When I am privileged to work with individuals on their sense of meaning and purpose @ work, I start with a few personal questions. 1) How do you want to be known when you leave a room? 2) Are you comfortable entering the room? 3) Does your inner self agree with your organization’s outer self? 4) Can you succinctly describe in a sentence or two how you operate each day with meaning and purpose?
There are more self reflective, introspective and almost existential questions to go through but these four tend to get the ball rolling rather well.
The way I see it, each of us has a responsibility to ourselves to live a life of purpose. But, if we don’t know what that means or how to enact it each and every day, trouble brews.
Second, most of us work for an organization. We have a boss. We have a role. The organization stands (hello R.E.M.) for something. If we’re out of alignment between how we personally see the world (or our life) with our boss, role or organization, trouble brews again. There is a lack of purpose or meaning connection between us as human beings and our place at work.
I find we need both. We need to do the hard work personally, but we need a boss/role/organization that matches our personal purpose.
If it doesn’t manifest, yep, trouble brews.
Which is why it is so important for us to do the hard work personally. But we should take a stand as employees and/or leaders to build (and consistently apply) a sense of purpose in the organization AND in our roles.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
Life is short. Purpose is a muscle. We need to exercise our purpose every single day (personally and working) or we end up disengaged if not disenchanted.
First off for kicking off the conversation. An expert like yourself on purpose and work.
I love the overlay question you're posing here, which is you can't do your best purposeful work until the overlap happens between you/the role/the org.
It's the ultimate venn diagram. Of doing what you value to create value.
When I am privileged to work with individuals on their sense of meaning and purpose @ work, I start with a few personal questions. 1) How do you want to be known when you leave a room? 2) Are you comfortable entering the room? 3) Does your inner self agree with your organization’s outer self? 4) Can you succinctly describe in a sentence or two how you operate each day with meaning and purpose?
There are more self reflective, introspective and almost existential questions to go through but these four tend to get the ball rolling rather well.
The way I see it, each of us has a responsibility to ourselves to live a life of purpose. But, if we don’t know what that means or how to enact it each and every day, trouble brews.
Second, most of us work for an organization. We have a boss. We have a role. The organization stands (hello R.E.M.) for something. If we’re out of alignment between how we personally see the world (or our life) with our boss, role or organization, trouble brews again. There is a lack of purpose or meaning connection between us as human beings and our place at work.
I find we need both. We need to do the hard work personally, but we need a boss/role/organization that matches our personal purpose.
If it doesn’t manifest, yep, trouble brews.
Which is why it is so important for us to do the hard work personally. But we should take a stand as employees and/or leaders to build (and consistently apply) a sense of purpose in the organization AND in our roles.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
Life is short. Purpose is a muscle. We need to exercise our purpose every single day (personally and working) or we end up disengaged if not disenchanted.
My two cents/sense. 🙏
Dan.
Thanks, Dan.
First off for kicking off the conversation. An expert like yourself on purpose and work.
I love the overlay question you're posing here, which is you can't do your best purposeful work until the overlap happens between you/the role/the org.
It's the ultimate venn diagram. Of doing what you value to create value.