Now let me be clear in what I'm talking about here. // I'm talking about embedding / purpose. // I'm not talking about your mission, / which is what you do every day, / or your vision, which is where you are headed. // Both mission / and vision are important corporate drivers, / but they play a different role in purpose. // And mission and vision will change with changes in leadership, / corporate context, / competitive landscape, / merger and acquisition. // They are important, / but they are also temporal. // In my experience, / they often have a time horizon of, say, three to five years. // But purpose is your why. // It is found at the intersection of who you are at your very best / and the role in the world that you are meant to play. // It comes from your ethos. // It is married to your aspiration. // And because it is ethotic, / it is also timeless. // Now there are plenty of data out there to say that well-embedded purpose across organizations brings immense value. // Studies that will link well-embedded purpose to / elevated total shareholder return over 10 years, / increased employee engagement, retention, / even higher levels of productivity. // Because of all this data, / it is rare in my work that a CEO will come to me and say, Ashley, / what is purpose, / or why do I need to do it? // Instead, / what they will ask is, / when I have my purpose, / how do I embed it across / my organization so well / that it brings the most value, / that it becomes / muscle memory? // As I've been doing this work for almost 20 years at this point, I have a ready answer. // First, / I tell them it needs to be authentic. // Purpose that is rooted in your ethos, / distinctive to your brand, / meaningful to all of your stakeholders, / and consistent with your values / is authentic. // Kelly Bayer Rosemarin, / the CEO of Optus, / a Sydney, Australia-based telecommunications company, / can speak to her company's purpose, / powering optimism with options, with conviction, / because it is authentic. // Optus / is by its very nature a challenger brand, / and it is a brand synonymous with a brand platform of positivity. // Since / options breed action / and optimism breeds hope, / how they pull their internal relations together with their external / reach out to customers is very consistent / and incredibly / authentic. // Now, on the other end of the authenticity scale, / I once worked with a CEO who really wanted / purpose to be about environmental sustainability. // That is great, / I said, / except for your company struggles to even recycle in your offices. // I know. // I've been there. // While they admire the aspiration, / if we had come up with a purpose line / that was solely about / environmental sustainability, / it would have been dead on arrival, / specifically with employees. // Secondly, / I tell CEOs that they must be critical / in excavating purpose from the inside out. // Purpose / is uncomfortable. // It should be, / because you are introducing a tension between idealism / and realism, / who you really want to be / and who you are capable of being / today / and in the future, / based on competencies / and ethos. // And purpose can be / particularly discomforting, / because even once you have it, / it takes a while to implement it. // In fact, / you may set your purpose once and spend your entire career / living up to it. // Now, purpose is particularly uncomfortable for companies who are on a forced evolution of change, / companies and industries like oil and gas, / for example, / or for companies who maybe have bad behaviors they need to leave behind. // Finally, / I tell CEOs that purpose must apply / to the whole of the organization. // Purpose is not / a CEO vanity project. / /Sure, / it may help cement the legacy / of the CEO who is in charge at the time it's articulated, / but it's not about them. // It's not about him or her. // It's about the value the company brings. // It is about the role / in the world / that is meant to play. //