Purpose Before Team: The Fire Comes First

Simon Sinek told us to Start with Why. He gave us a map, a clear direction: if you want to inspire action, start with purpose. But there’s something that happens before the map gets unfolded, before the team gathers, before the first meeting begins.

There’s a fire.

Not the fire of motivational speeches or personal ambition, but something external. A need. A gap. A problem waiting for hands to solve it.

Firefighters don’t form a team because they like each other. They don’t sit in a room and brainstorm their collective ‘why.’ They form because there’s a fire to put out. The fire comes first. The purpose comes first.

It’s the gravitational force that pulls people into alignment, that gives roles their meaning, that turns tasks into necessary contributions.

Purpose creates the team—not the other way around.

The Problem with Starting in the Wrong Place

In many organizations, we’ve flipped this sequence. We build teams first. We draft charters, set objectives, assign roles, and hope that somewhere along the way, a sense of shared purpose will emerge.

Sometimes it does. Often, it doesn’t.

Without a clear, living purpose at the center, a team starts to drift. Meetings become rituals. Tasks become boxes to tick. Trust becomes fragile because alignment isn’t anchored to anything larger than individual performance.

A team without purpose is a fire brigade with no fire.

Purpose Isn’t Invented. It’s Discovered.

Purpose isn’t something you create in a workshop with sticky notes and markers. It’s something you listen for. It’s already there—in the market, in the unmet needs of your customers, in the spaces where your organization feels pulled to act.

The leader’s role isn’t to dictate purpose but to hold space for it to emerge, to ask the right questions, and to listen deeply to the answers.
- Who do we serve?
- What gap are we here to fill?
- What can we do together that we cannot do apart?

Sometimes purpose arrives with clarity, like a bell ringing in the fog. Other times, it’s felt more than seen—a pull in a direction that feels right but can’t yet be articulated.

But once it’s clear, it organizes everything around it. Decisions sharpen. Energy focuses. People know why they’re showing up—and it’s not just to complete a task or attend a meeting.

An Example: Learning to Listen for the Fire

I’ve felt this shift myself.

When we started Traction5, it wasn’t born out of a grand vision. It was a technical response to a problem I encountered while running a mentorship program for Innovate Charlotte. Spreadsheets. Emails. Calendar chaos. The work was meaningful, but the mess was swallowing the clarity.

So we built software. A tool to simplify, to make the chaos manageable.

But tools don’t carry purpose—they carry tasks.

For a long time, the team wasn’t quite right. People showed up, worked on features, met deadlines. But they weren’t pulled by something larger—they were just fulfilling assignments.

And I was no better. I thought I could show customers how to use the software, explain how it would help them if they just followed the system. I thought they needed to adapt to us.

But purpose doesn’t emerge from explanation. It emerges from listening.

I started listening—not just to the users, but to the gaps. To the places where their needs didn’t quite fit into our technical scaffolding. To the ways they wanted to show up, to connect, to build something meaningful with our tool.

And slowly, something changed. The software became less about the tool and more about what it made possible. It became a space for engagement, for alignment, for exploring how real connection could emerge—even within technical structures.

The team changed too. The right people started showing up—not because of job descriptions or salaries, but because they felt the pull of something real.

This wasn’t about software. It was about responding to a need. About showing up for the fire.

The Shape of a Purpose-Driven Team

Teams that start with purpose feel different.

In a team formed around a real, living purpose:
- Roles feel fluid, but essential. People step into what’s needed, not just what’s written on their job description.
- Trust grows in the spaces between people. There’s less jockeying for position, less defensiveness, less of the friction that comes from misalignment.
- Meetings have gravity. Conversations aren’t just about updates—they’re about advancing the purpose.

In contrast, teams without clear purpose tend to harden. Roles become rigid. Conflicts linger. And even success feels hollow because it isn’t anchored to something meaningful.

Ask yourself: When was the last time your team felt gravitational? When was the last time the purpose pulled you all together effortlessly?

Leaders: Hold the Center, Not the Edges

If you’re a leader, your job isn’t to control every detail, every interaction, every decision. Your job is to hold the center—to keep the purpose clear, alive, and compelling.

It’s not about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about being the one who asks the questions no one else is asking:
- What is this team really here to do?
- Is this purpose still alive?
- Are we letting purpose guide us, or have we started drifting back to busyness and performance for its own sake?

The Fire, The Map, and The Compass

Simon Sinek gave us a map: Start With Why.

But Peter Hawkins gives us something deeper—a compass: Purpose Before Team.

The fire comes first. The need comes first. The purpose comes first.

Everything else—the team, the roles, the strategies—arrives in response to that gravitational pull.

Because the fire doesn’t care how well-organized your team is.

It only cares if you’re paying attention.

And if you are, it will show you the next step. It always does.