This is a question I have asked myself in both business and my personal life so many times over the last 20 years. Your ‘why’ is not necessarily your vision and it certainly is not your mission statement, it is your purpose. It is the reason you get up every morning and hit that traffic, or the sacrifices that you make to achieve your goals. Every single person has a deep motivation that fuels their life in the grand scheme of things. If you keep questioning why you do the things you do, you will eventually find your own personal ‘why’ in business and life.
For quite a few years I struggled to find my ‘why’ for oneHR. I had so many sessions with my business coach on this and we would thrash out so many ideas. How many people do you hear saying they set up a business to achieve ‘financial freedom?’ I am one of them……it is just not enough. It will not drive you to achieve goals beyond your wildest dreams.
I finally had a lightbulb moment for oneHR, as I had been pondering over how the business could give something back. I realised it had been staring me in the face for years. oneHR is a paperless offering and I have sat in so many pitches telling prospects that the future is digital and they need to ditch the paper and the spreadsheets. I have been saving trees for years now…..so why don’t I take this a step further and start planting trees too?
The reason I am sharing this with you, is because it was a significant step change in my business. Not only did it excite and engage me to work harder than I thought was possible, but I cannot believe the difference it has made to my team. Your ‘why’ inspires others to take action, spread your ideas or buy your products/services.
We tweaked our vision 6 months ago now and released this and that was it. We had made the commitment to digitilise HR in the UK. Committing your ‘why’ to paper is so very powerful. Since then, we have teamed up with More Trees and we are planting trees for our clients when they sign up and meet headcount milestones. We have already saved/planted 5000 trees.
We are spreading this message far and wide to clients and they are standing proud that they have signed up to our tree pledge and together we are making a difference. This message is going beyond HR administration in my businesses and indeed many of my clients. I hear so many people around me now saying, “I was going to print that document, but then I thought about your tree campaign and decided not to.” It is incredible and we have only just begun on this journey.
I would challenge you to consider what is your ‘why’ and have you communicated this to your team?