The definition of definition
In our business, the essence of creating value for our clients resides within our ability to help them define what their purpose is (vision), how they need to act in order to create the impact they intend (values), and for them to have an effective way to share why they do what they do and how they do it with each other, prospective colleagues, clients, prospects, and referral sources. For an engagement to make mutual business sense, the buyer has to believe those elements are important enough to invest in creating, sharing, building on, and holding themselves and others accountable to.
Part I – Having clarity
The reality is many organizations don’t fully appreciate the power of defining what good looks in terms of how people conduct themselves in every action and interaction. They also don’t give nearly enough significance on making the point of their efforts abundantly clear to all concerned. This is true even when the talents of an organization have taken them to a place they can’t seem to move beyond. Many of those are good places – with ample revenues, profits, people – just not the place their leaders want to remain. When leaders determine that something different is required to get unstuck and progress, many gravitate toward buying things (technology, marketing, etc.) or a one-size-fits-all processes (just ask these 4 questions and you’ll double your revenue in six months kind of stuff). Fortunately, many entrepreneurial leaders believe they’ve got terrific ingredients for continued success; they just need some help formulating the recipe to move beyond their current level of achievement. That’s where we come in. We help collect, organize, and refine the definition of what defines them – the definition of definition, if you will.
• Vision – the impact on your world
• Mission – the impact on your business
• Values – the behavioral must-haves to create and sustain success
• Story – a consistent, effective vocabulary for sharing why you’re in the business you’re in
There’s more, of course, like structure and process; but higher levels of sustainable success start with having this level of organized, articulated clarity.
Part II – Leveraging clarity
Once you have this definition, your opportunity is to use it to greatest effect. We describe the levels of grasp and application of the elements of success (i.e., Vision, Mission, Values, Story, and more) as Knowing, Owning, and Driving. Here’s what this can mean:
• Know – your people are aware of what makes your company different, how they need to act to be part of the team, and are bought into the idea of your vision and values. What they do, when they do, and how they do it is informed by this knowledge to some extent.
• Own – ownership starts with holding oneself accountable to the values of the organization and exerting a consistent level of effort in everything they do. Owning likely grows to include a degree of innovation (considering and seeking support to do things better) and local leadership (acting to inspire and support others).
• Drive – driving is the highest level of contribution most of us achieve, with the value of our effort multiplied by the number of people we influence. We may not drive everything all the time, but increasing the frequency and intensity of our driving creates tremendous value.
To do any of the above, we have to create and share our common language of success. It’s simple, but not easy … and it won’t happen until you focus on the importance of having it. Today could be the perfect day to start – and it’s only a start, because having the language and driving behavior with it is a high effort, iterative process. Of course, you can continue to trust that everyone just happens to get what you get and let them go about their business in exactly the way you want them to. Maybe you should ask Jeff Bezos how that’s working out for him?