Jill Taylor of The HuPerson Project On How to Build a Purpose-Driven Culture That Attracts Top Talent
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
…A purpose driven culture has a major ripple effect. Investment in a company’s employees improves employees’ lives. More progressive thinkers are increasingly going local, and when you do go local, you can have a tremendous impact on suppliers and vendors. Customers become loyal to your brand, especially as you continue to move with the changes that are happening. Working with intentionality to create a company’s mission builds a level of trust and loyalty with the company and within the community, including the suppliers, vendors and customers. In addition, a company can, thanks to their mission, make a commitment to helping local, small business stay in business. We tailored our menus to support local suppliers during the pandemic. The company, the employees and the community knew that they were contributing to a healthier fast food model, making the public healthier…
Purpose has become the new currency of success in today’s workplace, and leaders who prioritize mission-driven cultures are standing out in the war for talent. To explore this important topic, we are interviewing Jill Taylor.
Co-founder and CEO of three businesses, Jill Taylor has devoted her career to fostering unique methods of transformation for individuals, teams and companies. She co-founded The Taylor Group with her mother, Carolyn Taylor, at the forefront of wellness and leadership, helping clients understand the nature of the changes confronting them and how to become new inside those changes. Then as CEO of Burgerville, Jill helped the company navigate COVID with strategic flexibility while strengthening local economies by working with local farmers to the benefit of all. Together with Shelly Cooper and Daniel Goodenough, in 2023, Jill co-founded the HuPerson Project to transform a leader’s awareness and presence, and to open a new structure of thinking needed to navigate the world emerging.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
When I was a child, my little brother was diagnosed with diabetes and hospitalized. I went through the experience with him, and it was the beginning of an inquiry into what does it mean to be well? I went into pediatric nursing because I loved science, and being an athlete, I loved discovering the inner workings of a human body and loved supporting children. My last year of work was at Los Angeles Childrens’ Hospital, and I knew I needed to be working further upstream to impact children and their families’ quality of life. I was leaning into work with health and well-being and not just pathology. My mother and I went into business — failed in our first business, succeeded in our 2nd. The pediatric nursing perspective was about the whole person and family systems. This gave me the perspective to come into business in a whole different way, to deal with the whole person in business. Being well, being highly productive and being able to serve: these are the principals that came together for doing business differently.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began working in leadership, culture building, or purpose-driven organizations?
I was working with a team of one of the leading mortgage and insurance companies and in particular the CEO. He had a vision of what could happen with his team, and he wanted to bring them together to align on being a high-performance team. During the 2nd day of a 3 day championship team-building event, the CEO stopped everything and asked me to step out. He didn’t know if he wanted to continue. He talked to his team for about 15–20 minutes. When he asked me to step back in, it was clear that his team told him this was important for what he wanted to have happen, and to let it happen.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- You have to know when to call it. My very first business did not make it. And I think of the Kenny Rodgers country western song, “Know when to hold ’em. Know when to fold ‘em,” and that is important to know.
- Knowing why I’m doing what I’m doing. After a year in with the Taylor Group, a business coaching and counseling firm, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and a year after that, my brother who was preparing to join us, died. Knowing why we were there helped us moved through it. We created mastering change and loss for companies to open a different kind of emotional fortitude.
- Intention. My brother’s death was very difficult. I had to find a way to heal and to learn and to serve again. Lao Tsu’s aphorism, “Because of deep love, one is courageous,” helped me heal, and learn, and keep learning, which created a pathway to contribute to others.
Let’s now jump into the focus of our interview. What does a “purpose-driven culture” mean to you personally, and why do you think it’s critical for attracting top talent?
Human beings first and foremost want meaning in their lives. If you want top talent, the mission of a company helps you understand why you are here. Top talent is less willing to accept corporate shenanigans. People are more loyal and more willing to bring their talent into an environment where there is a mission and also more willing to keep learning. Top talent is more aligned with the company when meaning is at the center and the teams are not fragmented and competitive. You can accelerate more quickly when you’re aligned and focused by learning with and from each other.
How did you identify and define the mission or purpose for your organization? Was it inspired by a particular event, challenge, or insight?
Mission is the reason we’re here. That’s a question the executive team needs to address. It wants to not be a consensus. When we formed the Taylor Group, a transformational learning, leadership coaching & consulting company, we also had to get clear about our mission: Transforming Lives. Our business model integrated personal and professional work. The mission gave us more clarity, direction and a deep knowing. It was inspired by my mother and her commitment for people being well and productive without sacrificing service with others. From my initial career in pediatric nursing, and from being a college athlete, I was very aligned with her. Our coming together to build the Taylor Group, integrated our similar and also different perspective into Transforming Lives. That people could truly be well and productive, and also from their own purpose, be the contribution. Transformational work supported our clients to do and be that.
