This week I’m writing about personal purpose, because it’s so important to our enthusiasm, motivation and the impact we make in our work and lives. It defines who we are, and why we get up in the morning. I like the way Oprah describes purpose as something that connects the dots of your life.
Don’t get me wrong, organizational purpose is also important and provides valuable guidance to developing your strategy. Mission and vision are now truly outdated, and are increasingly being replaced by purpose statements. I enjoy supporting organizations to identify their purpose (did this for a non for profit last week), but that is a topic for another day.
Benefits of a personal purpose
When you are clear on your personal purpose, you will find it clarifies what you should focus on to give you the most satisfaction. Just as an organizational purpose guides a business to defining their strategy, a personal purpose guides you to where you can have the biggest impact in your work.
When I defined my purpose, I found many benefits including an increase in my energy levels. I’d like to share it with you as an example.
My purpose is growth: growth of business, growth of others, growth of myself, and growth of communities.
Incidentally, I’m an avid gardener and love seeing plants grow in my garden in Sydney.
For decades, I have delivered or mentored leaders to deliver their strategies. This used to tick all 4 boxes of my purpose:
-
Growth of business – my colleagues and I have contributed to significant ROI many multiples of the cost of the initiatives.
-
Growth of communities – we created cross-functional working groups which are like internal communities in organizations that amplify transformational change.
-
Growth of others – I’ve seen the careers accelerate of people who were involved in these communities eg an EA who became a HR Business Partner.
-
Growth of self – I always learn from talented people I’ve work with.
That was all fine until my learning curve started slowing. Then the link to my purpose became insufficient. I felt less engaged and restless. I needed to do something different. I’m sure you’ve experienced this at different times in your career.
So I collated the hundreds of McKinsey-style frameworks that we have used successfully with clients over the years, and created playbooks from them. All the essential topics to delivering strategy and transformations. We launched the Turbocharge membership last May for business leaders (most are aspiring to C-Suite) who want to make a transformative organizational impact. (If you’re only reading these newsletters, you’re only receiving a fraction of the value.) Essentially the Turbocharge membership has enabled me to help many more people and organizations. That is my purpose on steroids. I now feel more energized than I’ve been in my life. You can do the same.
3 steps for maximizing your impact through purpose
- Define your purpose if you haven’t already done. See the 3 circles framework below. (We will work through this in the March module of the Turbocharge membership).
- Identify the parts of your work (or life) that deliver on your purpose, and maximize your focus on these. For example, can you delegate any parts of your work (or life) that aren’t delivering on your purpose?
- Share your purpose, so that others can be inspired by you.
*** Please forward this article to others who will be interested. ***
_____________
Here is a framework from the March 2024 module: the Power of Personal Purpose, Passion and Superpowers:
