Four Ways to Discover & Coach Purpose

Just this past week I spoke to 350 HR
leaders and then to 500 CEOs and entrepreneurs about the Power of Purpose.
I showed them how purpose can win customers, engage team members and help all
of us achieve our personal best. One of the key elements of leading for purpose
is identifying your own purpose and coaching others to identify theirs. When
team members work from a place of purpose, they are more engaged and perform
better on every metric we care about, so helping coach purpose is one of the
keys to effective leadership.

My experience shows that most people have
a pretty good idea of what their purpose is. Here are four questions I use to
help people truly uncover their purpose:

What drives you?
When do you feel most engaged at work?On days you feel
you REALLY made a difference – what did you do? If you were gone
from the team, what would people miss? If you were gone from your family or
network what would people say was missed? How do you change the room in a
positive way?When you were a
child, what did you love to do & what irritated you?

That last question is an
interesting one that was suggested by my wife Janice, a high school teacher.
She says that most of should reflect on what we loved to do and what irritated
us as children. In my case, what I loved to do was learn and tell stories. What
irritated me was seeing people and situations where compassion and kindness was
lacking. I always cared deeply for people and all living things. Not
surprisingly, my purpose is to inspire individuals, organizations and society
to be more compassionate and just.

The truth is, most
people already know their purpose. But we as leaders are afraid to ask what it
is. At my keynotes, I often give the audience less
than one minute to answer the question “What is your purpose?” Then I ask each
person to connect with someone else and share it. The room becomes energized with
a positive buzz. I then ask, “When was the last time you knew you were living
your purpose?”

I ask for a show of hands of how
many people felt the purpose they named felt roughly “quite right.” Around the
world about 90-95% of the hands go up. With less than one minute of preparation,
most people can name their purpose.

Once You Have Your
Purpose…Then What

So, what happens after you identify
your purpose or find out a team member’s purpose? Well here are three simple
actions:

Write it down
and look at it every day before you start your day. Find an image or something that reminds you why you
are here.Every time you
get to “live your purpose” in small or large ways, take a moment and notice it. Breathe it in. When you see someone on your team live
their purpose, let them know you noticed.Finally, ask
yourself each day, “How could I live my purpose more deeply?” Ask team members, “How could you bring your purpose
to life even more in our workplace?”

If you want to know more about my talks and sessions on purpose, please read more information here.

Meanwhile, get clear on your
purpose and start asking team members about theirs. The results might surprise
you!

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