Purpose: Your brand and your why

When people think about the most important foundation for a company, they often think of the product or service, or that the look and feel of an organization is professional and dynamic. Typically, people – that is the founders, leaders, staff and customers – think about what the company does in terms of what it is selling. While trends are shifting, rarely did people consider why the company or organization existed. An organization’s purpose is the foundational base for remarkability – below I will show you why.

You have done your remarkability assessment and have built your remarkability agenda. You are now ready to build or transform your organization into something remarkable. Where do you start? The remarkability agenda is three pillars – Purpose, People and Platform – intentionally. The organizational purpose serves as the foundation upon which all other structures and decisions will be built. You can’t have the right people unless you know why the organization exists. You can’t have the right products and services, unless you know the impact that the organization wants to have on the world. Purpose creates the base for everything.

Simon Sinek brought this to life in his now famous TEDx talk on the Golden Circle.

It became a massive hit and then became the base for his thought leadership work and his book Start with Why. He reflects that most organizations know what they do, but they don’t know why they do it. He instructs companies to start with why.

Brand strategists have been preaching this since time immemorial but rarely are corporate strategies and foundations built through brand. Only the good ones are. Therefore, as you start your remarkability journey, start with why.

Your why, or your purpose, forms your brand. Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room, according to Jeff Bezos. It is your organizational personality. And it starts with a clear sense of why the organization exists, the contribution it wishes to make and the impact that it wishes to have on the lives of its customers, and the world.

You have a brand whether you like it or not – and whether you have managed it or not. Brands are like reputations; you have to work hard to establish one and to manage it in the way that you wish to be perceived. If you don’t care about what your reputation is, people will make their own assessments. The same thing goes for a brand. Too many organizations and leaders have taken their eye off their brand and have let their customers or community define it for them, for better or for worse. Therefore, organizations that want to become remarkable need to invest in building and maintaining a strong brand.

Solid brands start with a solid purpose. And the importance of a strong purpose is growing, particularly as millennials make up a larger proportion of the workforce.  A 2017 study by American Express titled Redefining the C-Suite: Business the Millennial Way, surveyed millennials in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France and found that, on average, 81% of millennials believe a business should have a genuine purpose, and 75% believe that the values of the company need to match their personal values in order to consider working there. These results are supported by other studies, including one by pwc, and highlighted in the book Good is the New Cool: Market Like you Give a Damn by Bobby Jones and Afdhel Aziz.

Need more proof of the importance of purpose? Daniel Pink identifies the three most significant factors that drive and motivate people to be interested in, and do, their finest work in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It boils down to three things: autonomy, mastery and purpose. The purpose imperative is pretty clear. It not only is a recruiting factor, but is one of the three things that drives people – working for and engaging with a genuine purpose.

So what are the steps for developing your purpose, and where do you start?

• Shift mindset from brand as look, to brand as promise and reputation.
  • Your brand is not your logo. Your brand is your promise, your personality and your DNA. It must permeate all you are and do.
    
• Complete a brand audit.
  • This will assess whether your current brand is positive or negative, and whether you have the right approach in place to activate your brand.
    
• Abandon the mission statement mindset.
  • Too many organizations are rooted in what they do versus why they do it. Focus on why you do what you do, and you will be set up for remarkability.
    
• Explore history.
  • Look at why the organization was started. Reflect on history and origins. Do research to understand why it all began.
    
• Engage your constituents.
  • Build an engagement process that involves everyone: board, staff and customers. If your purpose is going to be about helping your constituents solve problems, then constituents need to be part of it.
    
• Be bold.
  • Be inspirational, aspirational and emotional in what you want to state as your brand purpose. Don’t put too many boundaries on what it is. Evoke emotion and engagement through aspiration and inspiration.

• (Re)Define your brand and your purpose – or hire a brand consultant.
  • Hold strategic discussions about what your purpose and your why should be – and undertake steps to (re)build your brand internally or through a brand consultant – and ensure you embed it throughout all the organization.
  • Remember, this is not a communications or design exercise. This is a strategic exercise.
    
    

Want to learn more about how brand and purpose, how they related to remarkability, and how to make yours remarkable? Check out Making Remarkable: How to Deliver Purpose, Inspire People and Build a Platform for Exceptional Results.