Be Purpose Led

The 6 Steps to Better Work

Ben Renshaw
BEN RENSHAW

BE PURPOSE LED
THE 6 STEPS TO BETTER WORK

2
Be Purpose Led: The 6 Steps to Better Work
1st edition
© 2022 Ben Renshaw & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-4377-9
Name and title of reviewer: Brian Woodhead, Executive Coach

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BE PURPOSE LED Contents

CONTENTS
About the author 6

Introduction 8

1 Why Purpose Matters 9

1.1 Why purpose why now 9
1.2 Have clear identity 9
1.3 Shape direction 10
1.4 Be focused 10
1.5 Unlock energy 11
1.6 Make things meaningful 12

2 Discover Purpose 13
2.1 Purpose defined 13
2.2 Discover your purpose 14
2.3 Your purpose at work 16
2.4 Identify team purpose 17

3 Develop a Purpose Mindset 20

3.1 Mindset shift 20
3.2 Operating on autopilot 20
3.3 Making conscious choices 20
3.4 Being intentional 21
3.5 Being purpose-led 22

4 Apply Purpose Skills 24

4.1 Purpose-led skills 24
4.2 The art of listening 24
4.3 Storytelling 27
4.4 Influencing 28
4.5 Decision making 29
4.6 Learning 29

5 Build Purposeful Relationships 31

5.1 Humanity 31
5.2 Psychological safety 31
5.3 Inclusion 32
5.4 Teamwork 33

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BE PURPOSE LED Contents

6 Do Purposeful Work 36
6.1 Do what you love 36
6.2 Play to strengths 37
6.3 Be flexible 38
6.4 Do good 40

Table of figures 42

References 43

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BE PURPOSE LED About the author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Country: United Kingdom

Number of books: 10

Contact the author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-renshaw/

Ben Renshaw is one of today’s foremost leadership thinkers. Speaker, coach and author, Ben’s
innovative work leading organisations, senior executives and entrepreneurs has brought him
international acclaim. Formerly a classical violinist, Ben now plays a different tune getting the
best out of people. He writes about how to lead and be successful in today’s volatile world
and is the author of ten popular books including LoveWork, Being, and SuperCoaching. As
an executive coach and leadership consultant Ben has worked with clients like Allen & Overy,
Barclays, BT, Heathrow, Heinz, Henley Business School, InterContinental Hotels Group,
KPMG, London Underground, M&S, P&G, Sainsbury’s, Sky, UBS, Unilever. Ben’s passion
for purpose is reflected as a father, playing tennis, learning new cultures and meditating.

Client examples:

Ben supported IHG as they adopted an asset light strategy selling over 3500 hotels
worldwide and putting their guest at the heart of the business. They established a higher
purpose through gaining insight from colleagues across the organisation and committed to
developing leadership capability to enable leaders to be purpose-led. This resulted in the
design of Leading with Purpose, a 3-day senior leadership development program which
Ben co-designed and delivered for over ten years and was attended by over 1000 leaders.

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BE PURPOSE LED About the author

Described as the most powerful and effective leadership program in the history of the
company it provided the necessary insight, inspiration and tools to impact the organisational
culture to become service-led and support the implementation of their strategic plan. “Ben’s
work with purpose is for people wanting to reach new levels of meaning, performance and to
accelerate growth.” Keith Barr, CEO, IHG

Ben coached the Heathrow Terminal Two (T2) Leadership Team over an 18-month period to
support the delivery of The Queen’s Terminal, 4 June 2014. The team had a matrix structure
which was a challenge in a hierarchical environment whilst navigating the complexity and
scale of a high-profile program. Ben coached the team to develop its higher purpose, values,
ways of working and deep trust in service of delivering its agreed targets. T2 won Skytrax
World’ Best Airport Terminal in 2018. “Ben has been a key partner developing our senior
leaders and his purpose approach challenges you to learn, grow and unlock your potential.” John
Holland-Kaye, CEO, Heathrow

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BE PURPOSE LED Introduction

INTRODUCTION
What is your why? This is probably the most important question you can ask yourself
when looking at how to improve your work. In the absence of having a clear why, in other
words to understand your personal purpose, you will fail to have a North Star guiding you
in the direction you want to go. A clearly defined and articulated purpose will help you be
internally driven, rather than externally influenced. It will act as a golden thread linking
your personal and professional ambition enabling you to achieve success and feel successful.

