During times of crisis, remembering what your core purpose is may seem like a small, irrelevant detail. But keeping your purpose in mind can help you make the tough decisions and choose the best options during uncertainty. Think of your purpose as a compass, pointing you in the right direction.
But how can you amplify your purpose, to your employees, customers and stakeholders, instead of sidelining it? 11 thought leaders have provided their insights and ideas for how to make sure your purpose stays front and center of everything you do.
Lead Every Meeting With Your Purpose
I’m the biggest cheerleader of our purpose. If not me, as the CEO, then who? I lead every meeting with our purpose – to help every company find their ‘remarkable’ and show it to the world. We talk about it as a team—what does it mean, how have we failed, how can we better live it out—even in the most complicated of times. Without the constant returning to our purpose, we lose sight of the path ahead. We must stay on course.
Mike Jones, Resound
“The Home Story and 3 Routes Home”
I live and breathe my higher purpose through the concepts I teach called the Home Story and 3 Routes Home. Think of it as a messaging methodology that is simplified to as little as 6 words. Those simplified words act as ‘guard rails’ and ensure alignment for all company decisions. When I talk with my clients, prospects and friends they will occasionally ask me, for fun, about my home story in the form of a question. I never know when they will ask, so that definitely keeps me focused on ensuring I am living my higher purpose.
Mark Jamnik, Enjoy Life Daily
Address Individual Needs
For us, it has always been about every business’s unique needs and that hasn’t changed. To ensure we continue to amplify this, we take the time to understand our client’s needs, both pandemic and non-pandemic related, to guarantee that we are providing the best options and solutions. We explain how the coronavirus may or may not have impacted their financial needs and work with them to give them a sense of calm in this crisis.
Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital
Create a “Step Up, Speak up” Environment
We are excited to be celebrating our firm’s 25th Anniversary this summer. We’ve taken our Halpin Method and developed an assessment to measure a company’s Innovation Quotient; how prepared is a company to create a work environment where people feel safe to experiment and take measured risk? How prepared are you to create a work environment where everyone feels safe to Step Up and Speak Up? We are confident this new offering will help us reach more companies who can create more jobs and more financial security for all their stakeholders.
Katharine Halpin, The Halpin Companies, Inc
Rally Around Purpose
If anything, a company’s higher purpose gives stakeholders something to rally around in a time of crisis. As a leader, elevating that purpose instead of keeping it benched on the sideline is a simple step to motivate a team. Revisit that purpose in company meetings and in everyday conversations. Eventually, the purpose takes on a life of its own and leads people in the right direction.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Let It Reveal Your Character and Commitment
As an institute of higher learning, every decision made must be for the benefit of our students, which includes the spirit of servant leadership that permeates the GCU campus community. As COVID-19 suspended reality, solutions became a priority, not only for GCU, but for the greater community. Combining ingenuity and passion, the entire campus mobilized to design, fund and produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for our Lope family and also for community partners who were facing inventory depletion.
Debbie Accomazzo, Grand Canyon University
Remain True to Your Purpose
It’s important for us, and for other companies, to recognize that a crisis is not a money-grab. If any part of your audience suspects that you are taking advantage of others’ fears and anxieties, you will lose their trust. Remain true to your purpose and provide help where you can, whether that be extended free trials, waived fees, donating to relevant causes or anything else that keeps your mission and purpose in mind over profits.
Francesca Yardley, Threads
Keep Your “Why” Front and Center
Whether in a time of crisis or at the peak of your company’s performance, it’s important to keep your “Why” front and center. For us, female empowerment is our raison d’etre. That means we make all of our decisions around that purpose–it is our battle cry–and we find extra motivation in our purpose during tough times.
Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell
Heightened Commitment to Your 3C’s
In many ways, we’ve heightened our commitment to our 3C’s during this time. We began looking at ways we could better serve our customers as their needs suddenly shifted and they were dealing with a new set of challenges, we looked at the communities we serve to identify problems we could solve, and we restructured our communications internally to reinforce our collaborative and transparent culture – particularly as our team went to a fully remote work environment.
Thiru Thangarathinam, MST Solutions
Offer Services at No Charge
U & Improved at its core is all about heart-based leadership. It’s about giving, being there during the highs and the lows…for our clients and our community. We are here to strengthen people’s mental resolve, and right now, if that means offering services at no charge to those that need it, then that’s what we will do because our purpose is people.
Jodi Low, U & Improved
Keep a Pulse on Your Stakeholders’ Evolving Needs
Through this crisis, we’ve amplified our higher purpose by keeping a pulse on our stakeholders’ evolving needs through increased communication. We have stayed in close contact with our members (customers) through direct phone calls, surveys and software usage metrics to help guide our decision-making through this pandemic.
Heidi Jannenga, WebPT
