What are advantages of having a purpose?
Advantage # 1 Organizations with a strong purpose perform better
Using measures such as total shareholder return, revenue, and growth in earnings, research shows that organizations with a
strong purpose perform better than organizations with a weak purpose.
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/transformation-behavior-culture-purpose-power-transform-organization.aspx
Like happiness, success cannot be pursued.
Success happens as the unintended side effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2372299403 Page 12.
Advantage # 2 Purpose makes it clear why we are here
Purpose is the reason why we exist. It is our job every day to justify that reason.
http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/why-it-pays-to-find-your-companys-global-purpose/
A purpose offers a steady point and thereby strengthens people’s capacity to find the way when people and things around them are uncertain, complex, and change continuously.
Adapted from: http://globalfocusmagazine.com/rise-lifting-others/
Advantage # 3
A purpose explains what makes us unique
Values, we have, lead us to our purpose. The purpose helps explain what makes us unique.
Adapted from: https://hbr.org/2010/06/ten-essentials-for-getting-val.html
Advantage # 4 Defining a purpose helps to unite people
Purpose builds unity.
Purpose unifies management, employees and communities. It gives coherence and a sense of belonging to the team / the organization.
http://globalfocusmagazine.com/rise-lifting-others/ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3587424083 page 169.
Defining a purpose drives ethical behavior and creates and essential check on actions that go against the best interests of stakeholders.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3587424083 Page 169.
Advantage # 5 People with a purpose are more self driven
Purpose taps into a universal human desire to live a meaningful life, to help and serve other people, to make a positive contribution to society, to make the world better.
When we do work that matters for us, we are committed, satisfied and perform well. Adapted from: http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/why-it-pays-to-find-your-companys-global-purpose/ http://www.fastcoexist.com/3052823/the-purpose-driven-workforce-is-42-million-strong http://globalfocusmagazine.com/rise-lifting-others/ http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-meaningless/
Purpose is at the highest level of analysis in defining a person’s identity. It provides a framework for systematic behaviour patterns in a person’s everyday life.
http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/what_do_scientists_know_about_finding_a_purpose_in_life
When people see their work as a calling, they are more engaged, satisfied and committed.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2476687254
Research shows that the quality of leadership receives
virtually no mention when people describe meaningful moments at work. However, poor management is the top destroyer of meaningfulness.
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-meaningless/
What happens to the way you live your life, when you believe that the purpose of your life is not to be successful or loved, but to become the truest expression of yourself?
http://www.reinventingorganizationswiki.com/Teal_Organizations
Having purpose or meaning behind your goals can help you persevere. Example: A 16-year-old girl was interested in building something and even more interested in gaining independence from her family. She apprenticed with a local architect for 9 months. After that, she built - by herself - a little house.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201607/the-golden-age-teaching-yourself-anything
Behaviour of concentration camp prisoners who gave up and died within 2 days: One morning, they refused to get up. Nothing, neither warnings nor threats, could change their minds. Then they took out a cigarette from deep down in a pocket, where they had hidden it, and started smoking. Meaning orientation had subsided, and the seeking of immediate pleasure had taken over. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2372299403 Page 141.
Advantage # 6
Having a purpose helps people stay healthy
5 benefits of having a purpose: 1. Increase of overall well-being and life satisfaction. 2. Improvement of mental and physical health. 3. Enhancement of resiliency. 4. Decrease of chances of depression. 5. Enhancement of self-esteem.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/
Purpose driven workers have 64% higher levels of fulfilment in their work.
https://medium.com/world-economic-forum/is-purpose-just-another-buzzword-for-our-workplace-6609648ee689#.9ildya6wa
Advantage # 7 Having a purpose helps external people to participate
A project pitched with a clear and compelling why will inspire people to feel the project is worth the time and effort.
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-question-every-project-team-should-answer/
https://www.pwc.com/ retains the firm’s wisest elders after retirement on the firm’s supervisory boards as custodians of purpose in the context of a partnerial culture. https://hbr.org/2016/03/4-hard-questions-to-ask-about-your-companys-purpose