No one wants to work for a life-depleting bureaucracy that takes the fun and joy out of life, and purposeful owners and leaders want to avoid creating this kind of environment for their employees. So often, when the Collisions Coaches start working with a new ‘accidental entrepreneur’ (client), they remind us how important it is to them that they don’t want to be a soul-less Corporation that achieves high levels of profit and efficiency, but at the expense of their employees’ wellbeing. Caring for these individuals is frequently highlighted as core to the purpose of the enterprise.
They want to have the kind of workplace that people love to be part of, while still producing exceptional value for their customers. It's not that good performance is at odds with a positive employee experience. Rather, caring for employees as people is more likely to produce great results. As we engage with clients, they naturally talk about some of the business problems they're facing, but they also emphasize how important it is that they achieve their mission while treating the people that work for them with respect an authentic appreciation. After all, these individuals, are the ones who create a great experience for customers (or not, if they are exploited or treated badly). It is the employees who personify the company brand in the marketplace.
For leaders who want to run their business with purpose, this can feel like a dilemma if they believe that they have to sacrifice profit to achieve it. When engaging Strategic Collisions to help them to scale up their operation or pursue higher levels of performance, the question often comes up, “if we do all these things to increase profit, does it mean that we have to compromise on pursuing our purpose”? Conventional wisdom has convinced owners and leaders that PROFIT is the main thing and that achieving purpose is just a by-product. This doesn’t need to be the case – instead, when PURPOSE (deserving of all caps) is the main focus, the pursuit of profit (spelled with a little ‘p’) is a [worthy] means to that end.
