The purpose of purpose

“You need to have a purpose, something to get you out of bed in the morning for.”
We hear that purpose is important and without a strong purpose, your company will wither and die, but how much does the purpose really matter? What difference does it make to our every day work?

Well, the reality is that having a strong purpose is an attractor and helps align people to your overall goals, but unless it also aligns to people’s individual purpose, it might not matter.

Let’s take an example from Riccardo Mariti, owner of Mariti’s restaurant in London. His purpose is to serve the community. From the local residents needing a place to eat and connect, to the hospitals needing food during the pandemic. While this sounds great and inspiring, if you work in hospitality and need a job, would the purpose really spur you on each day?

You would likely more care about the pay and hours, and if they suit your current needs.

Riccardo thinks about how his purpose would serve his staff. What would make them want to get out of bed in the morning and love going to work? Thinking about the staff that work in his restaurant, many start working there as a side hustle. He has university students, actors, travelers—very few start out wanting to make hospitality a career.

Riccardo thought about the greater purpose that would make work more meaningful. Instead of having staff there to wait on tables and cook meals, he trains them to run a business. Instead of being a waiter, the staff learns how to work in all the stations, from being front of house to greet customers, to cooking the food, serving drinks, even how the finances work. Now when they go to work, it’s no longer a meaningless shift but a way to learn new skills — something they can apply to their future career.

How to measure purpose?

Being outcome-driven, you know where I’m heading next. How do you know your purpose is valuable?

What’s stopping people from achieving it?

It’s great to tell people to go forth and achieve your lofty ‘change the world’ purpose, but the better question is, “What’s stopping them from reaching it? What are the obstacles in their way? And what can you do to remove these obstacles and accelerate their progress?

Takeaways:

Make sure individual purpose aligns with the company purpose

Measure the impact of your purpose

Remove the barriers that make it difficult to achieve the purpose