Working on Purpose

Defining purpose in work, life and business is not about the daily tasks, it’s about the reason for the tasks in the first place – the “why”, not the “what”. Discovering purpose allows a person to create the vision behind the tasks, and knowing that vision can dramatically change results.

For example, a chef’s purpose is not to cook food – that’s a task. The reason for this task is to help people enjoy life by having a good time with loved ones around a meal they didn’t have to prepare (or clean up) themselves.

People who are fulfilled at work know how the work they do supports the company’s vision, values and goals whether it’s their own company or someone else’s.

Knowing your purpose helps:

• Give meaning to everything you do.
• Guide you through tough times and difficult decisons.
• Encourage you to follow your instinct instead of following the crowd.
• Motivate you on your journey even (or especially) when you encounter failure or rejection.

How to Fulfill Your Purpose AND Make a Living

We’ve been talking about finding purpose in the work that you’re already doing. If you want to envision a career, based on your life purpose, try the following approach.

1. Determine your strengths: Life purpose is directly related to personal strengths and talents e.g. if communication is your strength then your purpose may be found in that area.

2. Determine your passions: Passions are the things you love to do – with or without external rewards (like money or recognition).

3. Determine your causes: Identify the causes that matter to you. Is there a condition in the world that makes you feel discontent or compels you to action?

4. Find the sweet spot: After determining your strengths, passions and causes find the overlap between them. That’s the sweet spot, where you’re likely to find the most fulfillment in your work life.

5. Your mission, should you choose to accept it… Based on the information above, write a personal mission statement – it can help guide you throughout your career transition.

It’s not (necessarily) about the money!

If you are in career transition, instead of focusing on a money goal, try setting goals that “add value” – a goal that improves the quality of people’s lives or of the earth. Whether you’re a bricklayer, a coach, a CEO or a solopreneur, it’s ultimately through helping others that we all achieve our life purpose.

Adapted from content used under license © 2011 Claire Communications

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Can you remember when you were a little child – what did you want to be when you grew up?  Whether your dreams ran along typical lines of train-driver, ballet dancer or pop star, or whether you had more unusual intentions (apparently I wanted to be a window cleaner and write sermons in my spare time) just take a moment now to reflect on how close you have come to your childhood dream.

When we are facing the crisis of redundancy we often revert to child-like behaviour.  Some of this behaviour is unhelpful, like blaming others, sulking or going into an over-emotional state.  So why not take the opportunity to do some other, more positive child-like behaviour?  Try indulging in a spot of child-like, no-boundaries, no-rules day-dreaming on “what I want to be when I grow up”.  No matter what age you are, you can still make these dreams come true.  I no longer fancy being a window-cleaner, and whilst a blog isn’t quite the same as a sermon, I’d say it’s pretty close!

Out of The Frying Pan…

Out of the frying pan, into another frying pan

When you find yourself facing redundancy or other challenges in your career, the feeling of impending crisis means that the first step many of us take is immediately to contact the agencies to find another similar position.  But is this always the best course of action?  After the initial impetus, many people have regrets about this hasty step because it can be a case of “out of the frying pan, into the fire”.

I mean this in two different ways.  Firstly, if you are being made redundant then there is always a risk that market conditions mean that other, similar jobs may also be precarious.  One of our friends has recently been made redundant for the third time, and twice just in the last 12 months.

The other reason is that repeating what we know means that you miss the opportunity to take stock, to re-evaluate what’s really important in your life and what you really want from your next position.

So if you are facing redundancy, rather than jump into the next frying pan too hastily, take a moment to list out what your absolute ideal, perfect position would look like.  What would you focus on? What would you hear? What would you be saying to yourself when you establish yourself in the perfect role for you?  And how great will that make you feel?

Now, what role will give you all that?  Think widely and take your time, and be confident of creating for yourself absolute clarity over the right next step.

The Sherpa as a leadership model

the Sherpa - a metaphor for leadership

“I am the Sherpa,
I know the way, I show the way, I travel the way.
I have the strength to carry my own load, and the humility to carry yours.
I have the resourcefulness to travel with the lightest load possible, and to use the resources of my surroundings, no matter how bleak, to make the journey successful.”
Unknown source

I really like the metaphor of Sherpa as leader. For me it is characterised by some simple tenets:

• a clear vision of the destination
• familiarity with the route, coupled with the flexibility to adapt to circumstances as they arise
• courage not just to travel dangerous ground, but also to take responsibility for others on the journey
• happiness to let others be the “famous name”, a lack of ego which is so rare when coupled with such strong self-belief.

