Discovery of a CEO’s “Why” or purpose is essential to motivating both him or herself and the Team. A personal and business “Why” needs to be in alignment. This ensures maximum engagement of all stakeholders.
A few years ago I met with a CEO of a 75 year old company founded by the CEO’s grandfather. The organization had grown to 13,000 employees and the CEO wondered if it was possible to inspire employees and improve retention by sharing their purpose. After a series of interviews with many members of the Executive Team and the Management Team we sequestered ourselves for two days to discover their “Why” and create initiatives for the next year, chunked down into 90 day segments.
When a company is that large, there can be many products or service offerings and one single purpose seems like a monumental task. In this case, it was a major supermarket chain with a grocery division, housewares, drugstore products etc. Everyone wanted their products in the “Why” statement, which was an impossible task.
The CEO and the entire team were ecstatic when we collaboratively came up with their “Why”. Are you curious? Here it is: “Infusing Life with Health and Happiness”. It gave us all goose bumps – a sure way to know we’d hit the jackpot.