How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm

9Measure Your Purpose

If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

—Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author

Throughout the book, we have talked about injecting the Three Keys into every aspect of a business to create alignment with all stakeholders. When alignment is intentionally developed, momentum is created inside the business, and teams go further, faster. When employees are happier and more fulfilled, they are dramatically more productive. The result has been alluded to in each chapter: greater profitability. This can be represented by a simple equation:

But how can a leader determine if their business is truly living its purpose, values, and story? While the bottom line serves as an implicit indicator of business health, there are too many variables (market forces, economic trends, sales systems, etc.) and it is too difficult to determine the impact the Three Keys, and specifically purpose, have on profits by just that metric alone.

In the HBR survey cited earlier in the book, executives stated, “Companies need to do a better job embedding their purpose in the organization, particularly in leadership development and training, in employee performance metrics and rewards, and in operations.” Further on, Michael Beer is quoted as saying that purpose “has to be driven, operationally and in depth, by the CEO and top leadership team. That takes a lot ...