Do You Need a Chief Purpose Officer?
they’re all the rage at major companies right now…
I just got hit with several articles praising the new, must-have C-suite role: Chief Purpose Officer.
We'll set aside that not all of these articles defined purpose correctly because the theme was the same: purpose is now so important you need to put someone in charge of it.
On one hand, I'm excited to see further evidence that purpose is a leadership-level issue. I'm less convinced that a CPO is the answer to all our purpose challenges.
The articles assert that the person in this role would be responsible for all purpose initiatives. They'll be the one to ensure it's embedded throughout the company and the one to review decisions for purpose alignment.
While I appreciate the value of having someone dedicated to the task of alignment (in fact, my team does that for some of our clients), it can have unintended consequences, like:
Producing purpose initiatives that are separate from the core business activities because this person needs to justify their role
Creating friction when they come to critique other parts of the business because they don't have the perspective or skills to relate to that part of the company and, more importantly, to the people who work there
Twisting the purpose to be a little too personal since they're working it alone
Only looking at certain decisions because we make thousands a day and they can't review them all
This is why my team takes a teaching approach so that our clients learn to do this on their own--starting at the top. As much as it sounds great to give this responsibility to someone else, keeping the company focused on the things that matter is the responsibility of the CEO—from inspiration, to major decisions, to resource allocation.
Then it's about teaching and engaging everyone else. That's what makes purpose so motivating—we're all pursuing a common purpose, which means we all need to be part of making aligned decisions and embedding it into our part of the business. That's what makes it real.
Start with yourself this week. Are you feeling enabled to shoulder your responsibilities when it comes to running a purpose-driven business?
What help processing where you are right now? Book a free call and we’ll talk it through, then identify resources that will support you.
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