Leading with Noble Purpose

Chapter 20Prove Your Noble Purpose

If you want to get immediate traction, you'll need to do more than simply share your NSP. You need to prove it. This phase is about concrete substantiation. This is where you'll codify the stories to substantiate your NSP and identify a few immediate actions to demonstrate your commitment. This additional preparation lets your team know that this is more than a flavor-of-the month tagline. Engage the most senior leader possible, ideally the CEO. You should also engage peers and your direct reports. You want their support before you launch your initiative broadly.

Create the Narrative

Your NSP takes what is implicit in your business and makes it explicit. To bring it to life, you need compelling customer-impact stories. Customer-impact stories demonstrate what living your NSP looks like in practice. They provide proof that you and your business can deliver on your NSP. At this point, you don't have to be living your NSP perfectly. Compelling stories will show your people what's possible and challenge them to bring your NSP to life in bigger, bolder ways.

Many of these stories likely emerged when you explored the three discovery questions. Take the time now to bring them to life with a narrative and visuals in preparation for your launch. A large firm might create an emotive video; a smaller firm could share photographs of clients. You'll also ...