What are the key steps leaders can take to embed purpose into the day-to-day operations and decision-making of their companies?
One thing we saw leaders do is that they’d have a beautiful mission statement and then go back to the to-do list. You must have practices to continue to develop the mission and embed it day to day. A company has to invest in the necessary learning at all levels of the company if you truly want to embed the mission into daily operations. You can’t force it, or police it, or demand it. People have to choose it and take on the learning to understand how to embody it in practice. The leaders need to demonstrate that mission in their conversations, in their actions, in their strategic planning, in conversations with the board, with their stakeholders, or it means nothing. Once you invest in the learning, and the leaders demonstrate it in all ways, you begin to see people taking it on and a natural alignment begins to occur. It is a major investment of time, energy, life force and money. When the alignment begins to occur, that’s when you see breakthroughs, miracles. People care and want to be able to trust that what they’re doing has deep meaning. Once they see that, and feel that, the kind of resilience, loyalty and creativity that emerges is beautiful.
What role does leadership play in championing and modeling a purpose-driven culture? Can you share an example of how you or another leader helped reinforce your organization’s purpose?
Leaders have to be willing to be that vulnerable, that trusting, that open, to be the company’s purpose. If not, people in the company start to distrust. “You say this, but you do that.” If you want to take down a mission, don’t champion it, don’t model it. An organization needs a supportive structure to remind them and the leaders that this is what you’re up to and to help bring the business to the next level of leadership. A system of accountability is needed, that is not just up to the leader or the Board. Leaders have to always be committed to the company’s mission, to upleveling it, and to modeling it. This is as important as making sure the company is making money.
How do you handle skepticism or resistance from team members or stakeholders who may not immediately understand the value of focusing on purpose?
Through patience, perseverance and conversation! It helps to have a structure where open conversations are possible. To be able to inquire into what’s going on. To approach with inquiry rather than judgment. An open dialogue is necessary to engage the resistance from the mission. Problems have to be solved from the mission. HR will often take a problem out of the mission and try to solve it that way.
Ok, let’s talk strategy. Based on your experience, can you share “5 Steps to Build a Purpose-Driven Culture That Attracts Top Talent”? If possible, please include examples or stories for each. Can you share a specific example of how embracing a purpose-driven culture helped your company attract exceptional talent or achieve a significant business goal?
For these two questions, I’d like to illustrate the process of developing a talent rich company. The steps and outcomes are not linear. You could check the boxes but not attract the talent you need. It has to be authentic to really move the company.
The most important step is to understand what the company’s mission is. This too is not a linear process. It’s not something we answer and then move on. The Taylor Group was brought in to a fast casual restaurant company to develop teams, build trust and embed effective communication that opened ways for the company to create, innovate and lead the industry. The executive leadership team had been working on creating their mission — why they were here, and what they wanted the company aligned around. These conversations were held with the executive team over a period of time, and the nature of these conversations was inquiry and exploration. They went through 2 or 3 rounds of trying out different missions. One possibility was exceeding guest expectations. Finally, it became clear that the mission was, “serve with love”. We then asked, what does this look like in the company, and what does that call us to be.
As the company did the work of embedding the mission throughout the whole company with training, coaching, practices in leading the mission and more, the company shifted their supply chain towards local, which in turn affected the brand: “Sustainable, fresh, local. This caused the company to invest in a higher quality of beef for their customers. They were able to rise above competitors because the company could trace their beef to the ranches they came from and avoid problems with the health of the beef. This is a different way of doing business because they were clear about their mission and committed to it.
In other words, they were guided by their mission. It changed everything and created more meaning for its employees. They were proud to be working for the company doing such innovative things.
At a certain point, I was asked to step in as an interim CEO of this restaurant company, because of some major breakdowns happening that impacted their financial outlook. We were able to turn things around and face major problems — cybersecurity breach, pandemic, etc. –because of the groundwork that had already been installed for the last 10 years.
As CEO, I was ready to create a next level of mission in this company, I brought my current business partner in to the work with me on deepening the mission, as well as each individual’s life mission, and this integrated wholistically. The process of actually having an authentic mission, both for the company and the individual, has to be a very intentional process. Leadership has to be committed to its employees on multiple levels from the ground up. Some employees will not respond to this kind of development, and will leave, and that’s natural once this process is in place. Those who do stay, however, are loyal, dedicated and resilient, forming a core of people who are deeply engaged with the mission of the company as it resonates with their own. When breakdowns inevitably present themselves, be they as large as the pandemic, or cyber security issues, the employees respond with a deep commitment to the company.
