When your purpose is put to the test, do you sink or swim?

Photo by Helen Walne

Business purpose examples and stories about leaders who have turned to their purpose to navigate rough seas, from the perspective of an open-water swimmer.

Here’s a question a lot of leaders have had to ask themselves recently: How do you practically live your business purpose and values when the shit hits the fan? When the very promise you pledged to build trust and loyalty with employees and customers is put to the test.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says “what we are about is belonging, and at the center of belonging is love.” But tell that to the 1,900 people who got laid off.

The pandemic tested a lot of businesses with purpose-based cultures, but can leaders really pause their values (like relationships with team members) while they lay off a few hundred people?

This past year has provided a real moment of truth for leaders. We know that knowing what you stand for is a vital element to every workplace culture. But can your business purpose work as hard for you in the bad times as it does in the good?

We believe it can. Here’s how.

This is your sink or swim moment

Since early 2020, leaders have been under a sustained challenge, in ways that none could have ever imagined. Our client, Richard Lyon, former GM of ultra-luxury resort, One&Only in Cape Town, said to us in June of last year: “in no business planning ever would you consider a scenario where you would not have any revenue at all for 8 months.” And yet, this was exactly what they had to deal with.

One&Only’s purpose is ‘We create Joy’. But how do you uphold a purpose like that when people are stuck in extended isolation, taking pay cuts or even losing their jobs?

Our view? Bad times like these are the optimal moment to walk the talk of your business purpose. They are the most fertile opportunities to show who you really are. Instead of parking what you stand for until the storm blows over, it’s time to get up on stage and stand up for what you believe in.

Swimming in unpredictable waters is much like running a business today.

Most people who know me know that I am mad about open-water swimming. I swim in the pool when I can’t swim in the ocean. The mindset I have in the pool is very different — I have a program, hit autopilot and complete my session exactly according to plan. Everything is timed, measured and the controlled environment means that I can stick to my plan.

This is historically how business has run, too — like a machine that leaders program with purpose statements, strategies, and KPIs, and then set in motion.

Swimming in the sea is completely different. I have an idea of how I am going to swim based on weather apps, maps, tides, etc., but when I arrive I always stand on the shore for a good 10 minutes, watch what is happening in the water, and usually revise the plan. Once in the water, I stop often, feel what’s happening with the current, swell, temperature or wind, and if it means a harder swim back, then I might turn back earlier than planned.

The ocean is unpredictable, much like the world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that has been talked about in business circles for years, and which became an unavoidable and extreme reality in 2020.

We were abruptly confronted with the fact that running and growing a business is not like swimming in the pool, it’s like swimming in the sea. And it has been inspiring and humbling to see leaders navigating the open waters by building belief in what they stand for.

Here are some real stories of how some of those leaders have doubled down on their purpose, using it to respond (rather than react) to their situation, and to remind them of the humanity in their business.

Building belief in your purpose, people and culture in the bad times

“The pandemic was the make or break of our purpose.”

One of the largest and most iconic fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail brands in South Africa, which happens to be one of our clients, uttered these words recently. We started working with this client in 2016 and through a year-long deep engagement process we defined the purpose of their stores: ‘to create a space where you feel connected, inspired and cared for’.

At that time, retail was starting to shift from a product to an experience-based sector, with employee experience lying at the heart of customer experience. It was a significant shift in how the sector viewed its source of success, and called for a very different approach from operationally focused leaders.

Under the pressure of COVID, this retailer emerged with a mantra for living their purpose: ‘now more than ever’. A steadfast acknowledgement that this was their moment of truth.

“I remember that first call from my staff member to notify me that she had tested positive with COVID-19. I remember being dumbfounded, trying hard to keep my emotions in check. I was silent on the phone, just trying to listen, and that is when I picked up the fear in her voice. She was petrified, and I had to immediately make the conscious decision to step up and make her feel cared for.”

—Retail client

Rather than abandon caring, leaders embraced it. They were able to translate what ‘cared for’ looked like in good times — from simply being supportive when someone needs encouragement on their learning journey, to frequent 1:1 check-ins during a crisis, asking about mental and emotional well-being, which are trends in employee engagement.

