Why defining your team’s purpose can propel your team to new heights

Winning teams don’t happen by accident. The best teams work toward clearly defined goals that everybody shares and believes in. There’s collaboration and mutual respect that leads to every team member believing that their role—no matter how menial or monumental—is critical to the team’s success. The one key trait that all winning teams have: purpose.

Modern teaming is all about building flexible and dynamic teams working toward a common goal. That’s true whether your mission is to put a man on the moon or to build a financial advisory or planning practice.

But before every employee at your practice can feel like a key player on the team, they must have a clear understanding of their role in the larger mission. That’s why it’s important to create a practice “purpose statement”—a “why the practice exists” declaration that inspires and motivates. The goal: reinforce your practice’s reason “for being” to employees, clients, and the world.

Defining your purpose is key to building a winning team

If workers find purpose and fulfillment in their jobs, they are likely to be more fulfilled, engaged, and inspired. And this type of teaming dynamic likely will result in them raising their game and doing their job better. What’s more, employees who start their workday with a shared vision also feel a sense of belonging. They fully understand how their individual contributions tie into the success of the team.

A purpose statement is most powerful when it delivers a consistent message that penetrates every level of an organization. With the help of just a few well-chosen words, leaders can inspire their teams and help them find value in their work. 

The power of “purpose”

The value of a shared purpose and the concept of “it’s more than a job” is exemplified by President John F. Kennedy’s visit to NASA in 1962. When President Kennedy asked a custodian sweeping the halls what he was doing, the custodian responded: “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” This single sentence echoed the president’s speech to Congress and the nation a year earlier when he laid out his goal of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”¹

The custodian’s response is a dramatic reminder of how leaders can inspire and motivate everyone to excel by instilling in them a sense of purpose. It also highlights how having a shared purpose can filter through an entire organization and make every employee feel that they are key contributors to the larger mission. This shared vision and sense of belonging is what President Kennedy was striving for when outlining his space mission’s purpose: “In a very real sense,” the president told Congress in May 1961, “it will not be one man going to the moon…it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”

Creating a powerful purpose statement

A winning purpose statement is a simple one sentence message that every employee can draw on as a reminder of why they want to work at the company and give 110% effort daily. Examples of memorable purposes statements include:

• Airline, Virgin Atlantic: “To empower everyone to take on the world”
• Coffee chain, Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time”
• Asset management firm, T. Rowe Price: “To identify and actively invest in opportunities to help people thrive in an evolving world”
• Chip-maker, AMD: “Technology enabling a better world”

An effective purpose statement has a few key components. It should be descriptive, specific, unique, and authentic. It should also be memorable and repeatable. And it must be meaningful and inspiring to all team members and reflect the team culture. Getting input from key team members to help better articulate your practice’s “why” as well as pinpointing key words that best capture your team’s purpose can go a long way toward validating your purpose statement.

It should remind each employee why they get out of bed each morning, why they want to be part of the team, why their work matters, and why every client contact, no matter how seemingly small, must have the practice’s larger purpose in mind.

Creating a purpose statement that’s simple to grasp, captures your team’s reason for being, and articulates your core values is a critical step in driving alignment among all employees and building strong winning teams.