3 Steps (and the Reasons) to Prioritize 'Purpose' in Your Business

A recentprice WaterhouseCoopers studyreveals a striking gap about the role of "purpose" in corporate America:Although 79 percent of business leaders surveyed said they consideredpurpose central to business success, just one-third of leadership teams were actually usingit when making vital business decisions.

Think about your own business. You started with the vision, excitement and drive to make it happen. You worked crazy hours, took on challenges and came out on top -- more often than not, anyway.

58003 Isn’t there more to life, you might be asking, than watching your company’s earnings pile up?

If this describes you, then you’ve reached the tippy-top of Tony Robbins’pyramid of human needs. You’ve ascended to and passed the steps to security, variety, significance, connection and growth. And nowyou’re at the pyramid’s peak: contribution.

To keep motivation high, according to human behavior expertDaniel pink, you now have to work to contribute to and serve a cause greater than yourself. Once you’ve achieved liftoff, treading closely to your foundational mission will be what drives your passion and success -- benefiting you and your team.

For me, that mission involves helping Washington, D.C., students graduate from high school. But yours might be bringing clean water to communities in Honduras. Whatever it is, there's no substitute for the fulfillment that service brings.

Having a mission that excites you to your core nullifies the need for accountability or motivation -- your mission will drive your creativity and energy naturally.

A perfect time for purpose

For entrepreneurs who have achieved stability, generational shifts provide a reason beyond personal fulfillment to recommit to their company's mission.

One shift in particular:At the close of 2015, millennials officially surpassed baby boomers as thelargest living generation, and are expected to comprise75 percentof the workforce by 2025. Given their sheer mass, combined with their shifting professional goals, this generation is changing capitalism.

Thanks to millennials, a company’s "cause" has become as important, if not more so, than its profit-making potential. Almost all millennials surveyed --94 percent-- have said that theywant to use their skills to benefit a cause. Andmore than halfhave said they’d actually take a pay cut to find work that matches their values. So, especially in thecoming years, a company's "cause" will become a powerful factor for attractingtalent.

That's why keeping alaser focus on your mission will likely pay off for you asnever before, by bringing youloyal, cause-conscious customers.Ninety-one percentof millennials -- who are anexceptionally brand-loyalgeneration -- have said on surveys that they wouldswitch brands to patronize a competitor that better aligns with their beliefs.

Especially with millennials calling the shots, purpose is what sets your company apart. It brings talent to the door, polishes your brand’s image and keeps customers coming back.But becoming a mission-first operationtakes patience and practice. Here are three ways to put your company’s purpose front and center:

1. Bring your mission to meetings.

Shift every conversation away from transactional language to how you’re helping others and tapping into the mission. To kick off the meeting, ask everyone in the room to share a “mission moment” they experienced in the past week.

At lifestyle brandLife is Good, employees focus on using “I get to” instead of “I have to” statements as a way to bring the mission to life on a day-to-day basis.

When cause and talent come together, everybody wins. When Life is Good’s senior executives met to find a new company president, they looked toLisa Tanzer, a longtime board member of Life is Good’s Kids Foundation. Tanzer’s stated focus is on the company’s philanthropic efforts, and her unique business background at Hasbro, Staples and pricewaterhouseCoopers gives her own “I get to” some bite.

2. Make social responsibility the new bottom line.

58003

My company, in fact, was recently forced to choose between team members’ well-being and the company’s bottom line. Thanks to a complaint, the federal government’s review process left 14 team members without work. If we’d looked only at our bottom line, we’d have let these employees go, but we chose to keep them on the payroll until the complaint was resolved. By keeping them on board and finding ways for them to contribute, we demonstrated our devotion and caring for our more than 200 employees.

patagonia, too, does a great job of this. At its own expense, the outdoors companyrecently studiedthe number of synthetic microfibers released into the waterways as its jackets are washed. It found the annual impact to water organisms to bethe equivalent of 11,900 plastic bags. The company is now on a mission to address the problem, helping to clean up both the planet and its environmentally conscious image.

3. Help employees make it personal.

Make employees a part of what you believe in by telling them your company’s story every chance you get. Then, offer them the chance to carry it forward.

Household products brand Method gives its employeesthree dayseach year to personify the company mission. 58003

All entrepreneurs start their companies on a mission to make the world a better place, but the struggles of business make those dreams easy to forget. Isn’t it time you recommitted to yours?