Setting a Purpose for Your Team

So that we’re on the same page – a theme you’ll see again and again in the Power Read ahead – purpose, in this context, is threefold.

Firstly, purpose is tied to an aspirational aspect, for example, to be the most efficient team. It should also be accompanied with objectives or goals that help to keep you and your team on track to achieving these aspirations.

Next, these objectives should be aligned with your organisation’s larger goals. If shifts in business strategies result in new business goals, your team’s objectives should adapt and change so that they continue to be aligned with the business as a whole.

Lastly, your teammates’ objectives for the work they do as individuals should align with your team’s purpose. This helps them to see how their work supports the organisation and why it matters.

Defining Common Ground

Common sense isn’t always, well, common. What might be crystal clear to you may be something your colleague has not even considered. As a leader, it’s important that you make sure everyone is on the same page – which is why having a shared purpose helps. Once you’ve identified the larger purpose, you and your team can break them down into clear objectives. Explicitly stating this helps to ensure that everyone understands what success looks like.

Consider a situation where a shared purpose hasn’t been defined. With most individuals working remotely, across relatively new digital spaces, it’s easy for your teammates to do things on their own terms, in a direction that makes sense to them. If everyone works on their different paths without a clear map of how these paths converge, frustrations and challenges would inevitably arise.

Worse still, each individual may have their own assumptions of what the purpose is. While their assumptions are valid, they might be completely different. What looks like success to one teammate may barely scratch the surface of groundwork for another. All this breeds unnecessary resentment and frustration that can be avoided if time is taken to set a clear idea of what success looks like – and how each individual contributes to the team’s shared success.

The added bonus of establishing this clarity is that everyone now truly understands their place in the team, and if they’re on track with their work. You no longer have to answer smaller questions because the clear path helps them to make self-assessments more confidently. The clear roles help teammates to see if there may be someone (besides you) they can approach who might be better placed to address their queries. This frees up your time to focus on deep work, such as developing strategy.

Translating Value

Tying your team’s purpose to wider company goals helps other departments and senior management to see how your team brings value in terms that they understand. They see how what you do matters, and over time, this builds a positive impression of your team. If your colleagues had to tell someone else what you did, it wouldn’t simply be ‘marketing’, for instance. They’d be able to say, ‘they drive marketing campaigns that generated leads that helped us to exceed our Q3 targets’.

In organisational psychologist Adam Grant’s latest book Think Again, he proposes that you can’t change someone’s mind. Instead of listing reasons for them to accept your stance, your role instead should be to listen and help them to be more open to other views, including yours.

Likewise, as a leader you shouldn’t expect someone to adopt the team’s shared purpose simply because you tell them to. A top-down leadership style won’t work in this instance. Instead, take a more motivational and supportive stance. Understand your team’s individual goals and needs, and guide them to see how they align with bigger strategies. I suggest starting with the three approaches below.

Define Shared Purpose Together

Learn where your team currently stands by first asking them questions. Your goal in this initial dialogue is to listen, understand their worldview and what they think matters. Keep this in mind as you start on the next step – a brainstorming session to establish how your team can achieve the larger company objective. Use your team’s individual suggestions to shape a collective purpose.

If there are teammates who disagree or aren’t quite able to align their goals, go back to what you’ve learned about them. Adapt your communication style to meet them where they are, and help them to come to a consensus that aligns with their needs. This way, everyone has a stake in creating the purpose and are more likely to take ownership and truly believe in it.

Establish Measurable, Actionable Tasks

After your team has defined a shared purpose, break down the purpose into measurable and actionable objectives. It’s not always easy, but don’t skip this step. For fast growing businesses, be prepared to re-establish these objectives regularly as the business pivots drastically. Having these measurable steps helps you, and your team, to see if you're on track to achieving your objectives, if the work you do daily is aligned with your purpose. If someone in your team unexpectedly takes a detour, the clear steps can help you to guide their return.

Make Individual Contributions Explicit

At times, it may seem like an individual’s goals aren’t aligned with the team’s objectives. So help the individual and other members to draw the link, and see how their contributions support the team’s objectives.

For instance, the performance marketing team I once managed included a teammate responsible for analytics. Generally, most marketing objectives tend to focus on engagement with new customers and revenue generated. For teammates managing marketing channels, their work in driving traffic and contributions to achieving the team’s goal was clear. This wasn’t the case for my colleague who led on analytics as the data they gathered and analysed data supported their teammates’ decisions.

So I helped the team to reframe their perspectives. The team’s objectives were expanded to take into account how cost efficient each channel was and whether the channel mix was optimised for target groups. This way, the whole team was on the same page, working towards driving traffic efficiently to generate new leads and revenue for the organisation.

1 Keep Objectives Aligned

In creating a purpose for your team, make sure it aligns with each individual teammate’s goals and that your collective objectives are aligned with the company’s. This way, your team’s contributions are clear to them, other departments and upper management.

2 Get Clear, Even if It Seems Excessive

Be clear on how each individual contributes to the bigger objective. Define what success looks like and be clear on how these individual contributions impact the bigger objective. It’s not always easy, but create a way to measure these actionable steps.

3 Understand, Motivate and Support Your Team

Your team needs to accept the shared purpose on their own terms. As such, taking a top-down approach won’t work. Instead, be conscious of how the purpose aligns with their individual goals and adapt your communication style to address their needs.