One of the most telling signs of a busi­ness that is dis­con­nect­ed from its pur­pose is the preva­lence of mul­ti­ple cul­tures, in­stead of a sin­gle cul­ture that uni­fies the busi­ness. At the heart of this frag­men­ta­tion is the re­al­i­ty that de­part­ments pur­sue their own mi­cro mis­sions and there­fore op­er­ate in si­los. Ul­ti­mate­ly, the busi­ness be­comes so mis­aligned be­cause of these many con­flict­ing di­rec­tions that it be­gins to suf­fer from pur­pose drift and op­er­a­tional break­down.

When a uni­fy­ing pur­pose is ab­sent, each strate­gic busi­ness unit pur­sues its own agen­da. Hu­man re­sources fo­cus­es on com­pli­ance. Mar­ket­ing and sales chase growth in cus­tomer traf­fic and the strat­e­gy team pur­sues trans­for­ma­tion to nav­i­gate dis­rup­tion and un­cer­tain­ty. In­ter­nal com­pe­ti­tion be­comes the force in­flu­enc­ing busi­ness op­er­a­tions and its im­pact is felt across cus­tomers, lo­gis­tics and em­ploy­ee per­for­mance.

In this com­pet­i­tive in­ter­nal en­vi­ron­ment, with its con­fus­ing de­mands, em­ploy­ees strug­gle with a sense of be­long­ing and cus­tomer jour­neys be­come bur­dened by fric­tion. All of this stems from the fail­ure to es­tab­lish a clear pur­pose that in­forms both em­ploy­ee and cus­tomer val­ue. In such an en­fee­bled sce­nario, every imag­in­able fail­ure in em­ploy­ee and cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence can oc­cur.

When a busi­ness is de­fined and frac­tured by mul­ti­ple cul­tures, in­con­sis­ten­cy be­comes the norm. Parts of the busi­ness feel dif­fer­ent. Some de­part­ments de­liv­er smooth and joy­ful in­ter­ac­tions, while oth­ers leave em­ploy­ees and cus­tomers brac­ing them­selves be­fore en­gage­ment. Tran­si­tion­ing from this frac­tured state re­quires lead­ers to re­turn to ground ze­ro and un­freeze the sta­tus quo. It calls for cre­at­ing a sin­gle com­pass that links every part of the busi­ness to its core pur­pose.

When a busi­ness de­clares its pur­pose, it broad­casts its promise to the world and sig­nals its in­ten­tion to en­sure that pur­pose, strat­e­gy and cul­ture evolve to­geth­er. Per­sis­tent cul­tur­al frag­men­ta­tion re­veals that lead­ers would have failed to shape and imbed the be­hav­iours need­ed to sus­tain the promise be­hind the pur­pose.

Lead­ers should be cus­to­di­ans of a larg­er pur­pose. One that goes be­yond dri­ving rev­enue and max­i­miz­ing prof­it. The ques­tion is, “How many lead­ers be­lieve in and share this per­spec­tive?” I have en­coun­tered many who speak the lan­guage of pur­pose be­yond prof­its, but whose ac­tions tell a con­trary sto­ry. Em­ploy­ee opin­ion sur­veys that mea­sure lead­er­ship ef­fi­ca­cy of­ten re­veal that few lead­ers live out the wis­dom of their words.

In a busi­ness where a uni­fy­ing pur­pose is ab­sent, there will be lead­ers who sup­port the val­ue of a pur­pose dri­ven en­ti­ty, as well as those who re­main un­con­vinced. Re­set­ting a lead­er­ship team that has presided over per­sis­tent frag­men­ta­tion be­comes one of the most crit­i­cal chal­lenges to be over­come.

The lead­ers who em­brace the man­date to go be­yond prof­its and be­come cus­to­di­ans of a larg­er pur­pose do not pre­side over com­pet­ing tribes. In­stead, they cham­pi­on cul­tur­al stew­ard­ship. Their de­ci­sions pro­mote har­mo­ny over chaos and they fos­ter uni­ty, so em­ploy­ees feel con­nect­ed to a high­er mis­sion.

There is a dif­fer­ent feel to a busi­ness that is con­nect­ed and aligned to its stat­ed pur­pose. Sub­cul­tures do not ex­ist. Over­work is not glo­ri­fied. Em­ploy­ees give be­yond a min­i­mum lev­el of per­for­mance. Di­verse teams uni­fy around a shared iden­ti­ty and si­los dis­ap­pear. Lead­er­ship be­hav­iour feels au­then­tic, not man­u­fac­tured or per­for­ma­tive and lead­ers be­come guardians of gen­er­a­tional well-be­ing. They nur­ture em­ploy­ee growth and by do­ing so, ex­pand the col­lec­tive im­pact of the busi­ness. Cul­tur­al co­he­sion flour­ish­es.

When cul­ture for­ma­tion is ei­ther ac­ci­den­tal, or left to chance, chaos fills the vac­u­um. When it is cul­ti­vat­ed, the out­comes are far more en­dur­ing and re­ward­ing. One of the biggest im­pacts of a busi­ness root­ed in its pur­pose is that cus­tomers and stake­hold­ers be­come con­nect­ed to its cul­ture. Their trans­ac­tion­al loy­al­ty is re­placed by a more pur­pose­ful sense of be­long­ing.

This po­tent shift is why lead­ers should nev­er leave the shap­ing of cul­ture to chance.