Seven Ways to Elevate Ambition

 

No ambition is likely to draw others to it, or sustain itself for long, without a appealing to a great sense of purpose. A noble calling - relieving suffering or improving the environment - is the highest expression of moral purpose. But more commercial undertakings can also assume a greatness of purpose. Leaders can do at least seven things to help people look beyond themselves in pursuit of a dream.

 

1. Achieve excellence in whatever you do: Individual achievers - artists, athletes, and adventurers - usually excel in their chosen field. They seek, and they offer in return, recognition for high performance. Being the best at what one does is a deeply held aspiration that transcends the individual leader. Especially if they are the founder or prime mover of an organization, they establish excellence in product or service quality as a high purpose.

 

2. Create great value: High achievers recognize the connection between quality and value. They see that social and economic value is created through effective execution. A company like Wal-Mart creates value through efficient systems that saves customers money. A great nonprofit takes pride in the number of lives changed as a measure of its value creation.

 

3. Empower the individual: High achievers find ways to attain their dreams, exercise their potential, and exceed previous limitations. Enlightened leaders also give colleagues the information, authority, and resources, to make their own decisions on behalf of customers. But an even higher sense of purpose is possible when people join to empower customers. Apple Computer, for instance, has always strived to build simple machines that help people learn and be creative. That sense of shared power has seen the company through difficult times.

 

4. Improve the human condition: Millions of healthcare professionals, teachers, religious and social workers, and public workers dedicate themselves to improving the lives of others. Occasionally an extraordinary individual - a Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King - assumes an almost mythical standing. But leaders of such businesses as Ben & Jerry's, The Body Shop make human service an explicit part of their mission - and contribute a share of the profits to the public good. And the stated ambition of Monsanto's Robert Shapiro was noting less than "to feed the world."

 

5. Create fun and pleasure: Effective leaders appeal to a sense of enjoyment, as well as purpose, in their colleagues and customers. Entertainment companies find a natural link between purpose and pleasure. But leaders like Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher make fun and good-heartedness essential parts of their organizational culture and strategy.

 

6. Invent the future: Great dreamers and doers strive to change the world. Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, and Jonas Salk did just that. But thousands of Internet start-ups, biotechnology firms, and social ventures are inventing new ways of doing business and rallying people to a cause.

 

7. Improve the environment: Every human activity and organization exacts a price on the environment. One way to elevate one's cause is to make a point of promoting conservation, mitigating damage, and raising awareness. Tom's of Maine, for instance, uses only environmentally benign ingredients - and its respect for the environment is integral to its mission.