Over the years, I’ve spent more than one night on a sailboat in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. GPS makes it pretty easy to chart your course and get to your destination, even when it’s dark and you can’t see much. Before GPS, sailors had to guide their ship using the stars. The north star was always the place to start when you were uncertain or needed to re-orient.
Just like a sailboat, every organization needs a north star. It needs something of great value people can believe in and trust, something which inspires them and spurs them on. Your employees need assurances and they need to re-orient more than you may think. Of course, a GPS isn’t going to automatically guide your company as it would someone’s boat. You will need something a little different, like a common purpose.
Every organization needs a common purpose. Perhaps it began with the company traditions and memories of a great past. Whatever it is, it should give the company purpose and stability. It’s a foundation or reason for being. Without it, employees tend to be unfocused and tense because they aren’t always certain how their actions might fit with the company. It lets them know where the company wants to go and how it wants to get there. It’s a road map.
All of this starts with the personal purpose and habits of the leader. The CEO or owner must be able to communicate his or her purpose, not just verbally but how she lives. Hopefully, she knows who she is, what she believes in, and what kind of person she wants to be. She then lives those out in the business. Or, we could say he or she “walks the talk,” as an example to others. The leader camps out on those principles and beliefs in a way that makes them foundational. If it’s truly a great thing, then others will want to follow and amazing things will happen.
I witnessed this firsthand when I worked for ServiceMaster in the 1990s. We all knew none of this would happen unless the leader was humble. Bill Pollard, the former CEO and board chair of ServiceMaster used to say, “I believe that you can’t really serve unless you are humble, and I don’t think you can be humble unless you are successful”. That is why you praise good performance, so you can develop more people to be humble with others. Being humble is where leadership begins.
But how do you create an organizational culture of service where everyone lives by the same principles? You can write down a credo but if the leader doesn’t do it, no one else will either. If the credo is unimportant, nothing much will happen. At ServiceMaster, the leaders had to be prepared to serve; to listen before they talked; to be givers, not takers; to be role models.
For me, the beginning of this was understanding who God was in Christ. Jesus served others. He listened before talking; He was a giver, not a taker; he was humble; He was a role model. I believe that every individual has been created in God’s image and has dignity and worth regardless of their position, intelligence, pay rate, sex, religion, race, or education. Therefore, it is wrong for anyone to derive benefit at the expense of someone else. It is fundamentally right to help and serve others, and to be humble when they are successful. Put another way, the leader must be in alignment with his or her employees, not competing with them.
What is your North Star? If your company is founded on a common purpose, knowing that work has meaning and value, does it improve your employees’ self-worth and value? Is it something the employees can get behind? What is your North Star?
About the Author
Andy’s passion and experience is that of an executive coach with years of experience in ownership and leadership in business. What’s of prime importance to him is a personal relationship with Christ and how to integrate that into everyday thinking, judgments about the business, and leadership of people. Andy wants to help leaders who must organize, direct others, delegate, and sell their ideas to others at a high level of abstraction – to hold steady with their faith and allow Christ to steer the ship, even when under pressure.
Andy is a Convene Chair in Phoenix, Arizona. Click here to learn more and connect with Andy!