The Habits of Amazing People: Have a Common Purpose and Focus on It
“Know why you show up for work every day.”
A “common purpose” is precisely that: The underlying aspect that holds any company together. It is the reason you show up to work. It is how we measure if we have had a successful day or not. Stop and think about how you personally measure this.
What is the common purpose at your company? At ArcherPoint, we consider our Core Values to be our common goal:
- Delighting Clients with amazing work that they are happy to pay for and rave about to others.
- Building an enduring tribe distinguished by collaboration and always putting the good of the community, clients, and colleagues above self-interest.
- Learning and always challenging ourselves to build a better business and helping our clients to do the same.
- Cultivating an environment that welcomes and honors diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, and origin.
But are those our common purpose? We often revert to a robotic mindset, repeating memorized phrases when someone asks us questions about our company’s shared purpose. Don’t get me wrong … these play a significant role in our long-term goals and help us move forward as a company. Important? Yes, but are these really our common purpose or the reason we come to work every day?
However, if you look at our company’s core values, the common purpose is actually stated in each and every one of these values. So, what’s the common denominator? Our clients.
In Shep Hyken’s Be Amazing or Go Home, he says it best with this quote: “The Purpose of your business – of any business – is to acquire and hold on to customers.”
While mission statements and core values make you want to push your company forward, you must never lose focus on why you come to work every day.
If you are in the customer service business, your purpose is the customer. If you are not doing something in your daily activities to keep that existing customer or to acquire a new customer, you do not have a customer aligned purpose. It sounds overly simple. And it is!
Your Common Purpose is the underlying foundation all of your company’s goals, values, and mission statements are based on. It is not there to take focus away from any of these other important aspects your company needs to succeed, but it sits at the root of your reason for being. The common purpose is the same whether you are in the back office sending out invoices or on the factory floor creating the product. It is something all of us should think about as we work every day.
Is your organization focused on the common purpose of acquiring and holding onto customers? What are you doing to keep that common purpose front and center? Share your thoughts with your organization and with us; then contact ArcherPoint to learn how our customer service offerings can help.
Read more of the habits of amazing people we’ve discussed:
- Show up prepared to amaze
- Understand what it means to be amazing
- Always act as if you’re on stage
- Show up early – be on “Lombardi time”
- Act like you’re always on the clock
- Create an “anti-NO” zone
- Be proactive
- Think ahead
- Create predictably positive experiences
- Think outside the rule book
- Stay a step ahead
- Ask directly for feedback
- Look past the honeymoon
- Rate yourself
- Fulfill the promise
- Commit to constant, never-ending improvement
- Own it! Take personal responsibility