Wow, I feel energized but exhausted…, proud but humbled…, and honestly a little light headed. This week I had the immense pleasure of helping a leadership team discover and articulate clearly and powerfully the guiding principles of their organization.
I had a front row seat to observe a team of highly motivated, experienced and effective leaders come together with real courage and engage each other in an incredibly vulnerable way. Even though they had been working together for years, each found new insights about each other and were able to make real progress toward solidifying an already strong foundation of trust between them.
They took the time to recognize and applaud the individual super powers each of them brought to the team. They also discussed with candor and humility each other’s weaknesses and committed to improve for the good of the organization.
The tone of vulnerability and trust built during the first part of this offsite served as fertile ground for the passionate, unfiltered debate that followed. This debate centered on answering six simple but crucial questions about their organization (outlined in Pat Lencioni’s book, “The Advantage”): Why do they exist? How do they behave? What do they do? How will they succeed? What is most the important thing to accomplish right now? And who must do what to make that happen?
Why is this exercise so important? Because as Simon Sinek puts it: “people don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” Why does your organization exist? THIS is your organization’s SMIQ or Single Most Important Question.
Companies and organizations that don’t know why they exist don’t move us; they don’t inspire us to act, to listen, and definitely not to buy from them. This is because all human behavior and decision making originates in the part of the brain that deals with intuition and emotion — not language.
Ask any salesperson: they know that all buying decisions are emotional. We just use our intellects to justify the decisions our emotions make.
When a company doesn’t know why it exists or what it stands for, I automatically assume it exists merely to make money and so I push for discounts and look for sales, deals and incentives that help justify doing business with them.
On the other hand, when I come across a company that knows and articulates clearly what it stands for, then one of two things will necessarily happen. I will either become a customer, a raving fan and a brand evangelist if I share the belief in the cause. Or I will passionately hate them if their cause is one that offends me. But no one can remain indifferent to a clearly articulated manifesto.
Do you know why your organization exists? Why should anyone care? Learn to discover and communicate this and you’ll find yourself attracting those who believe what you believe.
