The corporate purpose of your organization is the company's core raison d`être. It is the underlying objective that unifies investors, partners, employees, and customers at the same time and embodies its role in the broader economic, societal, and environmental context. Your corporate purpose statement needs to inspire your staff, so they can give their very best when working for you. It is through the purpose statement that you can make them feel part of the organization and part of your vision and mission. Belonging is a very powerful emotion. An organization thrives faster when it is able to please its investors, partners, employees, and customers. Often, the corporate purpose is communicated through a company's mission or vision statements, though the purpose of an organization is not its vision, mission, values, or principles. Furthermore, the purpose frequently remains unarticulated and informal.

However, the corporate purpose only resonates with an emotional intelligence concept if it is an authentic purpose. Why? Authenticity is commonly defined as being true to oneself therefore, being authentic in its own actions helps to build, sustain, and increase the feeling of trust in the organization. Yet, corporate actions that are inconsistent with the corporate purpose will lead stakeholders to view the corporate purpose and the company with mistrust and scepticism.

Organizations undeniably need to walk the talk in order to be credible and authentic with regard to their corporate purpose statements. However, talking the walk is also an equally important part of the paradigm, since perception, built on awareness and knowledge gained through experience, learning, and communication, is often reality. Thus, corporate purpose messages must be carefully tuned to indicators that demonstrate that the organization effectively walks its talk. For organizations to build trust with stakeholders, their strategic decisions and actions must be aligned with their corporate purpose, in order for this to be perceived as authentic. How authentic is the corporate purpose of your organization?

To ring true, the corporate purpose of an organization needs to resonate internally (for example, employees) or other stakeholders and externally (for example, customers). Thus, we can say that corporate purpose has two dimensions: the internal dimension driven by awareness and the external dimension driven by transparency.

Organizations with a good organizational awareness have a deep understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, what drives or motivates actions taken by its leadership and how this impacts its stakeholders, the community, and the environment. Leaders and stakeholders should pay special attention to whether the organization actively seeks feedback from the stakeholders, whether the organization is aware of the impact the organization has on the stakeholders, or whether the organization understands the drive and motivations behind its actions.

How can organizational awareness be used to assess the authenticity of the corporate purpose?

You can ask the following questions:

• Does the organization seek feedback to improve its interactions?
• Is the organization aware of the impact it has on its stakeholders, community at large, and the environment?
• Is the organization aware of why it does the things it does?
• Is the organization aware of what drives or motivates actions taken by its leadership?
• Is the organization aware of what is truly important for the whole organization, the community, and the environment?