Elevate your team’s impact with a compelling purpose

How are you and your team showing up at work? Are you business partners, or are you order-takers? One of my clients, an EVP of Client Success, is frustrated because her team has been relegated to reactive “fixers.” She wants them to be seen for their full potential: proactive business partners who maximize the value the organization delivers to clients, of equal importance to other stakeholder groups. 

It’s frustrating to be boxed into a responsive secondary role when your team could be making a major contribution. You may have a bigger vision for your team, but it’s likely that they don't – yet. As a leader, it’s up to you to empower your team to function at a higher, more impactful level. You can’t change leadership’s perception if you haven’t inspired your team to think bigger. To get where you want to go, your team needs to create a more ambitious vision for themselves and rally around that shared purpose. 

Develop a compelling team purpose

Elevating a team’s trajectory is a major change, and it can’t fall solely on the shoulders of the leader. To be successful, the entire team needs to share the vision and take ownership of it, or it will likely fail. A team's purpose is its north star; it guides behavior and motivates people into action.

To create an effective, compelling team purpose, I like to use the following framework from the Team Diagnostic Survey: 

1: THIS TEAM EXISTS TO… (complete this sentence, making it short and to the point)

2: BY… (list 3-5 core offerings or priorities) 

a.

b.

c.

3: SO THAT…(state the impact on your organization or customers)

You and your leadership team should complete this framework, both as individuals and as a team or teams. Ask them to consider what it feels like to do their best work? What are they able to accomplish? Then, discuss how they could take it to the next level. What would that mean to the organization? To them? To their direct reports? 

Here’s an example of what that might look like:  

Lead with the means

In sales and marketing, it’s common to use the framework of “is/does/means.” When marketing products, “is” refers to what your product is, “does” refers to your product’s features, and “means” refers to your product’s benefits. The idea is that few people care what your product is, a few more people will care about what it does, but everyone will care about what it means (for them). Just like people buy for the means, they’ll also achieve more if what they’re doing gives them a clear benefit or purpose. 

The “means” is crucial when it comes to demonstrating your value to the stakeholders who can give your team that seat at the table. As you create your team purpose, consider how you are showing up now. Ask yourself: Are you and your team living in the means of what you do right now? What would shift for you if you led with those means? 

For the EVP of Client Success, creating and embodying a meaningful team purpose was a game-changer. United behind her team’s “means,” they are invited to strategic conversations with their Sales counterparts around growing the business and have a seat at the table as a key business partner to their clients. Their partners now understand what it means to have Customer Success in the room and value their contribution to the business. 

With a team purpose, what’s possible for your team?