Purpose is a necessity—knowing one’s purpose even more. Those people and organizations that do seem to go further and accomplish more than those that don’t.
But what is purpose? It’s defined as: “The object toward which one strives or for which something exists.”
We’re all guided by it. Everyone one of us. The Bible says, “The noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.” [1] Without it, we’re like children “tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine.” [2]
In other words, where there’s no purpose, we go everywhere and end up nowhere!
Organizations of Purpose
Organizations (ministries or business) that have a corporate purpose, over the long haul, do more and go further than their counterparts.When talking about the necessity of purpose and enterprise Niko Mourkogiannis in his book Purpose had this to say:
“A successful Purpose both drives a company forward and helps build sustainable competitive advantage. In the hands of an effective leader, Purpose becomes the engine of a company, the source of its energy. And you can tell, by a loss of energy, whenever there has been a lessening in purpose…Purpose is now more important now than it has ever been.” [4]
One executive brought the point home:
“In the end managers are not loyal to a particular boss or even to a company but to a set of values they believe in and find satisfying.” [5]
Leaders of Purpose
One of the characteristics of great leaders is their unwavering commitment to their purpose—whatever it may be. They know their organization’s purpose and align all resources to accomplish it. They know who they are, where they’re going, and what they’re supposed to do. They’re internally driven.
But what about vision? Aren’t they visionaries?
Yes they are.
But their vision is in line with their purpose. As the diagram below suggests:
They start with purpose (who we are), and out of that purpose flows vision (where we’re going). But the purpose of the vision is to fulfill the purpose of the organization; in other words, “we’re going here to become who we are or what we were called to be.” And the same way Peter lost sight of Jesus and began to sink, organizations start to sink when they lose sight of purpose.
The Bible also says, “The mark of a good leader is loyal followers; leadership is nothing without a following.” [6] Leaders with strong purpose will attract and retain equally strong people—leaders of purpose attract people of purpose.
More than ever we need people, companies, and ministries with a well integrated purpose.
What are your thoughts?
- Isaiah 32: 8 (The Bible in Basic English)
- Ephesians 4:14 (The Amplified)
- The 4.5 figure is from E. Sullivan, “The Changing Role of Careers.” Journal of Management (1999)
- Mourkogiannis, Niko. Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. pg 26-27.
- Bartlett, Christopher and Samantha Ghosal. “Changing the Role of Top Management beyond Strategy to Purpose.” Harvard Business Review (2002)
- Proverbs 14:28 (The Message)