I invite you to take on the Sherpa qualities; what difference would that make to the way you tackle things? How would it benefit you, and those around you? What resources does your environment offer that could be put to better use? Whose burden can you ease?

Where do you find leadership role models?

Working with our VIP coaching group recently, we asked them to identify role model leadership qualities, and then to find people who were role models, displaying these qualities.  The qualities they listed include:

• having a vision and going for it
• staying true to your purpose
• balancing work and home life
• making a difference in the economy
• making a difference to the community

So who, we asked, embodies these qualities?

After a long silence, one voice hesitantly offered “Barack Obama?”  It was clear that the participants were having difficulty finding their leadership role models, but here’s the thing – look closer to home, and look carefully.  There are examples on your doorstep.  “Show us”, the participants challenged, so we put on our coats and walked into the village where our rural retreats are held to find the following:

1. the mother/daughter partnership who both hold down full time jobs and have simultaneously set up Chillilicious,  the UKs most Northerly Chilli farm – overcoming the climatic challenges to grow and sell chillis and chilli products
2. the special needs teacher with a passion for art, who has opended the Lunardi Gallery to showcase local artists and crafts people, while continuing to teach art therapy for special needs children, and also taking comissions to produce ther own unique textiles
3. the local Ceres butcher who got fed up having to buy meat from supermarkets when we live in a farming county, and opened his shop selling locally sourced meat. He can even tell you which herd that steak came from, and provides much-needed employment for many people.
4. Griselda Hill, who made it her mission to revive the iconic Wemyss Ware pottery, reinstating the original designs and techniques and breathing new life into this age-old brand.

And we visited all these role models in just one afternoon, in one small village of 1,000 people.   How many inspirational leaders can you find on your own doorstep? And is one of them you?

Take Time to Reflect

As I find myself here in the lull between Christmas and New Year, it feels like the perfect opportunity to reflect on 2011 and start to plan possibilities for the year ahead.

Have you taken time over the past year to notice your achievements? If so how have you celebrated your successes? Perhaps most importantly how you can learn from this year’s challenges?

So as you venture into 2012, take a few moments  to consider these questions:

1. What were your 3 greatest achievements over the past year… and how have you shared and celebrated them?
2. What difficulties have you faced… what are the most valuable lessons for you to learn?
3. Now just relax and allow yourself to imagine… where would you like to be, in your life, this time next year? Allow yourself to visualise:
   Where will you be?
   Who will you be with?
   What will you be hearing and feeling?
   And what will be your first step?

You may want to consider these questions on your own or have fun, sharing them with a friend or partner.  Whatever you choose do post some of your answers here…

The best kept secret of effective networking Part 2

In the previous article, I wrote about networking as being a method of beginning a relationship that would become mutually beneficial over time. The person who taught me this, by her own demonstration of this approach, was Rhona Hutchon, then working at the recruiters Hudson, now a director of Harvey Nash Scotland. I first met Rhona at an event in 2000. Rhona approached me and asked good, open introductory questions. She soon discovered that my company then had only 6 people and no budget to recruit, let alone use an agency. Where others would have glazed over and walked away, Rhona took an interest in me and found out a little bit more before elegantly leaving the conversation (incidentally, by introducing me to someone who she thought might be interested in my service), leaving me feeling good about the meeting. Some time later, Rhona sent me a small snippet she thought I might be interested in. A few months later she invited me to an event where she thought I might be able to meet some potential buyers. And so it went on, with Rhona actively building the relationship.

Our company began to grow rapidly, and guess who the only recruiter was that we trusted and respected enough to do business with us? Since then, Rhona has probably placed over 20 recruits with that company. In return, we recommend Rhona to everyone we speak to – a true illustration of a relationship that has been mutually beneficial over time.

When you are next planning to go to a networking event, try the following simple action plan:

• decide ahead what you want to achieve, in terms of how many new relationships you plan to initiate
• enter the event with a smile – it signals friendliness and approachability, and also gives you self-confidence
• ask open, general questions to learn as much about the other person as possible
• listen and look out for opportunities to offer something that will help the other person
• don’t try to push your CV, product or service. Remember that you are just starting the process of building up trust and respect
• always follow up on your promises. Send that article, or pass on that contact
• keep in touch. You never know when that new relationship will deliver benefits

7 Leadership Attributes

Leadership skills: 7 Key attributes for exceptional leaders

We take it for granted that leaders have good communication skills, can motivate people and get results. This article explores seven advanced competencies that set truly great leaders apart.

