The Power of Why
If you’ve read our blog ‘Understanding the Power of Why’, you’ll know by now that any successful business needs to find its own “why” to grow. But that’s easier said than done.
Even now that you know why context is essential, you might still be struggling to find your own.
To help you out, we’ve put together the crucial elements that create a business “why”. These factors are at the heart of your purpose and, when combined, will drive your growth and help you become the brand you want to be.
Start by Looking at Culture
When you’re leading a company, you need to build, shape, and nurture its culture.
Workplace culture isn’t a made-up marketing ploy; it’s one of the fundamental aspects of success. It creates an enjoyable, motivating space where your employees are encouraged to thrive, allowing room for growth on a number of levels. If you don’t get the culture of your workplace right, you’re going to struggle to see any smooth sailing towards your goals.
Google is a prime example of a workplace that’s focused on culture. They’ve created an environment that prioritises individuality, health, and wellbeing, as well as that all-important work-life balance. They’ve created a positive culture, and in return, their staff respect the business and believe in its goals.
Understand Your Intent
Why does your business exist?
This is such a crucial question that every CEO needs to explore. When people work for you or spend their money with you, they want to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves – something about more than just making a profit.
You need to give staff and consumers something to believe in. Making money might result from having a brilliant business, but you need to find something to create that brilliance in the first place.
So, why do you get out of bed every day? What drives you to keep pushing forward even when the odds are against you?
Discuss these questions with your close team and work together to identify the intent of your business. Once you have it, it’ll be so much easier to clearly define your “why”.
What Are Your Values?
Not every business has clear values, but you can bet that every successful business does.
Values are an integral motivator in the world of business. They can cause a consumer to choose you over a cheaper competitor product and for top-tier employees to join your team regardless of salary (or with less of a weight on salary, at least).
But it’s about more than just identifying your values. You have to share them too.
You can easily write down what you believe in and file it away somewhere, but what use will that be if no one ever sees it?
To leverage the benefits of clear values, you need to understand how to use them. Many businesses fail where values are concerned, not because they don’t have any, but simply because they misunderstand their purpose.
Your values aren’t just for adding to your website with no follow-through. They’re the building blocks of your entire business culture, and they should be both supporting your intent and unifying your team.
They’re something that everyone who works with you should have in common.
These three easy steps will make utilising your values a whole lot easier:
1. You need your entire team to agree on what your values are to create unity and clarity.
2. You need to make sure your values are achievable and have a check-list you can use to ensure they’re being realised.
3. You will have to always consciously work according to your values until they are an integral part of your company.
Create a Clear Vision
Once you’ve created your clear culture and organised your shared values, your role as a leader is to put forward your vision.
Just as a political leader will outline the image of a country under their rule, with slogans like “Make America great again” and “Strong and stable”, you need to show the world how your business will look with you at the helm.
Your vision needs to be exciting, compelling, and convincing. You want people to buy into it and believe in it too.
When Martin Luther King Jr. stood up, he didn’t say, “I have a plan”. He said, “I have a dream”. He had a vision of a future that he believed in, and his own belief and the compelling way he spoke of it led to him becoming one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.
To carry your company forward, you need to know where you’re going – and so does everyone else. Your entire team has to back your vision and adopt it as their own, which isn’t always an easy task for the CEO.
There have been endless tales of a leader’s vision not aligning with the rest of the team’s, and it usually doesn’t end very well. So, how do you encourage your team to believe?
First of all, your vision needs to be compelling.
To say you want to sell 100,000 chairs every month isn’t compelling. It’s not even really a vision! But, to say you want to become the leading innovator in home comfort and change the way people view how they relax, is.
You need people to really understand and feel your vision. What would it be like if you got there? How will it feel when the team turns that dream into reality? If you ever want to sell your business you need to have a clear vision that people can follow, otherwise, it will all fall to pieces.
If the vision becomes relevant and powerful enough to the team, you’ll uncover an unlimited source of motivation that will propel your company towards success.
WHY – It’s Not Going to Be an Easy Job
Creating the “why” of your company is never easy to achieve. There would be many more successful companies if it were, and the world would be a very different place
The truth is, most businesses fail to identify their “why”, leading to a lack of value in their ideas.
Leadership requires constant work and attention. Maintaining motivation, energy, and alignment isn’t a simple role, but it’s one that you have to take on if you want your brand to be heard and to reach your own goals.
Remember, though, that every business is a team. You’re not on your own in this, and the people around you are there to support you. Share your ideas and listen to others; it’s a must if you want to find success in this world.
Grow Your Business With a Team
No human is an island, and no successful business is a one-man band. If you’re looking to drive growth in your company, our growth consultants are here to help. Get in touch with us today to start learning from our experience, and let’s make a brand built to thrive.
