come to work here?” or “What do you tell your children about what is important about your work in this organisation?” A test of whether you have articulated a Core Value is to ask “if circumstances changed such that this Value became a commercial disadvantage, would we still keep it?” If the answer is “yes” then you likely have a Core Value. For example, Apple might insist that Innovation is on its list of Core Values however the world changes around it because it is, quite simply, what the company is about.
Once an organisation is clear on its Mission/Purpose and Core Values then it will be in good shape to work on its strategic leadership plan; to determine where it is going, how it will get there and how it will monitor and measure success.
Ironically, when working with senior management teams I find it is often better to define a strategy and then to articulate the Purpose and Core Values. This is because, when a team works together to agree its strategy, Purpose and Core Values become apparent during the process; much easier than starting with a blank sheet of flipchart paper. When I first worked with organisations we used to spend many hours wordsmithing Mission Statements up front and it could be a frustrating exercise. Now we work on the strategy first and then discuss the purpose afterwards.
If, as a leader of an organisation, you facilitate your organisation to discuss the answer to the question “Why are you going?” you will also have gone a long way to answering the question “Why should anyone follow you?” Communicate all of this clearly and your employees will be more engaged and focussed and your organisation is much more likely to be successful. This is the essence of Strategic Leadership!
Posted by Mark Procter