Nearly every company has a mission and vision, but do these translate into motivation? The answer depends on whether or not the group has connected these statements to their Greater Goal. Research shows that a clear, integrated Greater Goal activates all levels of a company. This key alignment produces wide-reaching benefits to internal and external stakeholders. Still, less than one third of employees know what their company stands for. Surely these employees have access to the mission, vision, and values, but they’re missing the Greater Goal.
At Third River Partners, our Greater Goal is to help others find theirs and to achieve it. We specialize in equipping high-impact organizations in sectors like healthcare, government, and manufacturing. We want to see your impact multiply! We’re sharing 5 actions you can take to start clarifying your organization’s Greater Goal today.
#1 Start with What You Have by Analyzing Company Values and Purpose
While the Greater Goal transcends mission and vision, these guiding documents are often a great place to start. A former healthcare client had a mission to deliver high-quality healthcare. Starting with this mission, the leaders of the organization zoomed out. They asked “why” or what the end goal of delivering high-quality healthcare was. Ultimately, their teams realized that they wanted to make people more healthy. They discovered that their Greater Goal was to keep people healthy and promote wellness.
Probing the current mission you have can point your team in the direction of your Greater Goal. As you examine these elements, notice what connects the values, vision, and mission of your organization. See if your team can identify what they produce when all working optimally. The answer should signify your Greater Goal.
#2 Look for Your Innovation Hubs
Greater Goals inject energy into everyday work! As you take stock of your company’s current functioning, look for the places consistently producing innovative solutions and approaches. It’s likely that this hub of energy has a clear sense of their guiding goal of work. Ask, “What is the greater purpose that is active here?” It will likely include achievement of mission results and uplifting relationships.
You’ll usually find a serving leader at the epicenter of a high-functioning team. This person is acting as a thinking partner for team members and consistently modeling the Greater Goal. Take a moment to sit down with these team members, and with this leader in particular, to find out what they identify as the value of their their work.
#3 Ask Yourself what You Want Your Work to Count For
Even if you aren’t in the C-suite, aligning yourself to your own Greater Goal is a great way to start transforming your organization. You may even transform yourself into a higher-impact leader along the way! Take some time to write out what you want your work to count for. What effects do you want to see come out of your toils? Companies can get caught up chasing the bottom line, but it’s often easier to find what lies beneath that race on an individual level.
For instance, if you maintain roads, what are you hoping will come from that completed road? One of our clients, an infrastructure engineer, realized they wanted to build roads that would safely connect people to the places they love. This powerful insight came from personal reflection of a few team members.
#4 Invite Employees to Share Ideas
If you are in the C-Suite, you’re in a fantastic position to unearth and shape the Greater Goal driving your company. Take some time to ask your teams. One of our former clients asked every person who worked at the company what they saw as the Greater Goal for the enterprise. Employees contributed via email survey, via index cards, et. cetera. This client found that the mere process of asking people to share their ideas activated engagement. Simply thinking about the Greater Goal increased focus on that outcome. The energy snowballs into higher engagement and creativity.
We are especially passionate about accelerating your conversations with team members about the Greater Goal. These initiatives typically cascade into breakthroughs.
#5 Focus on the Strengths that will Make Your Company a Long-Term Success
Short-term stressors are like fog - they can make it hard to see further than arm’s reach. In order to look for the Greater Goal, take a moment to put those hurdles aside. Instead, take stock of your organization’s current strengths (we promise, they’re there even in the darkest moment!). Then, home in on how those strengths will make your company a long-term success. What other strengths could be added to enhance your success?
Building on strength and success is central to serving leadership. This practice clarifies what success means for your company. It cuts to the heart of what your work should count for in the end, your collective Greater Goal. Think beyond financial terms, focus on the work itself, and what the work will produce if successful.
These 5 actionable steps will jumpstart your journey towards uncovering and spreading the influence of your company’s Greater Goal. Doing so will amplify employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and ultimately catalyze the breakthroughs that build a sustainably high-functioning team. Identifying the Greater Goal lays out the path for strategic alignment and shared goal achievement.
Ready to get started? We’d love to go deeper with you.