Using business purpose to sense and respond, not program and control

What I have learned working with a large retailer is that retail is a machine. It needs to run like clockwork. The source of growth is finding efficiencies in established processes… in a stable environment. And a leader's job is to manage the continual improvement of established ways. In other words, top notch pool swimming strategy.

But we’re in the ocean now.

“As a country manager, I was confronted with having to put on different hats as the situation changed. Teams that were working in-store were worried that they would catch the virus. Teams at home were worried that their jobs were not safe, or that they wouldn’t be paid. Our purpose tested our integrity and resilience as leaders.”

—Retail client

This is the power of ‘hitting ‘pause’ and purposefully acting with intention. The established business purpose served as a simple and unifying reference point to help leaders remain calm in those moments when there was no precedent. It was a tool for stability in a sea of change.

You cannot sense and respond effectively if you are hijacked by reactivity. A knee-jerk reaction has a ripple effect on the people around you and you lose the benefit of a calm perspective and the awareness to make intentional choices.

I experience this when swimming in groups in the ocean. If one person panics, it panics the entire group. I have learned the hard way that I cannot use fear to fight my way through a difficult situation. Getting perspective by reconnecting to what I love about the ocean and why I swim can turn a terrifying experience into an exhilarating one.

Shai Evian, CEO of Howler, a company that provides technology solutions to large-scale events and festivals, has an inspiring story of sticking to what Howler stood for, using it as a resource and trusting that it would help them survive the pandemic.

“In March 2020 we had acquired a big European competitor and we were on track for our best year yet. I was in Italy signing the final contract, and arrived back on the 11th of March to a living nightmare of a total ban of events globally. Who would have thought that the purpose and values would determine the future of our business and our legacy? I took myself back to when I started the business and failure was not an option. Our purpose has always been to ‘enable experiences of a lifetime and to inspire hope’. We put our people first, made our platform available for good causes, we empowered artists and events to come online and we created experiences in a different way.”

Shai makes it sound easy — taking an events management business focussed on in person experiences to an online environment in a short time frame. We wrote some guidance to help you use your purpose like that in our free guide to building a company culture that drives growth, so you can emerge stronger whenever crisis hits.

Using business purpose to focus on people and culture

Powerful workplace cultures are about people and what they believe in, what matters to them, and the value they create for others. Another senior leader told me, “nothing could have prepared us for COVID-19, but because of the work we did on culture, we were in a solid position to handle it.”

‘We create a space where you feel connected, inspired and cared for’ is a purpose that invites leaders to access their human qualities. Operationally focused businesses like retail can be dehumanising. Leaders had started to see themselves differently: as leaders of people, not just leaders of process. That’s really what brought them through COVID.

“The biggest lesson for me was when I asked someone in-store, ‘how are you doing?’ They would give me sales figures, tell me how their departments were doing. etc. This time around, when I ask the question, I am going to wait around for the right answer — how are THEY doing.”

—Retail client

Focusing on people and culture can also lead to a level of empowerment that buoys the business in tough times. 

Richard Lyon from One&Only said: “What I have learned [through the pandemic] is two things. One is relying on the amazing team I have around me to realise you are not going to be strong every day, but when you have a good team around you, they can spot when you need an arm around the shoulder, only a virtual one at the moment. And the other is realising that everyone is vulnerable in this situation and we just have to help each other. Just because you are a leader doesn’t mean you don’t show vulnerability. I think it would be tragic if people thought you were taking it lightly. You’ve got to show how you are and your frailty.”

And that’s how, rather than shying away from their purpose of ‘we create joy’, One&Only Cape Town thrust its purpose to the front and centre of its internal communications, constantly referencing it as they outlined the difficult choices they made during the pandemic response. It was their way of keeping the joy of their colleagues at the heart of those decisions. 

The bottom line for me: you can’t control the ocean, only how you swim in it. Leaders can’t control the circumstances that might shock their business, but they can use their culture to respond to them. 

Knowing what you stand for brings stability, and it brings resilience: supporting you to respond and adapt, to reimagine how your business can stay valuable when the seas around you shift. 

If you’d like to explore how business purpose can help your organization weather stormy seas, we’d love to hear from you and have a conversation.