“Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how” – Friedrich Nietzsche
From Listening to Definition
The insights you gathered through listening – to your team, customers, and inner voice – now become the building blocks of your purpose statement. But what makes a powerful purpose?
At its core, purpose is the radiating center of your business that:
- Guides strategic decisions toward a north star
- Nourishes your inspiration like a well
- Directs all actions along a central thread
Finding Your Core
Before we dive into crafting your purpose statement, let’s explore where purpose lives. You might be familiar with Andrés Zuzunaga’s Venn Diagram of Purpose where four circles intersect: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you get paid for. At the center of these overlapping elements lies your purpose – the sweet spot where passion meets profession, and mission meets vocation. Hubert Joly aptly adapted Zuzunaga’s concept to the context of companies. He determined that your company’s purpose lies at the intersection of people’s passion, economic value, the world’s needs, and your company’s strengths.
This visualization helps us understand why purpose is so powerful. To begin defining your purpose, elaborate on each of the outer circles. By defining your purpose, we are reversing the listening phase (from the inside out) and are working our way from the outside in.
Your Purpose Formula
After years of working with impact-led founders and hours of research, we’ve developed a simple formula to guide any purpose statement:
Why are you in this world? = Action + Impact (+ Vessel)Take eir’s journey as an example. Through extensive listening and reflection, they defined their purpose as “Connecting for a Better Ireland.” This clear purpose led to 90% of employees understanding their role in the company’s strategy and unlocked additional shareholder investment. The purpose statement is made up of the action, i.e. connecting, and the intended impact, i.e. for a better Ireland. In eir’s case, the vessel is implied and remains malleable depending on the arm of the business.