1 – Courage
A true leader is prepared to go out on a limb to get results. Be prepared to face difficult or risky situations with resolution, self-possession and confidence. Motivate others to follow in such situations. Go for it.

2 – Vision
Have a clear purpose and be able to paint a picture of your vision to others. Mediaeval leaders used symbols on their shields and banners representing their cause, which acted as a rallying point for their followers. What is on your banner?

3 – Inspiring Followership
Why should I follow you? What makes it worth my while? Identify what motivates your followers and capitalise on it. Take notice of their level of willingness to follow you, and adjust your behaviour, communication and example-setting to build their willingness.

4 – Serving
“I lead by serving, I serve by leading”. Serving in a leadership context is a two way street. The leader serves a higher purpose, whether it is a corporation, a deity or an ideal. The leader also serves their people. When you give to those around you as much as you expect them to give to you, you will be rewarded by respect and trust from motivated and inspired followers.

5 – Advocacy.
Present compelling arguments in favour of your cause, idea or policy. Actively demonstrate support for the issue. Be ready to speak fluently and passionately about your cause. Great leaders are inspirational when talking about or debating their cause.

6 – Decision-Making
Sometimes it’s tough; sometimes it feels like any decision you make is full of pitfalls, but as a leader you have to make decisions. So make your decisions with conviction, display confidence in your decisions, take ownership of them and follow them through to implementation.

7 – Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs show agility, speed of response and independence of thinking, driven by the awareness of threat from competition or market conditions. An entrepreneurial leader harnesses this sense of urgency to get results. Leaders with this attribute dream big dreams and achieve big goals.

The best-kept secret of effective networking Part 1

In business, much is made of networking. And yet many of us dread going to networking events because of the pressure of finding new people to talk to, or because we never quite know what to say in our “elevator pitch”. Other people make networking into a competition to see who can get the most business cards. In this article, we offer you a different way of looking at networking that can turn a challenge or a chore into a productive and above all enjoyable activity.

What intention do you have in mind when you go to a networking event? Most people focus on things like “How many business cards can I get?”, or “I want to meet as many new people as possible”, or even “Who can I meet that will offer me a job?”. You may have found that these approaches tend not to work. Or at least, you might collect lots of business cards, but you are really no better off than if you’d bought that many names from a list. I recently received an email from someone who said “It was a pleasure to meet you at the recent event”. I wasn’t even at that event – but I had lent my cards to a colleague who had run out. The person sending the email hadn’t even noticed that my name is female and my colleague is male. As you can imagine, that didn’t create too good an impression with me.

Let me offer you another way to look at networking – why not see every event as the opportunity to begin a relationship that will be mutually beneficial over time? There are lots of important parts to that challenge which I will explore in turn:

to begin

The networking event is just the first opportunity to meet someone. It is naive to hope to close a deal with someone on first meeting, so why should a networking event be any different. Like any other relationship in life, start with the basics of getting to know each other. Everything else will build on this basis.

a relationship

In business, the idea of a relationship is undervalued, and yet all transactions fundamentally boil down to interactions between individuals. This means that the underlying human relationship is an essential in all business dealings. Time invested in creating, developing and maintaining relationships will always pay dividends. The networking event is the opportunity to create new relationships. If I have started two new relationships out of one event then I am pretty happy – certainly happier than if I’ve collected 50 business cards, but can’t actually remember the people behind any of them. Chances are, those people won’t remember me either.

mutually beneficial

This is the absolute key. We’ve all met the seasoned networker with the polished elevator pitch, who works the room with military precision, and glazes over as soon as they think that you won’t be a potential buyer. On the face of it, these people have a great strategy, but think what they’re missing out on. If they walk away from me leaving me feel worthless (to them) I’m unlikely to hold any great feeling of loyalty or commitment to them in return. So as and when I DO have a need for their product or service, guess what? I won’t be calling them any time soon.

On the other hand, what has worked for me, and will work for you too, is to assume that there’s always a way in which I can offer the other person something of benefit to them. This might simply be an article I think they’ll be interested in, or it might be a contact name that they’re looking for. Once, it was a lift to a crucial football match. The thing is, it costs me nothing but a small effort to find out how I can help, and to make that thing happen. Then, when they have a need for my product or service the chances are that I will be favourably in their minds when they’re ready to buy.

over time

The final thing to remember is that networking is not about instant results. The person you meet at networking may turn into a valued client, and this only happens when you have built the relationship, and earned trust and respect. The more you invest in the relationship the more you will understand the other person’s priorities, values and needs, and the better placed you will be to meet those needs.