Leaders Must Offer More Than Purpose

“Everybody Wants to [Change] the World” (to misquote Tears for Fears) is a misconception that has spread the idea that ‘purpose’ can be the driving force of organizational performance. Ensuring the organization has a well-defined purpose is important and that purpose being for a worthy cause is a desirable prerequisite, but it is not enough to truly engage people.

A recent study by Professors Robert Cross, Amy Edmondson, and Wendy Murphy, offers a more realistic perspective. Having a noble cause, they find, only matters if it is backed up by effective team collaboration. Leadership behaviors and organizational cultures that foster a sense of joint endeavor, built on interpersonal collaboration and trust, are key to employee engagement and ultimately organizational performance.

Looking into 300 companies over the past 20 years, interviewing executives and using organizational network analysis, the researchers found that the level and quality of interpersonal collaboration has a greater impact on employee engagement than purpose. They quote two cases which clearly exemplify this. First, a hospital dealing with acute cancer treatment, where one assumes a very high level of purpose exists. Second, a retail chain/sales platform where one would think noble purpose to be in short supply.

In fact, the working environment in the hospital was rife with fear, workforce morale was low, and employee turnover was high. At the retail chain, on the other hand, there was a palpable spirit of camaraderie, employees were energetic and enthusiastic, and customers were very pleased with the service. The retailer had by far the more engaged workforce, due to having high levels of interpersonal collaboration, supported by trusting leadership and a healthy organizational culture.

The path to interpersonal collaboration

Levels of collaboration may vary across organizations. From a team perspective, the researchers suggest leaders should build interpersonal collaboration through a three-stage process:

• Stage 1: Promote leadership behaviors that enhance psychological safety and trust. Where there is trust people openly discuss possibilities, willingly offer their ideas, and help others. Fostering a culture of psychological safety enables trust to develop.
• Stage 2: Instill a sense of purpose. With trust established, leaders should explain the wider context of the work, the ‘why’ of assignments or projects. Showing their work has meaning and impact enhances employee engagement.
• Stage 3: Generate energy and enthusiasm within the workforce. Look out for leaders who can be true energizers. Not necessarily extroverts or introverts, the best energizers make other people feel as if they matter and encourage information, opportunities, better talent, and creativity to flow.
• Stage 4: Encourage individual employee engagement to lead to improved interpersonal collaboration. Ensure that systems and processes facilitate open collaboration and do not present any barriers.

When considering the foundation Stage 1, note that trust comes in three forms. First there is benevolence-based trust which stems from psychological safety and the underlying principle that leaders and colleagues will act with your interests in mind, not just their own. Secondly there is integrity-based trust which relies on confidence that others will be consistent in word and deed. And finally, there is competence-based trust based on the belief that others have the expertise they claim.

In their study the research team list 27 trust-building, purpose instilling, and energy generating leadership behaviors, most of which are self-evident. Adopting these behaviors to developing interpersonal collaboration is shown in this study to be a better way of delivering employee engagement and the enhanced performance that can bring, than focusing on noble purpose alone.

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Access the full research paper: "A Noble Purpose Alone Won't Transform Your Company: Leadership Behaviors That Nurture Interpersonal Collaboration Are the True Drivers of Change," Robert Cross, Amy C. Edmondson, and Wendy Murphy. MIT Sloan Management Review.