One of the most poignant references for the power of purpose is Victor Frankl. A Jewish
physician trained in both psychiatry and neurology, Frankl practiced in Austria when it came
to be occupied by Nazi Germany. He survived three brutal years in various concentration
camps, among them Auschwitz. Frankl writes about his experiences in the seminal book ‘A
Man’s Search for Meaning’ and shares, “Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to
avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer,
on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has meaning.” Frankl emphasizes that this
meaning is individual rather than general and that people need to determine for themselves
their purpose in life.

Be Purpose Led is a practical guide to discover, develop and deploy your personal purpose
in 3 stages: 1) understand the case for purpose, 2) clarify what purpose is and a process to
discover it, 3) learn how to apply the necessary mindset, skillset and toolkit to lead with
purpose.

The discovery, development and deployment of your personal purpose will give you a better
understanding of your authentic identity. It will provide a compass for navigating the complex
and unpredictable world of work and by leading with purpose it will help you be the best
version of yourself and in turn enable others to unlock their potential.

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BE PURPOSE LED Why Purpose Matters

1 WHY PURPOSE MATTERS

1.1 WHY PURPOSE WHY NOW

In a complex, ambigious, challenging and ever changing world, having a strong sense of
personal purpose enables you to actively navigate your environemnt. For instance, the world
of work has changed dramatically since the global pandemic. People are looking for more
flexibility and to do more meaningful work. In order to help you make the right decisions
about your future it is critical to be informed by your purpose.

Through the multiple roles you play such as leader, manager, employee, coach, advisor,
parent, partner, friend or community member there are fundamental issues to address
including delivering work objectives; responding to the environment and sustainability agenda;
championing equality, diversity and inclusion; supporting mental health and wellbeing;
activating learning and development. A clear personal purpose acts as a central point for
rising to these challenges with the necessary resilience to make great choices and thrive.

1.2 HAVE CLEAR IDENTITY

Who are you? This is one of the most provocative questions we can ask ourselves, and I
believe for that reason is why many people avoid it. Consider the amount of time, energy
and effort we dedicate to the accumulation of knowledge, skills and competence. Yet, we
tend to invest little time and attention into understanding who we really are, what we stand
for and what makes us unique. These traits are linked to a personal purpose and through
discovering your sense of why you come to know yourself.

In a work context your identity is associated with your personal brand, in other words your
reputation and what you are known for. Beyond delivering results your reputation is the
most important factor for accelerating your career progression. Taking ownership of your
identity means that you develop it in a conscious way.

Case 1
Mike was a high achieving executive accountable for delivering the largest sales
number in his company. He was known for coming across in a highly direct and
forceful way. This behavior started to erode his ability to deliver the commercial plan.
As a result we started a coaching partnership. I collected balanced feedback from
colleagues which reinforced the message that Mike needed to adapt his approach.
I asked Mike about what impact he wanted to have on others based on his own

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BE PURPOSE LED Why Purpose Matters

sense of identity. He had yet to give it conscious thought. I used a technique

known as a ‘repetitive question’ asking, ‘who are you?’ several times to challenge
his thinking. Ultimately, Mike recognized that at the core of his identity was to be
the best version of himself. Continuing to act in a highly direct and forceful way
was counter to his true identity and gave him the motivation he needed to adapt
his behavior and rebuild open and collaborative relationships.

Ask yourself, ‘what do you want to be known for?’ This will be closely linked with your
sense of purpose.

1.3 SHAPE DIRECTION

Where are you heading? What is your North Star? We live in a multiple-choice world filled
with distractions that could take us down so many routes. Having a clear sense of purpose
provides a powerful starting point for what is most important and shapes the direction you go.

Case 2
From the outside Susan had it all. Married, three wonderful children, a CEO in
a thriving industry and yet she was not fulfilled. She was questionning why she
was so driven to be ‘wonder woman’ at the expense of her wellbeing. She was on
the verge of quitting her role when I received her call. My advice to Susan (as is
usually the case) was to focus on clarifying her future direction, before making any
external changes. As we surveyed her landscape, what became increasingly clear is
that from an early age she had taken the path of least resistance and had followed
in the footsteps of the person she admired the most – her father. The result was to
build up a grand life, but at the expense of herself. Now it was time for Susan to
discover her purpose and shape her direction deliberately giving her new context
to make decisions.

To shape your future direction be curious. Have an open mind about what success looks
like as this will enable attunement with your purpose once discovered.

