Setting a North Star for your company is important. Discuss

If this were an exam question, I do not believe any company founder or leader should have to revise to pass this test. While I confess that my first objective when starting LeadScale was to “pay the mortgage,” that was still a genuine North Star, albeit not very strategic or relevant to any business activity. It would not have worked to give colleagues a sense of purpose and direction. But it was enough when it was just me.

Having survived and avoided having your home repossessed by the bank, it soon becomes apparent that every company needs a purpose. And ideally, that purpose will be unwavering, consistent, and persistent. It helps focus on product and service definitions, the prioritization of features and functionality, and defines your ideal customer well. For the budding “sellionaire” with an exit strategy, it can also inform you of your potential acquirers.

When you are responsible for a team, it is important to get the strategy right but also the psychology. And there isn’t a single example of a high-performing team that didn’t get the psychology right. Rather than share only the obvious business reasons for having a vision and mission, here’s a little more on the mental effects of setting a North Star.

A North Star provides a firm with a very clear direction of travel. When a leader or leadership team believes in and democratizes that information, everyone involved with the business can also embrace it. They can share in the ownership of that vision. They can become custodians, drivers, guardians, and guides.

Much work has been done in value-based leadership and business management, and this work explains the benefits that psychological ownership bestows on a firm. For those who want the topline, setting a North Star allows everyone in the firm to know the organization’s objectives and invest their time and effort in delivering them.

This sense of ownership derives increased motivation, stewardship, and loyalty. And that strengthens the sense of reciprocity between the firm and its staff, the staff, and their customers, transferring to the customers’ relationship with the firm.

While clients are sometimes surprised about how long people have worked at LeadScale, given that we embrace transparency above and beyond mere marketing buzzwords and truly believe in investing in the right relationships, I am not. It makes sense to me that many of us are invested in the purpose and service we provide and that we are a rather tight and loyal group. On with the journey.

You can start here to learn more about the benefits of psychological ownership. 

Contact us to know more about how LeadScale sets its North Star metric.