How to Keep Purpose at the Forefront of Your Business

In order to keep moving toward set goals, leaders must ensure that the organization's purpose is prioritized.

Newsweek Expert Forum members share industry insights.
Newsweek Expert Forum members share industry insights. Newsweek Expert Forum

In life, the only constant is change, and the same is true in business as well. While businesses are typically created around a vision or specific purpose, the evolving reality of running a business can cause leaders to gradually stray from the original mission.

Purpose-driven organizations do work that benefits stakeholders on all sides, so having a guide when making decisions can help leaders manage change better and more efficiently. To ensure that their organizations remain focused on their mission, 15 Newsweek Expert Forum members offer advice on how industry leaders can keep purpose at the forefront of everything they do.

1. Lead With Love

Purpose is the fuel of an organization, and the greatest energy source of purpose is love. When we lead with love, we stay aligned on purpose and decision making for the greater good. For example, the mission of Papa & Barkley is to improve lives through cannabis and Panda Express' mission is to be an organization where people are inspired to better their lives. These have both become beloved brands because love drives their purpose and decisions. - Jeff Chen, Radicle Science

2. Determine Your Values

Write down your values and revisit them regularly. Your values determine how you navigate your relationships while your connection with your values determines how you show up. The shared values of an organization are the foundation of culture, performance, stakeholder engagement and stakeholder support. When extended over time, your values become your goals. - Karen Mangia, Salesforce

3. Incorporate the Purpose in a Mission Statement

The key to reminding everyone of your business purpose is to incorporate it as a mission statement and then post that mission statement in various places. Posting it on an entry wall, at the bottom of emails and in memos to employees or in the breakroom will remind people of what the mission is. Other supporting messages can be posted throughout the company to support the main message. - Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

4. Develop a Mission-Focused Culture

For purpose-driven organizations, such as nonprofits and B Corps, it's critical to develop a mission-focused culture and have it permeate all levels of your operation. Leaders should make sure that all parts of an organization, from the janitor to the C-suite, understand that they play a critical role in the success of the organization and its ability to drive its beneficial mission forward! - Israel Tannenbaum, Withum

5. Make Efforts to Regularly Connect With Stakeholders

Critical to leading purpose-driven work is immersing yourself with stakeholders regularly. Make a plan to be in the field exploring, asking questions weekly, experiencing what your constituents see and making yourself available to them without barriers. You will hear the good, see the bad and celebrate the victories. That constant feedback will help keep your purpose at the forefront. - Jennifer Thompson, National Association of Social Workers New Jersey/Delaware

6. Embrace the Contributions of Stakeholders

Keeping purpose at the forefront requires an authentic culture that inspires, celebrates, empowers and encourages contributions from all employees and stakeholders. Leaders must be willing to hear the good, bad and ugly to ensure decisions are consistently being driven by the organization's "why" and continually challenge the status quo. - Renée T. Walker, RENEE WALKER & ASSOCIATES

7. Embed a Sense of Purpose Throughout the Organization

A purpose-driven organization is innately inspired to deliver on the future promise articulated in the company's vision and mission statements. Embedding a clear sense of purpose within the organization will motivate the team to achieve the unachievable. Leaders can capitalize on the magic of collective purpose by welcoming curiosity, creativity and empowerment, balanced with accountability. - Margie Kiesel, Avaneer Health

8. Leverage Storytelling

Tell stories. Stories are memorable, poignant and illustrative. A leader can preach about integrity or customer focus all they want, but when an experience happens that demonstrates important values, an opportunity arises where that experience can be told and retold. Over time, the organization's purpose is established and reinforced. - Reed Deshler, AlignOrg Solutions

9. Hire People of the Same Mind

Hiring like-minded people at all levels of the organization is key. This will integrate a purpose policy from concept to completion. It's key to start with a clear and transparent message at the hiring stage. It will draw in candidates with harmonious values and purposes. It will also impact execution by holding others at the organization accountable for meeting key elements tied to your purpose. - Uriel Saenz, THE US LIFESTYLE GROUP LLC

10. Communicate With Your Team

As leaders, we have an opportunity every day to remind our team members about the important role they play in helping us fulfill our company's mission. This is one step in keeping our employees more engaged, more empowered and feeling highly valued. We must communicate with our team members in more ways than ever to reinforce our purpose. - Joe Hart, Dale Carnegie Training

11. Be Transparent

Transformational transparency, horizontally and vertically, is critical to enable a cohesive enterprise strategy that not only connects back to the organization's mission, but also clearly communicates cross-functional dependencies, intersections and enterprise value and impact. - Britton Bloch, Navy Federal

12. Frequently Remind Yourself and the Team of the 'Why'

Purpose matters. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves why we started our business in the first place or why we took a certain position. You must show your team that you still believe in the mission and lead by example. Your team must know that your purpose is not time-sensitive but a life choice. - Krisztina Veres, Veres Career Consulting

13. Increase Engagement and Investment Through Stories

Content creation and storytelling are key. When leaders of organizations tell the story behind the purpose by using video, audio and graphic content—similar to how people create and consume content through podcasts and social media—they will find that their stakeholders are more engaged and more deeply invested in the organization's mission. - Monique Caradine-Kitchens, OverFlow Enterprises LLC

14. Show Business Values Through Action

There's a key concept in creative writing called "Show, don't tell." Purpose is for showing first and telling second. The pitch will only come through if you show what your values are through action. This is because there's a fine line between providing benefits through values and trying to please. - Jacob Mathison, Mathison Projects Inc.

15. Translate the Purpose to Specific Directions and Motivations

Purpose is much more than a statement. Writing a purpose statement is easy, but what follows after that is much more challenging. If done right, the purpose is directional and motivational, allowing every employee in the organization (irrespective of their title or global location) to see the connectedness of their day-to-day work to the organization's deep purpose and their firm's raison d'etre. - Bala Sathyanarayanan, GREIF Inc.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

The Newsweek Expert Forum is an invitation-only network of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience.
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