A sense of purpose — making the world better — means everything to employees

By William Seidman If an organization wants to significantly improve employee engagement and performance, it must start with purpose: a clear, collective goal of achieving a social good. When everyone is aligned on doing something important, they will work very hard to master the function. When both of these are in place, any leader can be certain that everyone is working toward the same end and are good at their work, which makes granting autonomy easy and safe. The alternative of course is to give autonomy to people who aren’t working for the same goal and/or aren’t very good at their job. This doesn’t seem very sensible. The best way to significant performance improvement is to first build a sense of purpose and mastery. Autonomy naturally occurs and motivation soars.  ]]>