Recently I embarked on a complete rebranding exercise for my coaching and consulting business. The result? It made me fall more in love with the work I do as an entrepreneur and strategic thinking partner for those I’m fortunate enough to call my clients.
North Star Purpose
This rebranding exercise got me thinking about my North Star purpose – otherwise known as a personal mission statement or articulation of high-level, long-term aspirational goals.
When I first started my business, I thought a lot about my North Star and really hadn’t revisited it until now. I knew that my business needed to reflect what I felt so passionately about – that a coach can help you see your North Star and define it such that you are always able to stay on course and find your way, no matter where you are.
A North Star is something wholesome and vital. When you find it and recognize your purpose, it feels good to know where you’re headed as something steady and reassuring, something you can always count on.
For professional/leadership coaching, finding your North Star means finding the way you wish to lead based on your core values so that you can use your North Star light to enable others to find their own.
What is a North Star Strategy?
In my role as a business coach and consultant, I help leaders identify their organization’s overall
purpose and ambition. In other words, I help them find and define their why…their North Star — a way to communicate and honour stakeholder promises and customer commitments. I ask my clients powerful questions to help them find inspiration and insights in ways they hadn’t before considered.
I’m so thrilled at the success my clients experience. Using a tested and true model, we get clear about their why, their North Star purpose. While the four questions I’ve included might seem simplistic, I can assure you they aren’t. When you are able to fully answer them and your employees are able to provide consistently similar responses, you know you’ve been able to successfully implement your North Star Strategy. The work doesn’t stop there though!
The four questions:
1) What does your organization do?
2) Why is your organization in business? (your North Star purpose)
3) How will you ensure you can bring your why to life your business? What will that look like?
4) Now that you’ve answered questions 1-3, how do you want your customers to feel?
With my unwavering belief in the North Star approach, I’ve rebranded my logo to reflect the compass rose. It is the diagram depicted on a compass face that shows the directions of north, south, east and west in abbreviated initials. The compass and GPS have been some of the greatest inventions, in my opinion, as instruments to indicate direction and navigation. For mariners, the magnetic compass allowed them to determine their direction even if clouds blocked their usual astronomical cues.
There are times when all of us feel there is something obscuring our ability to see the path forward. In these times, it is helpful to have resources, like a compass or a coach to help you map out points to steer yourself and your business in the direction of your North Star. Contact us to take the next step in aligning your energy and actions in the service of your vision.
