Picture this: your team is like a three-legged stool, and for it to stand tall, each leg—purpose, culture, and strategy—must remain strong and stable. If these do not balance, your stool risks an ungraceful tumble.
You can follow this three-legged stool approach to establish strength and unity within your teams and wider organisation to help retain talent, empower connections and encourage creativity:
One leg of your stool is purpose, or what we fondly call “ikigai” at Insights—an anchor for your teams, akin to a sturdy tree trunk providing stability while allowing agile growth in the branches as the team stretches its limits.
Crafting a compelling purpose for your teams isn’t just a checkbox; it’s the magnetic force that authentically binds your people and your organisation, fostering talent retention and cultivating a thriving working culture.
In the realm of Gen-Y and Gen-Z in particular, work is not just about punching in and out—it’s about waking up with a sense of purpose, a cause that propels them out of bed, eager to make a meaningful impact.
For seamless integration of purpose, consider these recommendations:
It is a well-known saying that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This isn’t just a nice sentiment. If your focus leans heavily on strategy while neglecting the alignment of your culture, your stool will waver and may even fall. A concerted effort on the leg of culture becomes imperative to realign everyone.
To cultivate the desired culture, take a close look at how you lead. Consider flipping the traditional hierarchy on its head— transform into a mentor or sherpa, guiding your teams rather than metaphorically standing on a pedestal dictating directives.
Stepping away from the elevated platform and adopting more of an NPC (Non-Playing Character) role, drastically reducing the teacher/tell methodology, is a bold and courageous move.
This shift encourages leaders and team members alike to think independently and make decisions on their own, fostering a culture where creativity thrives, alignment is achieved through actions, and the essence of your strategy is nurtured from within.
Of course strategy is paramount for the success and sustainability of any enterprise and an essential third leg on the stool. It serves as the guiding framework that aligns an team’s resources, activities, and goals to achieve a coherent and purposeful direction. A well-defined strategy provides clarity to the workforce, ensuring that everyone is working towards common objectives.
However let’s chat about the quieter but equally important world of cultivating behaviours. Strategies may shift like sands, adapting to what suits your teams now, next, and later. However behaviours need a bit more attention to evolve and align with your strategic goals.
Purposeful leadership behaviours guide the way, setting an example for everyone in your organization. However, if your behaviours are lacking, beware of the potential clash between culture and strategy—it might become a recurring theme until you make the necessary adjustments.
Cultivating leadership behaviours creates a certain spirit or morale to help your teams pivot or overcome challenges and change within your organisation and helps you to win more naturally in the marketplace and achieve strategy.
What’s the key to success? Be purposeful, collaborative and open when choosing these behaviours. Prioritising culture over strategy for the right amount of time, is not a bad choice to make!
The key to successfully aligning these three legs of the stool is ensuring that everyone is on board for the journey. Leaving anyone in your teams behind risks toppling the entire stool.
Let this new dawn be the spark that revitalizes you and your teams. Forge ahead with purpose, culture, and strategy hand in hand—uniting them like the unshakeable legs of a three-legged stool. Because when these elements align, you and your teams stand strong and in perfect harmony, ready to conquer whatever lies ahead!
Marcus Wylie is Head of Culture at Insights
