The powerful ripple effect of your business’ purpose

Do you ever question whether your business is being all that it can be? Are your customers, employees, even your community, getting the best of you? Why does your business exist? What’s your business’ purpose?

What you stand for may have more impact than you think.

How would your business look if your purpose was clear?

One of my highlights from Xerocon2018 was a presentation by Rachael Powell: The human ripple effect: how change starts from the inside out.

Rachael spoke about the critical values and actions for creating a people-centric, purpose-driven mindset in a business. It’s worthwhile reading her blog, but here are some of the take-outs for me:

1. The value of revising your business’ purpose and values.

Why do you need to be clear about your business’ ‘why’? Rachel says:

“Because having your purpose at the core of what you do creates a powerful ripple effect outward to your people, your brand, and ultimately to your customers.”

The benefits of being purpose-lead include:

• greater employee satisfaction and retention
• increased customer acquisition, engagement and loyalty
• the building of communities who believe in a vision “bigger than any one person or company”

2. The importance of businesses building trust

Sadly, trust isn’t common in our modern world. That makes trust between businesses and their customers, or businesses and their employees, increasingly important. Trust might even be your business’ 1%er.

Businesses can have a very real impact by building trust – and they should.

To build trust you must know what you stand for, stay true to your values, and be consistent in your delivery.

3. The value of businesses listening

Really listening means involving customers in meaningful and creative ways.

This includes empowering employees to connect directly with customers.

What’s our purpose at Synectic?

TO ENHANCE THE PROSPERITY OF OUR PEOPLE, CLIENTS AND COMMUNITY.

We’ve been focused on these actions at Synectic over recent years. We’ve come largely from the perspective of building and developing our people. The values we’ve applied and the skills we’ve learned are also the fundamentals for building and maintaining our customer relationships.

The same values and skills apply no matter what your business is.

In her take-away notes from the session Rachael observed that:

“People want to be associated with a purpose-driven business that, beyond making money, stand for something and are having a meaningful and positive impact.”

This made so much sense to me. It reaffirms the benefit of the work we’ve put into defining and embedding our purpose and values.

Finding your business’ purpose

Finding your purpose demands authentic conversations, especially if you share the leadership of your business. You need to be sensitive to your people and clients too. Does their purpose align with the business? What do you need to do to make sure everyone shares the same vision?

While we’ve gone on this journey at Synectic to build the business that our people want to be part of, it also has a significant, positive flow-on effect to our clients and community.

So, here’s a summary of my key take-outs:

• Know what you stand for
• Make sure your employees, customers and community know what you stand for
• Work at building trust
• Listen to your customers in meaningful and creative ways

Are you ready to create a more purpose-driven business? A Synectic adviser can help you determine your goals, challenges and how you can best move forward.

Read more refelections from Xerocon: