How do you find purpose and bring it to your leadership role?
It’s important to be clear about the difference between one’s personal purpose and the organisational purpose a leader might aim to instil. For me, finding personal purpose was an inward journey. I started noticing a calling and yearning from deep within, and then took care to listen and nurture that faint whisper until flickers turn into flame. It’s about being true to your heart and soul, and this can be difficult when we are conditioned to follow societal norms and live up to expectations of others.
Now bringing purpose to a leadership role could look very different depending on the roles one plays in their own lives or an organisation. Purposeful leadership is not just limited to the leader or CEO who bring about a higher purpose within an organisational.
When I initially discovered my personal purpose, I didn’t have a position of leadership but I knew I needed further education in order to bring my purpose to life. At business school fifteen years ago, very few colleagues shared the view that “business as usual” or “profit being the sole purpose” was problematic. Developing the courage to stand up for what’s right, while others sit on their hands, is itself an act of leadership.
How do you bring people on a journey of connecting with collective purpose?
Increasingly, more people are discovering their personal purpose, including at their workplace – whether it is being more environmentally responsible or equitable and inclusive of all or those underserved. Pursuing purpose alone is an uphill battle. This is made easier when people rally around a common purpose, come together to form a community, collaborate, and offer mutual support.
Finding and connecting with your ‘tribe’ brings incredible joy and is critical for collective purpose to be sustained.
In my experience of building a collective, the first step starts with inviting others to participate. Run workshops, seek to understand what motivates each person, set shared goals and outcomes.
Have faith in the saying, “Build it and they will come.”
How do you make purpose “stick” as a leader?
Once you have clarity of purpose in an organisation or within a group, develop projects with clear roles and responsibilities. Start with easy and achievable goals at first to build energy and momentum — and don’t forget to weave in some fun. Pursuing a higher purpose doesn’t have to be all serious!
Create structures that reflect and embed the collective purpose. Foster ownership of purpose across every level of organisation, by empowering people to define success and make decisions aligned to purpose. Decentralisation may take some effort, but it ensures that people are engaged once the systems and culture are in place.
Other things a leader can do is to: develop other purpose-driven leaders, encourage storytelling that inspire, and embody purpose by walking the talk. Successful purposeful leaders are those who can walk away and see their legacy live on.
How do you stay the course on being a purposeful leader?
Purpose is more like a compass showing direction rather than a roadmap to specific destinations. As a leader, keep zooming out even when goals and milestones are achieved. Keep asking ‘why’ along your voyage and you’ll discover farther destinations. The other question I like to ask myself is, “what is the best use of me at this moment?” The answers help me stay the course.
