How does your purpose impact your business success? How does it impact your teams’ performance? What would your team members say is your organization’s mission? Does it match yours?
In my coaching practice, I’m partnering with clients on their succession plans for key team members within their sales, marketing, and technology teams. Over 30% of their key team members will retire within the next several years. The same is probably true for your organization. Is your organization prepared?
These are interesting consulting engagements because I’ve discovered its seldom it’s what my clients think the problems are. Part of my coaching engagement process is to do a quick diagnostic on corporate culture before developing a succession planning coaching program for them. This quick assessment allows me to better understand how their business operates in the real world.
I find that by assessing an organization’s culture first I can better understand where my client can get the best return on their succession coaching investment. Many of my clients are larger, privately held businesses. Typically, the founder is still part of the leadership team. The company today reflects the reason they started their businesses many years ago.
Succession planning time an opportunity to reignite the new leader’s passion for the business. Sadly, many organizations do not take this opportunity to reinvigorate their organization’s culture. Their organization’s purpose was created many years ago. Many team members are no longer even aware of why the business was founded.
Many founders can share their ideas on their company’s mission. However, many of their team members are not clear on it today. This lack of clarity is impacting the key people on their teams and their performance, today and into the future. I thought it might be helpful to share the questions I use to help clarify my client’s purpose.
This questioning process doesn’t have to take a significant amount of time. These questions increase your team’s engagement and empower them to become more invested in your and their shared success. Discussing, understanding, and sharing the answers can make a huge difference to the organization’s success and growth.
- Why does your organization exist? What is the purpose of your business?
- What impact does your business have on your community and markets?
- What larger purpose does your business have on the world?
- Does your purpose empower and engage the people on your teams?
- Are you investing time, people, and resources to achieve your organization’s goals?
- Do your training and development budgets reflect your commitment to achieving your greater purpose?
- When was the last time you shared your organization’s purpose with your team members?
- Are your team members committed to your organization’s greater purpose? Why or why not?
- How does this commitment show up in their daily activities? Are their priorities the same as yours?
- Is your organization’s mission evolving and emerging to lead today’s changing market place?
- If I stopped one of your recent new hires and asked them what they saw as the purpose of your business, would it match yours?
- What are the key performance metrics that are needed to support your organization’s purpose?
- Do your team members understand the importance of their roles in the organization’s success today and in the future?
- Does your purpose encourage, reward, and recognize high quality work?
- Are your managers committed to making your purpose part of how the manage and lead their teams?
Now that we know the organization’s purpose, how do we begin building a succession structure for your team members? I’ll begin sharing this in two weeks. Next week we celebrate the Fourth of July and entrepreneurial independence.
See you next week.