To Radiate Purpose, Aim for Responsibility over Accountability

In our work with clients, in our soon-to-be-published book, and in our blog, the ScalePassion team constantly emphasizes that purpose must begin with the leader, but in the very same breath, we tell them that purpose doesn’t stop there. Instead, we work with leaders to develop the tools they need to radiate this purpose out to their leadership, their company, and then the world. 

That’s the “scale” in the ScalePassion Method. It’s a cool and inspiring process, so let’s very briefly take a look at how it works. 

Before a company can radiate purpose externally, it must do so internally. A first principle of radiating purpose involves locus of control, or agency. The ScalePassion team has identified a continuum of four such loci that go from autocracy, to accountability, autonomy, and responsibility. See where you and your business fall on the spectrum.

1. Autocracy
   In autocracy, the business owner makes most decisions and all the important decisions. The energy and focus emanate from the leader like a thousand suns, and his faith and sheer force of willpower will get the business through the start-up and early growth phases but will eventually burn itself out if the business owner hasn’t made the effort to scale by replacing autocracy with accountability.

2. Accountability
   In an accountable culture, the business owner actively enlists the leadership team to create clarity around the company’s purpose, values, mission, and vision so that others can become accountable for following them. Accountability ranks among the most common corporate core values, yet it is an overrated value because it stands for being able to account for how you did the things you are often told to do. 

3. Autonomy
   As the organization grows, the business owner and leadership cannot stay on top of all the people and processes that have sprung up. A measure of “autonomy” is extended to the leadership team and their departments. The leadership team together set the objectives—the what—but everyone else is given latitude to meet those expectations with more or less control over how they do it.

4. Responsibility
   At this phase, which few companies reach without super-focused effort, trust, shared purpose, and empowerment are so high that the company effectively manages itself. While the leadership looks to the future, and the front-line workers look to the present, the company’s well-trained directors are running the show through their self-managed teams, ensuring that the strategic imperatives and tactical necessities stay in alignment. 

This represents a very abbreviated version of the ScalePassion method, but I hope you can maybe see where your organization stands in this schematic. I also hope you can see that radiating purpose isn’t about getting everyone to believe with equal passion in the same cause, but rather a way of scaling purpose and impact along with the other areas of your business. 

It’s a way of leading others that places the highest premium on human dignity. It begins with a personal passion and purpose and then radiates out until others feel it deeply enough that they begin to feel responsible for it. Ultimately, this process unleashes what I like to call “exponential purpose.”

Do you want to reach your level of exponential purpose? The ScalePassion can help you.