Page 118 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHERE AM I GOING? (PURPOSE AND MOTIVATION)

direction. Many European organizations measure their suc-
cess by financial, customer/employee, and societal results—the
so-called triple bottom line, often called the 3-Ps of perfor-
mance, people, and planet. Corporate balanced scorecards
help leaders match employees’ desired destination with their
organization position.

Find the Right Fit

Leaders need to help employees and organizations find a
good fit between the purposes that motivate the individual
and the purposes that motivate the business as a whole. The
higher leaders are in the organization, the more broadly
they need to think about the purposes or destinations the
organization seeks and the more they need to “walk in four
directions at once” while keeping a clear sense of their over-
all purpose.
Sylvia was a talented human resources manager with an
Ivy League education and a passion for women’s rights. She
was hired in part because of her organization’s commitment
to equality. But when Sylvia’s passion took over every aspect
of her work to such an extent that she could talk of little else,
her empowerment motivation ran amok, untempered by
other business realities. While higher-ups valued her passion
for equality, they also needed to attend to other purposes to
keep the business profitable and contributing value for all of
its constituents. Her single-focused why might have been a
terrific fit in a government human rights agency, but it did
not serve her (or others) well in her capacity as a business
leader who needed to attend to all four quadrants.

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