The Power of Purpose: Inspiring true transformation through vision

The influence of emotional management and visionary leadership in inspiring change and aligning purposeful visions.

In brief

• EY research proves the importance of the emotional aspect within a rationally driven organization transformation.
• Aligning leadership with a purposeful narrative for emotional drive is the first required leadership skill.
• The leadership must craft, embrace, and share a clear vision of the future so that it is understood by everyone in the organization.

Humans are not only creatures of habit but also deeply influenced by their emotions, making emotional intelligence (EQ) a crucial factor. Putting people at the center of an organization is essential. Managing emotions and understanding the emotional journey individuals undergo is a key driver for success. While the significance of managing emotions has been acknowledged, recent research by EY and Oxford University provides empirical proof of its impact. This article explores the importance of emotional journeys during transformations. It also highlights specific leadership EQ skills required for successful transformations, including consistent alignment with a shared purpose and vision. Effective leadership involves inspiring and touching people's hearts through compelling narratives that set the context for the six drivers of transformation success discussed below.
 

Humans@Center research

In a joint research project, EY and Oxford Saïd Business School identified the key to significantly increase (2.6x) the chances of successful transformations: putting humans at the center of transformation efforts. To drive this mindset of Humans@Center, leadership teams should focus on the implementation of six distinct drivers, linked to the emotional journey of their employees during a transformation. This emotional journey is the common theme in every transformation, which highlights the importance of tapping into these emotions from the start and inspiring your people, as stated above.

We firmly believe in placing people at the core of transformation initiatives. It is essential to deeply connect with individuals, guiding them through their emotional journey. This can be achieved by integrating a people roadmap, incorporating tangible "EQ activities," with the transformation roadmap, which encompasses strategic "IQ activities." We are united in recognizing the significance of emotions as a key driver for success. Emphasizing the human aspect and emotions right from the start, we advocate for prioritizing efforts to create business engagement and readiness. Additionally, fostering a technology mindset can be achieved through innovative approaches that enable individuals to truly feel and experience the transformation.
 

Inspiration drives success

A successful transformation journey should always begin with setting the right conditions to manage the emotional journey of people within your organisation. It all starts with the story behind the transformation, the why, and making sure that you do not just tell this story, but inspire people and touch their hearts by a compelling narrative and bringing a purposeful vision.

Vision sets the tone and serves as the foundation for the transformation, and leadership teams are the first to set this condition right. Steve Jobs said, “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” Behind every movement for change there is a story. It is the story that enables others to rally around a common purpose. Combine this with a vision that articulates what you want your organisation to be like, and notice how this mobilizes others.

Therefore, if you want to inspire change and accelerate your digital transformation, understanding the people whom the change is for, as well as the people who are essential when implementing the change, is imperative. What are their needs, what ignites their acceptance and motivation, what keeps them engaged? And no, you don’t need to be a psychiatrist to tap into their minds.

People are uniquely diverse and tune into the frequency of What’s In It For Me.
 

The neuroscience behind an inspirational, purposeful vision & narrative

Humans have been telling stories for tens of thousands of years, which means our brains are hardwired to engage with the narratives we read and hear. This makes an inspirational narrative extremely effective when used with purpose and a clear direction.

Paul J Zak, director of the US Centre for Neuroeconomics Studies and a professor of economics, psychology, and management at Claremont Graduate University, discovered that when an audience listens to a compelling, character-driven story containing a dramatic arc, the brain releases oxytocin — the ‘love’ neurochemical — which makes the audience more generous, compassionate and trustworthy. Based on his research, Zak states that stories that are personal and emotionally compelling engage more of the listener’s brain, and thus are better remembered than simply stating a set of facts. He argues that stories are an effective way to transmit important information and values from one individual or community to the next.

This means that even if your employees start out as hesitant, by using a storytelling technique, you can shift your employees’ mood into empathy, cooperation and support of your message.
 

Stop telling and start inspiring

Now that we highlighted the importance of managing the emotional journey of employees throughout transformations, as well as the importance of creating buy-in of your people from the start by inspiring them, we can dive deeper into key take aways on how to do it.

1. Starting with a Purposeful Vision and What’s In It For Me scenario
   Create a compelling narrative that inspires others to want to be engaged and involved. Why does the programme exist, why does it matter? What would happen if success is achieved? And what would that success look like through different lenses: a customer lens, an employee lens, a societal lens. It’s important to spend time on crafting a narrative that is in human talk, and has nothing to do with technology or processes. In every technology transformation that we have guided, you see the difference in ROI, when you set the human conditions for change from the start, instead of only focussing on the technology aspect. Inspiration stimulates employees to reflect internally. When values are aligned, deep emotional drivers are engaged, and the employee is moved and motivated to act and raise their level of performance to achieve higher goals.
   
   
2. Learn and adopt an inspirational leadership mindset & skills
   Inspirational leadership inspires action, significantly raises individual and team performance levels and ignites creativity and audacious innovation. It truly unlocks latent potential by tapping into our inner motivation and values and inspires people to follow their passion and move towards ambitious goals. In our experience, inspired and motivated people and teams significantly impact organisational performance.