Without a Purpose, you are captain of a rudderless ship.

A Purpose, or North Star acts as a compass for decision making. You can check all decisions against your Purpose to ensure that you are heading in the right direction.

It is not 'a' goal, but 'the' reason.

The raison d'etre.

It must work both rationale and emotionally to succeed.

Imagine when Emma Cullen approach Sam Chisholm to help the town of Rose Creek.

Cullen offered him money (a rationle incentive) but Chisholm had not interest in the town.

Once he was told about what Bartholomew Brogue had done to Cullen's husband, he had a purpose that was now both rationale and emotional.

A Purpose will have the best chance of being both the right compass setting, and being a direction that will be followed, if the team delivering it have been involved in setting it. They are both bought into the reason rationally and vested emotionally.

A Purpose that is simply imposed from above will have far less chance of success as it is not recognised by the people who have to deliver it. They will most likely be obedient and work towards it, as it is their job. However, they will not be emotionally committed to succeed, and when the pressure is on, cracks will appear.

When pressure is on people, and I mean really on! When they have a ridiculous deadline, they are pulling an all nighter, and are short of resource, this is when their connection to the Purpose is key. It will give them the context, clarity, focus and reason to push on to succeed.

The North Star in the sky is a constant by which sailors of old would navigate. They did this because they knew that it was real, fixed and could be relied upon. The same is true for your business's Purpose. In addition it must be challenging, ambitions and a realistic stretch. It should connect the individual to the team and link both short and long term goals.

Underpinning all of this is the Leader. It is her role to map out the journey with great vision, passion, and in an engaging and inclusive way.

If you think of the Purpose as the Journey to be traveled, it is the role of the Leader to take the team to places that they would not and could not have traveled to alone.

by Richard Wright