Getting back to my philosophy of business (which you are welcome to adopt) this seems like a pretty obvious answer.  Your organization should be purpose driven because it is your reason for being in business to begin with!  Your purpose is “what” you do.  People centered, servant led, values focused, community friendly, and environmentally responsible are the “how” you do it.  Without the “what”, there is no reason for the “how”.

Purpose is where your business activities begin.  When you have clarity about your purpose you can define it in a mission statement, and expand it in a vision statement.  Your purpose becomes the fundamental element of your strategy and business plan.  With a clearly defined purpose you can identify the processes and resources necessary to deliver it, the structure required to support it, and the skill sets or competencies to execute it.  In other words, if you have established a firm foundation for your organization, a key driver of performance, you can more effectively define the other four key performance drivers and enhance your chances for success.

Purpose should drive every decision you make about your business.  If you let it drive those decisions you will avoid wrong choices in your business plan; you will keep irrelevant and self-justifying processes from sneaking in to your operations; your structure will fit your processes; and the people you hire will bring with them the relevant competencies to execute the mission.

Let me go a little further and offer an observation about defining your purpose.  It’s not about making money.  Oh, really?  Yes, really; think about it for a minute.  If you define your purpose as making money, how does that help you make decisions about business plan, resources, processes, and people?  It’s a rather lame purpose that doesn’t give you any direction.  Money is much more useful when it is identified as a resource for accomplishing your purpose, and a measure of your success in delivering on your purpose.  Remember, it’s not money that’s the root of evil; it’s the “love of money”.  Use money as a tool, not as a purpose.

What about defining your purpose around filling an individual or collective need in the marketplace?  When you identify a specific need to be filled you have greater clarity about the core competencies, resources, and processes necessary to carry it out.  If you are the business owner, that need should be relevant to your own gifts, talents, passions, and core competencies so it will serve as motivation and provide a source of strength and confidence for your efforts.

So make sure your organization is purpose driven.  It will keep your decisions focused on “the right stuff”, conserve your resources, motivate you and your people, and enhance your possibilities of success.

Next up, why you need to be a “community friendly” organization.

Now there’s an interesting question; we could be all over the map on this one so let’s concentrate on just a few key points.  I assume you want to keep your good employees, retain your best customers and vendors, and have the support and blessings of the community in which you operate.  You probably don’t want to become a public spectacle, get dragged through the press, or generally have too high a profile.  And you definitely don’t want your organization to violate the law, be fined, or be held criminally liable for any wrong-doing, perceived or real.  Becoming another Enron, World Com, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, would not be in your best interests, no matter how big or small you are.

That’s where values come in, and I’m not talking just principles.  After all, they say there is even honor (a principle) among thieves.  I know more than a few people who would point a big finger at the entire financial sector of the US economy when they make the honor point and talk about the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

No, we’re talking real values, character, integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, treating people with dignity and respect, and providing for the safety and security of your people and your community.  And let’s steer clear of moral and ethical relativism, or situational ethics, shall we?  It’s either ethical or it’s not, it’s either moral or immoral, it’s either right or it’s wrong, even if no one is looking.  To develop a reputation for integrity, your organization must have absolute clarity regarding the values under which it operates.  And those values must apply to everyone in the organization (walk your own talk, right?).

If you as an organization want to keep the important people on your side; your customers, team members, and community, then you had better let highest values and standards of business practice drive every decision you make and action you take.  If you slip up even one time, you lose the trust and confidence of all those who held you in highest regard.  One abhorrent misdeed can destroy 100 years of integrity.  Regardless of your reputation people and groups do not easily forgive, so you don’t even want to be in the position of asking it.

But let’s take an internal point of view for a moment by looking back at personal performance.  Remember, performance is personal before it is organizational.  You want not only the bodies and minds of your people, but their hearts and souls as well.  They need to be fully engaged in their work to perform at their best.  If you don’t set the highest standards, and make sure your organization’s values inspire your people, you can’t expect personal best performance and your organizational performance will suffer.

Here’s the point: when defining a firm foundation for your organization, make sure the values you espouse are impeccable, and reflected in every decision you make and action you take.  Your people will be inspired by and align with your values, and help you avoid fallout from ill-informed decisions and actions.   The business world is tough and you will be tempted, but remember; over the long haul the snakes in the grass may bite, but they eventually get stepped on.  Become a values-focused organization and watch what it does for customer, vendor, community, and employee relationships.  You won’t regret it.

Next up, why should your organization be purpose driven?  Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life may hold some lessons for the business world.

Start by referring back to rule number one, performance is personal before it is organizational, and check my earlier blog entry, “Why Should Your Organization be People Centered?”

So why should your organization be servant led?  Because servant leaders clear away barriers to personal performance; they enable, in positive ways, good behaviors and sustained superior performance.  How?  By observing and interacting with their people, learning what is affecting negatively their job performance, and finding ways to remove the performance obstacles they identify.

There are two excellent books, one by James Hunter, The Servant, and the other by Ken Blanchard (the author of The One Minute Manager), The Servant Leader, which describe what servant leaders do to help their people perform at their peak.  Be aware that Ken Blanchard’s book carries with it a strong message about Christianity and Leadership, but it is also a great tool to understanding yourself as a servant leader.  Another excellent book, Hidden Value, by O’Reilly and Pfeffer, tells many stories about successful organizations.  At the heart of most of those stories is an often hidden message about being a people centered, servant led organization.