A company’s mission benefits the customer because it uplevels the quality of the business itself when we follow its mission.
When we would interview prospective employees, leadership would express what is different about this company. We say we have a mission, we are clear and committed to it, and it has created the culture and the environment. It was a filter for finding the right talent, a way of asking if you are a person who’s up to this. In addition to looking at a prospective employee’s level of skill and track record, you can see if this person is committed to something larger than themselves. The commitment from leadership to the company’s mission and to the individual’s life mission, would keep talent. Headhunters would approach managers to poach them away, yet the managers would stay with the company. We developed a reputation for being the kind of company you’d like to work for. A certain mystique. And we didn’t have to advertise when employment became available. We earned a reputation as a wonderful company to work for. We’d receive notes and personal testimonies from the employees, saying that I stay here because of the investment in employee development. We have seen the increase in profit and in loyalty when you move this kind of investment into the whole company.
And not only to work for. Customers would go way out of their way to eat at our restaurants. They’d have the satisfaction of supporting local initiatives and of eating delicious food, prepared by a chef, using local nutritious beef, local bread prepared with healthy wheat, local cheese and even local mint for our milkshakes. The company, its employees and the community — all benefited from developing and adhering to the company’s mission statement.
What advice would you give to leaders of smaller companies or startups who want to build a purpose-driven culture but don’t know where to start?
Start with the inquiry about why are we doing this company. If it’s just about the money it could be a blip on the radar. Why is this company in existence? What are we being called to do and who will have to be? These are the questions to ask.
What are some common mistakes leaders make when trying to create a purpose-driven culture, and how can they avoid them?
They don’t stay in the inquiry about the company’s mission deeply enough. It’s important to think of the mission as something which is living. Human beings have a tendency to say, ok, we’ve got it. When leaders see that developing both a company’s mission and a life mission for their employees, and they put this front and center, it will ignite people’s commitment. A company needs to experiment and prototype, and the mission needs to stay front and center. Everything has to be looked at through the lens of the mission or the purpose.
How do you ensure that your organization’s purpose evolves and remains relevant as your company grows and the world changes?
If you don’t have a process for staying present to the company’s mission and continually being aware of that, you will not stay relevant, especially if you don’t live the company’s mission and the mission doesn’t live for you. By being present to why you started, you will develop inquiry as a practice. If you don’t do it consistently it’s not a practice anymore and then it’s not living.
What trends or shifts are you seeing in the workplace regarding purpose, and how do you think these will shape the future of business?
People are certainly getting more present to having a purpose and living and working with a purpose. More companies have their values up front. But if you only use strategic thinking, as if purpose is merely a problem to be solved, you can kill it off. Purpose is being treated like a thing, a business plan, or a consolidated financial statement. Leaders make the mistake of thinking that when I have my plan and my statement, my customers will see me as relevant. Then purpose will become a fad. Leaders need to have a willingness to change the company. It has to continue to have meaning, and it has to be a consistent practice. The results of this may be profound. They may take us to a new business model and be what we need to turn around the crisis we are facing.
In your opinion, how does having a purpose-driven culture impact not just employees, but customers, clients, and the broader community?
A purpose driven culture has a major ripple effect. Investment in a company’s employees improves employees’ lives. More progressive thinkers are increasingly going local, and when you do go local, you can have a tremendous impact on suppliers and vendors. Customers become loyal to your brand, especially as you continue to move with the changes that are happening. Working with intentionality to create a company’s mission builds a level of trust and loyalty with the company and within the community, including the suppliers, vendors and customers.
In addition, a company can, thanks to their mission, make a commitment to helping local, small business stay in business. We tailored our menus to support local suppliers during the pandemic. The company, the employees and the community knew that they were contributing to a healthier fast food model, making the public healthier.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people by building purpose-driven workplaces, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A commitment to life. The solution to our world’s problems lies within the people who are living on the planet. The world needs what people came to bring forward, their individual life mission. This then becomes available to the world. If people don’t do their life mission, then those solutions won’t emerge.
How can our readers further follow you online?
https://thehupersonproject.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilljtaylor/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqLXc95NZkbNCHasIjSkrEQ
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-HuPerson-Project/61564323240113/
https://www.instagram.com/thehupersonproject
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program. To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Jill Taylor of The HuPerson Project On How to Build a Purpose-Driven Culture That Attracts Top… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.