Work On Purpose In 2014

Posted on January 26, 2014 by George Casey, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Many people today feel a need for more than just a job. They are looking for work to provide a sense of meaning and purpose for their lives. The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute surveyed 112,000 students from 236 colleges in 2004. More than 75% of those surveyed indicate they are “searching for meaning and purpose in their life.”(1) The general population’s search for meaning and purpose explains why Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? has sold millions of copies. Our personalities are organized around a blend of purposes and meanings: caring, creating, exactness, autonomy, relatedness, and adapting. Meaning is the strategic driver of our personality (2).

Are you one of those searching for purpose and meaning? “Ask yourself this series of questions: Do you look forward to your work? Do you jump into your job every day, eager for new challenges to put your mind to? Does your work engage all of your faculties? Are you energized and enthusiastic, even fully alive at your job? And finally, do you think that your work uses all of your talents, or, as it’s usually phrased, your potential?” (p. 81,Maccoby (2007))

More and more organizations are defining their purposes, and aligning their people, processes, and practical values to support their purposes. Using the 4Ps is more than good strategy. A meaningful purpose not only attracts and retains people, it also engages people, aligns processes, and defines the practical values needed for the purpose. “Whole Foods, IDEO, Google, and Zappos are great examples of major corporations that have used traditional for-profit structures to scale their growth while implementing many untraditional practices that aren’t profit motivated. For example:
• Whole Foods created Community Giving Days where 5% of that day’s net sales are given to local non-profits.
• Google invested in creating an exceptional work environment with themed work spaces, slides between floors, free gourmet food, and radical amounts of employee autonomy.
• Zappos innovated ways to “deliver happiness”—their mission—through untraditional benefits like surprising 80% of customers with free overnight shipping.
• IDEO created IDEO.org to solve poverty related challenges by offering their talented designers to communities who need them the most” (3)
The new year is a good time to reflect on and begin clarifying your purpose as a person and as a leader. Do those purposes align with your organization’s purpose? Do your values support those purposes? How do you measure success? Are you measuring how well your purpose is being fulfilled? Now is a good time to start. Work on Purpose in 2014.
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1. “Spirituality in Higher Education: National Study of College Student’s Search for Meaning and Purpose (2004-2005)”, www:sprituality.ucla.edu/reports
2. Maccoby, Michael (2007), Narcissistic Leaders: who succeeds and who fails, Harvard Business School Press
3. Forbes.com, 11/04/2013 @ 10:03PM, GameChangers: The World’s Top Purpose-Driven Organizations