The message in each of these books is: if you as a leader do nothing other than demand high performance, without regard for the ability and willingness of your people to produce it, and without setting the stage for them, you set up your people, yourself, and your organization for poor performance.  It may not be immediate, but it will almost certainly come.

You need to create the environment within which people are motivated to do their very best.  You establish the working conditions, the compensation, and the expectations.  You establish the communications and help define the culture within your area of responsibility.  You build the team and inspire each person.  You break down the barriers in and outside the organization.  You lead by getting out of the way and turning your people loose on the challenge.

And by the way, you had better do some serious soul-searching yourself.  You need to be very self-aware, because every decision you make and action you take will be a lesson for your people.  You had better eat your own dog food, drink your own Koolaid, and walk your own talk!

If you don’t have this gift of self-awareness, if you do not have the leadership skills, you had better find someone who does.  Not everyone is gifted to be a great leader.  You may be a great entrepreneur, an effective consultant, a knowledgeable teacher, or an astute business strategist; but if you do not have the people skills and leadership gifts, find someone you trust who does!  It’s even more important than being a servant leader, to know if you are the right person for the job.

If you are not the right person for the servant leader role you cannot perform up to your own full potential, nor can your organization perform up to its potential.  And if you are the head of your organization it’s not just you, it’s your entire leadership team.  Servant leadership is not just a way for a supervisor or manager to lead, it’s a matter of culture for the entire organization.  If you establish that model, but your management team doesn’t get it or can’t or won’t do it, then you will not get the results you expect or need.

Why should your organization be servant led?  It should be servant led because servant leaders free their people to achieve superior personal performance, enabling your organization to perform up to its full potential.

Just by being an effective servant leader you are beginning to establish a very supportive, strong and positive culture, consider it a firm foundation, within your organization.  You are defining certain core competencies essential to your organization’s success.  And you are defining, by your own expectations, certain behaviors all of your people should exhibit that lead to feeling part of a team, being “on the same page”, being respected and appreciated, developing the character and integrity of your organization.  In short, you are becoming values focused, the next critical success factor for your organization’s peak performance.

Let’s center ourselves for a moment and recall that my philosophy of business, based on degrees in accounting and business administration and over thirty-five years of work experience in the government and private sectors, is this: Successful organizations are people centered, servant led, values focused, purpose driven, community friendly, and environmentally responsible.

So why should your organization be people centered?  Quite simply, because performance is personal before it is organizational.  You want and need sustainable top performance from your organization.  You cannot expect to get it if your people are not free to achieve their own personal best performance (“The ‘R’ Factor”, Timothy Kight).  They need to be fully engaged in their work activities to be satisfied on the job and motivated to do their best.  You need not only their bodies and minds but their hearts and souls as well.  No matter what the mission, vision, values, or strategy of your organization, people cannot produce sustained superior performance without burning out.  As a business person, you need to be aware of what fuels their internal fire.

In a capitalistic society, or even in socialist or communist societies, it’s not just money fueling the internal fire that drives performance.  In fact, neither money nor profit appears in the primary definition of capitalism.  Money is an immediate, but not a sole long term satisfier.  Over time, most people become complacent about money and it becomes less of a motivating factor.  Money quite simply becomes just one of many rewards a person receives for being fully engaged in meaningful work.

When complacency sets in it leads to lackluster performance and sliding product or service quality, inattention on the job leads to accidents and increased costs, and absences leave key positions unstaffed at critical times.  Your critical processes suffer and drift off target or in the worst cases, completely stop functioning.

Initially people just need to put clothes on their backs, a roof over their heads, and food on the table.  Enough money, consider it base pay, can usually do that.  People expect their first job out of school to do at least that.  But ultimately, people are more impacted by the need for equity, social acceptance and satisfying work consistent with their gifts, talents, passions, and experience.  Burnout occurs even faster if these needs are not satisfied.  They dial back their performance or leave the organization when they burn out.  And that affects your organization’s performance in both production and cost.

Most people will give their heart and soul to their job if what’s in it for them includes not just money, but fulfillment of these non-monetary needs as well.  If their own principles and mission are consistent with those of the organization, you will get better performance.  If they see the meaning in their work, you will get better performance.  If they are happy in their work environment and less affected by personal circumstances, you will get better performance.

We won’t get into Frederick Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory, or Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, or Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, or even the book First, Break All The Rules, by Buckingham and Coffman.  Suffice it to say that it is important for you as a business person to know that people are driven by more than money over the long haul.  If they feel they are treated equitably, if they feel included, if they are gifted and talented to perform the work needed, if they have the expertise and a passion for the work, then they are prepared to engage not just their bodies and minds, but their hearts and souls in not only their job but also the mission of their organization.  Note that I said, “…prepared to engage.”  What will make them engage can be found in the organization’s leadership, values and purpose.

Why should your organization be people centered?  It should be people centered because it depends on its vendors, customers, community, and employees.  People are your most valuable resource, and the heart of your organization.  If you engage their bodies, minds, hearts, and souls, i.e., get their very best performance, they can free your organization to achieve its full potential.  If not, their lack of performance can put you out of business.  In my opinion, those are excellent reasons to become people centered.

So here’s another question for you as a business person, “How can you do more for your people than just pay them to do a job?”  Well, that’s the subject of our next blog entry…