Once a team knows where it is headed and is filled with the desire to get there, purpose keeps it on course. It is reborn at the opening of each week—and as the leader of your staff, it starts with you. Everyone needs a teaspoon of purpose in their Monday morning coffee, and you are there to dispense it using these leadership tips.

You have plenty of methods at your disposal for consistently promoting purpose among your people. Become a sheepdog. Find any drifters, anyone with a puzzled look as they stare at their monitor or stoop over a set of plans. Make time for them. Find out what is wrong. Redirect them. Restate their purpose and deal with any snags that have occurred. Get them back on course.

Keep that team together and keep it moving!

Keep your own sense of purpose honed and sharp.

You are the leader. Keep that big picture in mind and know exactly where you are and where you are going. Communicate your enthusiasm and dedication. Carry everyone else along with you. It will take energy and effort, but no one said that being a leader was easy.

Grow together.

At times, it may seem that everyone has a different purpose, and that paths are diverging. Don’t forget that if you don’t define it, they will and it may not match what you had in mind. This can lead to internal conflicts, battles between departments, and your business will suffer.  On the other hand, when the team is on the same page, decisions and strategy are filtered through your purpose. There should be a growing confidence that good results are near. Make sure that everyone sees the way back to the common goal, and that the impact their work will have on it is clear to them. It is as if each team member must make a brick, ensuring that it is strong and free from flaws, and then firmly set it in place, among others, so that the next course can rest safely upon it.

Adapted excerpt from: “Inspired People Produce Results” – Jeremy Kingsley, McGraw-Hill (2013)