Companies focus on purpose for a reason. For thoughtful leaders at big brands, it’s not just a buzzword — it’s a strategic tool. Purpose is how brands differentiate themselves, drive value and deepen their connection with customers. Think about Ben & Jerry’s and its political stances – agree or not, you know where they stand. For a brand like REI, their alignment with sustainability is a more obvious link to their core business. Purpose is broader than profitability, and it’s more tactical than corporate culture. If culture is how people work together, then purpose is the why behind the work.
How leadership teams make purpose live in the organisation.
Purpose: moving from idea to identity.
What works on a boardroom planning deck is far from the work of turning that vision into goals at the team level. And yet, organisations must make that leap. If purpose stays high-level, it is little more than a slogan. Embodied in team, it’s a lived reality. And the stakes are high: purpose can improve innovation by as much as 30%.
Senior leaders are key here — they need to help teams fit the broader picture of purpose into their piece of the puzzle, just as clearly as they understand their operational targets. How does marketing live the company’s purpose? What does that look like for a sales team, beyond hitting numbers? Translating purpose into specific functional behaviours is what moves it from rhetoric to relevance — and from abstract to actionable.
An organisation I worked with centred much of its purpose around superior delivery by better and smarter productivity. No surprises there. But they wanted people to develop productivity through innovation and without abandoning personal values. That sounds lovely in theory. But what does that actually look like in the daily rhythm of an organisation? Because otherwise all teams really will hear from the C-suite is just another directive to do more work.
How did this look on the ground? A client told me he had a team member who regularly left between 4 and 6 p.m. to watch his child’s baseball games, then logged back on later to finish work between 8 and 10. It turned out that the team member proved to be more productive, not less. The leader encouraged others to do the same. He saw that when people feel trusted to honour their personal priorities, they not only didn’t disengage… they double down. Productivity didn’t suffer. In fact, it improved. Because people weren’t just showing up, they were showing up with purpose. That alignment between personal values and professional goals created the kind of resilience no policy could force.
Purpose is rooted in people.
It’s easy to talk about purpose and resilience in abstract terms, but often it comes down to small, human moments. Not grand statements — just consistent signals that people matter. That mindset that people do their best work when they feel connected is what brings a company’s purpose to life. If your purpose is built around the idea that people are your most important asset, then helping them connect to each other is what makes them feel valued. And that, in turn, drives productivity, engagement and long-term loyalty. I’ve written previously about the importance of trust in teams for the same reason: people need to connect emotionally (shared trust) just as they need to connect in vision (shared purpose).
One client manifested that at the team level at their holiday party. Each person on the team was given a small gift card and asked to draw a colleague’s name. The brief was simple: buy something meaningful. One woman had often joked that her dog would go wild every time she chopped garlic…so her teammate got her a garlic jar. The gift itself wasn’t expensive—the party was set up to avoid that dynamic. What mattered was it communicated a colleague listening and actioning a connection. That kind of exchange builds not only camaraderie — as in, general friendliness among peers — it creates a sense of psychological safety.
Executive teams are right to prioritise purpose. The win is helping teams live it.
At the executive level, purpose often feels like a strategic narrative — something to shape brand reputation, attract talent or define market position. But its real power shows up further down, where people work together. Senior leaders who want to build resilient organisations must treat purpose not just as messaging, but as a framework for how teams operate and connect. That means helping managers turn lofty values into everyday behaviours. Whether that’s supporting the importance of baseball game or the significance of a dog-friendly garlic jar. Connect teams to purpose and they work harder, they connect, they create the reality. And the boardroom idea becomes an identity.
In terms of my background and expertise, I have spent my entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams and their companies. Prior to starting my own consulting firm, I led the global executive assessment and development team for Cisco. Earlier in my career I held leadership roles with RHR International, PepsiCo, Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
