PI recently read a quote by Simon Sinek, which stated, “Leadership is the ability to rally people not for a single event, but for years. In business, leadership means that customers will continue to support your company even when you slip up.” [1]
How powerful is that! As a result of recent events in my life the meaning of his words is clear, and rings very true. It also fits perfectly with my current thinking on purpose and leadership.
I have a strong value chain, part of which involves helping others to unpack their ‘why’ and achieve their desired outcomes. In doing so, I’ve lead by example. So in the moment of my slip, when the chips were down and the media were on the offensive, people rallied around me.
My customers, colleagues, family, and friends all had my back. I value and appreciate everything they have done enormously. What has been life changing, though, is the support I have received from strangers and those I’ve only ever worked with once.
Until I hit one of life’s banana skins, I hadn’t understood that I’d made a positive impact on so many people’s lives. Discovering this has been incredibly fulfilling, for one simple reason. It means I am achieving my purpose.
It is so easy to become fixated on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of achievement. This fixation is the reason many people don’t recognise that, first and foremost, their focus should be on the ‘why’.
Thinking primarily about professional purpose, ask yourself this: why do you go to work? And once there, why do you perform specific tasks? Without realising it, you can find yourself functioning on autopilot for much of the time. Then one day, you realise you’re lost.
When you get caught up in completing day-to-day tasks, all you’re doing is engaging a mechanism that takes you from A to B. You may not be achieving anything in the process, beyond completing the task.
This is where knowing your purpose comes into play. When you are focused on your purpose, even when you are carrying out tasks that may offer little reward in themselves, you are still working towards achieving your desired outcomes.
The reason for this is that purpose isn’t just the one singular thing that drives you. Purpose breaks down into smaller increments.
This is why you need to understand the purpose of each and every task you perform. Once you have this awareness, you can see which processes are helping you to fulfil your overarching purpose, and which ones are holding you back.
For example, we have an opening procedure at the Rob Roy. This procedure requires staff to complete a series of tasks. What would the consequence of not following the opening procedure be? We would not be ready for the day ahead.
At every level and every stage, the aim is for the smaller purpose of everything you do to feed into the deeper purpose. Each step helps to ready you for the next.
Children sense this instinctively. Many young children go through a phase of asking ‘why’. If you go with them on that journey, answering each subsequent ‘why’ question that they pose, it quickly leads to a place of deep and significant meaning.
If you take yourself on this journey, and live a purpose-driven life, you start looking at things through a different set of lenses. This is because the way you behave, act, think, and communicate is directly influenced by your purpose: and your understanding of your life.
There’s no rocket science behind it. But we don’t give it enough credit, and we don’t give it enough thought. So what is the relevance in the context of leadership?
One commonality between all great leaders is that they have a purpose. They know what they want to achieve. They sell their story and their vision to people, and those people follow them willingly.
When you are purpose-driven, you can inspire others to follow you. Because having purpose is magnetic. Some call it charisma, but the truth is much more straightforward: you have purpose, and most people don’t. It is this that draws people to you.
In their research into purpose and leadership, Russell and Underwood concluded that, “success in leadership is dependent on conceptualising purpose and having the facilitators in place to realise this.” [2]
When you understand your purpose, you go beyond the limits of your horizon. This puts you in an incredible position – one where you can elevate others to share your vision.
To finish with another quote, in the words of David Gergen, “A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” This is, perhaps, the greatest purpose of all.
Kristian Livolsi
References:
1. Sinek, S. (2016). Start with why. [United States]: Joosr Ltd.
2. Underwood, C. and Russell, E. (2016). Exploring the role of purpose in leadership. [online] Hrmagazine.co.uk. Available at: http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/exploring-the-role-of-purpose-in-leadership
