I attended a Leadership course last year and the first activity was to define our purpose.
So, what do we mean by purpose?
The dictionary definition of purpose is
- The reason for which something exists or is done, made, used etc.
- An intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
One of my favourite quotes is by Jesper Lowgren “An extraordinary business starts with extraordinary people. Extraordinary people start with purpose”.
I find the easiest way to explain purpose is that it is the ‘why’ behind everything you do.
My purpose is:
‘To share my knowledge and experience to inspire others to be the best they can be, to make a real difference and be the reason they didn’t give up. ‘
To get me to my purpose, I started to think about what I was passionate about followed by thinking about those people that inspired me. When I look at the people that have inspired me in my life, they have had real purpose and they have always encouraged me never to give up on my dreams.
I find I work best when I’m on ‘purpose’ and am now more conscious of times where I can start to go off purpose to I can steer myself back there!
I found a great article about professional purpose written by Dan Pontefract for Harvard Business Review.
Within the article there is an exercise which is well worth trying.
In the article Dan Pontefract advises you to at the end of the working day, jot down roughly how much time you spent in the following mindsets:
Job Mindset – It describes this as a pay-check mentality, performing duties in return for compensation and not much else.
Career Mindset – This is when you are focused on increasing or advancing your salary, title, power, team size or sphere of control
Purpose Mindset – Feeling passionate, innovative and committed are hallmarks of this mindset, as is having an outward-looking focus on serving the broader organisations or key stakeholders. Your professional purpose feels aligned to your personal purpose.
The advice in the article is to keep a log for a couple of weeks and see whether you are falling into one of these mindsets more than others. If the job and career mindsets are more than 50% of your time, it says that it might be a warning sign that you should restate or redefine your personal purpose.
You can read the full article from Harvard Business review below.
https://hbr.org/2016/05/youre-never-done-finding-purpose-at-work
There is also a useful Ted Talk on this subject by Dan Pontefract (link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ho6CjC_9_c
I have found real benefit in defining my purpose – it gives me focus, determination, motivation and drive!
It would be great to here from other community members about purpose.
Please add your comments/stories below.
Comments
Hi Karren,
I agree with having a purpose. Outside of work I take part in endurance challenges, nothing too big but I am only ever motivated to run, train, or diet when there is a challenge on the horizon. Running when there is no purpose or challenge to drive me on just never happens, oh and by the way neither does dieting! But tell me I will be taking on a challenge then I am out running, walking etc and even enjoy the training when it supports a bigger goal.
Thinking about some of the theorists we bring in to our level three and five programmes, this is clearly supported by the work of Kotter on change by creating a “Compelling vision” and by Covey by “Starting with the end in mind”.
When it comes to motivating employees, it reminds me of the NASA story we sometimes tell of President Kennedy touring NASA. On a tour of NASA in the early 60s, Kennedy met a cleaner in the corridor, Kennedy stopped for a second and said “Excuse me sir, but what do you do here at NASA”? The cleaner’s reply was congruent and enthusiastic “Sir, I am helping put man on the moon”. This was the bigger purpose which a humble cleaner had embraced and what possibly drove him to do a great job.
So our purpose in HR and L&D is to help build organisations that have clear engaging purposes that staff get behind and this will drive engagement, retention, effort etc.
Thanks Howard, its great to a purpose mindset both inside and outside of work.
I love the NASA story! Understanding the vision and purpose of the organisation you work for and being clear on how your role supports that is so important for employee engagement and motivation.
Karen