Details are important. Daily details cannot be overlooked. But you must bring your gaze above the horizon from time-to-time to know if the minutiae of the moment are aligned with your true purpose.
Sextants, sounders and spy-glasses were three tools sailors used for ages before the advent of GPS devices. While the sounder and spy-glass were helpful in avoiding contact with land formations that could damage a hull…it was the sextant that insured the vessel navigated to the desired harbor.
What good is it, after all, to complete your journey and find you are in the wrong place?
The sextant measures the angle between two points and is useful in calculating longitude, latitude, distance and bearings at sea.
Mariners use Polaris (the North Star) as a navigational point of reference, because it’s position in Ursa Minor is positioned nearly in a direct line above the Earth’s axis, making it appear motionless, steadfast and fixed. All other stars in the northern sky appear to rotate around Polaris.
As you lead your business, you, too, have a constant point of reference: Your purpose.
For what purpose do you offer your products and services to mankind? Why does your company exist? Can you submit a valid reason that the free market should support your operation, and therefore, sustain you with its money?
When you have defined that answer accurately, you can write all of the vision statements, mission statements, employee handbooks and operations manuals you want…knowing that every policy, system and task you create will align with your overall purpose.
If, like The Disney Company for instance, your purpose is to create happiness, your customer service experience knows no other acceptable outcome than to make your guest/shopper/patient/client happy.
I recently heard the tale of a little girl who was attending The Princess Banquet in Cinderella’s Castle, and she became frightened as the fireworks show began outside the castle windows.
The Disney cast member who was in the Cinderella costume that day told her, “I find it helpful to cover my ears when the fireworks are loud. May I put my hands over your ears whenever it looks like we are about to have a loud explosion?”
The young guest agreed, and soon she and Cinderella were laughing and enjoying a spectacular show together. Her fears were gone. She was happy again.
Nowhere in the Disney employee handbook does it say, “Cinderella shall cover guests’ ears who are disturbed by loud fireworks.” There is no executive memo or operations manual that dictates that kind of behavior. It just happened organically.
It is Disney’s common purpose for every cast member to create happiness for their guests. That’s the company culture. The culture drives the behavior, and the behavior manifests the purpose – to create happiness.
Your operation may have many tasks with lots of key performance indicators. Don’t abandon measuring those KPI’s. Do, however, remember the importance of your purpose. Lay tasks aside, or at the very least, modify them if they are ever incongruous with the overall purpose and direction of your company.
You might just find, after all is said and done, your steadfast adherence to the course that is charted by your purpose (your North Star) yields greater KPIs in customer loyalty, employee engagement and profitability.
There is safe harbor in that. Think about it this Thursday.
