A compelling, noble purpose gives work meaning. With purpose comes energy, passion, and motivation to get out of bed in the morning. And over the long haul of a career, it is an absolute necessity if we want workplaces that don’t become prisons where people drag in on Monday and run out on Friday.

A common purpose can help an organization overcome the bureaucracy and silos that plague so many team efforts. As people shed egos in favor of a common goal, the full potential of the organization can be realized. It’s simply the power of teamwork, people all working in unison toward group success instead of individual success. We’ve all seen it before when we see teams who lack superstars defeat teams loaded with superstars. The mediocre together are better than the great alone.

Why then do so many companies falter on this point? It’s because their purpose isn’t compelling, it isn’t noble, and it’s not visionary or inspiring. So many companies I’ve seen have stated purposes that look noble and inspiring but their actions and priorities do not lead people to want to do the work. Several problems rear their heads in these cases.

• The hypocrisy of stating a noble purpose but acting in a way counter to it leads employees to lack trust in leadership and to jaded complacency.
• Setting other, less inspiring goals leads to boredom and task-based, checklist-style work that becomes drudgery rather than the stuff of innovation and creativity born out of striving together to accomplish a mission that will end in a legacy of meaning.
• When it becomes clear that there is really no serious purposeful meaning behind the company’s work and that it is only to benefit stockholders or top executives, employees mirror the behavior and begin working for themselves instead of passionately working to achieve the mission to make customers’ lives better or to enrich the world in some way.

So how do companies change? How do they move toward real, fulfilling, motivating purposes that will make a long-term difference that goes way beyond shareholder value? It starts with examining the values of the organization. Answering the questions of what the organization stands for, what the organization believes, and what the organization deems acceptable and unacceptable regardless of performance, is the first step. Next comes answering the key question of what the organization seeks to do to help others, their employees, customers, investors, and the community. Once these questions get answered, a journey can begin to craft a succinct and clear statement or rally cry that unites and engages all people within the organization. From there, it is critical to cascade these words to departments, teams, and individuals. This cascade of communication must be not only words but actions that demonstrate the values behind them.

What about your organization? Does it live by a compelling purpose? Do the words inspire teamwork for something greater than individual gain? Does the purpose live in the actions of the leaders? Do employees truly know the purpose and live the values with each other? Think about it, challenge yourself and those around you to drive for something more meaningful, make a change that will leave a legacy, and give your employees something to truly be proud of, something they will tell their children and grandchildren they did that went beyond their bank account. Be the rebel today, start asking the tough questions, drive for nobility, drive for meaning, drive for making lives better, today, do it!