1.4 BE FOCUSED
Email. Internet. Meetings. Tasks. Deadlines. Global affairs. It’s challenging to stay focused
on what matters most when there is so much coming your way. However, reserach shows
that the ability to focus is critical for high performance. In his book, Focus: The Hidden
Ingredient in Excellence, psychologist Daniel Goleman writes about the science of attention.
He describes differtent types of focus including:

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BE PURPOSE LED Why Purpose Matters

« Inner focus refers to self-awareness and self-management :

how well we can tune in to our guiding values, for instance,
or know our strengths and limits – which in turn gives us a
realistic sense of self-confience. »

– Daniel Goleman. Focus, (October, 2014)

Having a clear purpose underpins your focus by grounding you in your deepest sense of
motivation. When you find yourself in a situation where you might become unfocused
reminding yourself of your compelling reason for being who you are and doing what you
do brings you back to focus.

1.5 UNLOCK ENERGY

What energizes you? What de-energizes you? Being on purpose helps you to unlock energy
by considering four key capacities:

1. Physical. What are your habits that nourish your physical energy. How well do
you eat? How restful is your sleep? How supportive are your fitness rituals? A
clear purpose helps to sustain your physical energy by inspiring you to make
ongoing commitments to make it happen.
2. Emotional. Research from psychoneuroimmunology shows that emotions
impact our health and energy. In 1985, neuropharmacologist Candace Pert,
from Georgetown University, revealed that neuropeptide-specific receptors are
present on the cell walls of the brain and the immune system. The discovery
that neuropeptides and neuro transmitters act directly on the immune system
shows their close association wth emotions. Therefore, positive emotions such as
passion, love and joy can boost the immune system which are triggered when
you are on purpose.
3. Intellectual. How do you provoke your curiosity, continue learning and develop
your thinking? There is an exciting and expanding world in neuroscience which
explores how the brain works. Evidence shows that the brain has plasticity,
which means that it can continue to increase intelligence through making new
neural pathwas. You can improve the way you focus, learn and pay attention
which will, in turn, improve your intellectual firepower.
4. Spiritual. What inspires you? What do you value? What do you love? Purpose
is the fuel that ignites your spiritual capacity and helps your work, life and
relationships be an expression of what matters most.

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BE PURPOSE LED Why Purpose Matters

1.6 MAKE THINGS MEANINGFUL

At the heart of purpose is to have a sense of meaning in your work, life and relationships.
Meaning is when what you are engaged in really matters, that what’s being done has not
been done before, or that it will make a difference to others. It’s important to understand
what is meaningful for you.

« Our research shows that four sources give individuals a

sense of meaning, including their ability to have an impact on

• society—for example, making a better society, building

the community, or stewarding resources
• the customer—for instance, making life easier and providing
a superior service or product
• the working team—for instance, a sense of belonging, a
caring environment, or working together efficiently and
effectively
• themselves—examples include personal development, a
higher paycheck or bonus, and a sense of empowerment.»

– Susie Cranston and Scott Keller; Increasing the

‘meaning quotient’ of work. McKinsey, (January 2013)

What stands out for you? Your contribution to society? Your ability to impact others like
customers or a team? Or, the opportunity to maximize yourself. Once you identify what is
most meaningful you need to prioritize it every day in order to make it real.

Summary

The first step to being purpose led is to understand why purpose matters. This provides the
context and motivation to discover your personal purpose and live it.

Why purpose matters

Understand where Understand what it

Understand self
you are going will take to get there

Purpose gives you the

Purpose is central to Purpose provides focus, energy and sense
your identity which direction and acts of meaning to keep
Reason is the foundation for as a lens for your going in the face of
what you want to be decision making adversity, and to have
known for at work. for how you work. a compelling reason to
fulfil your potential.

What do I need
Question Who am I? Where am I going?
to get there?

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

2 DISCOVER PURPOSE

2.1 PURPOSE DEFINED

A personal purpose is an aspirational reason for being. It inspires and guides your work,
life and relationships. It is a deep conviction about what is most important. It shapes your
mindset, behavior and actions. It has a timeless quality, which is beyond circumstance. It
informs the meaning and direction of your existance. In essence, your purpose is your big
‘why’, your ultimate raison d’etre.

Other relevant definitions come from two of the leading authors on the subject. Bill George
is the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic. As the senior fellow at Harvard Business
School, George describes a personal purpose as :

« Knowing the ‘True North’ of your internal compass. Your

True North represents who you are as a human being at
your deepest level. It is your orienting point – your fixed
point in a spnning world – that helps you stay on track. »

– Bill George, Discover Your True North, (September,

2015)

Simon Sinek is the author of Start with Why, and his talk How Great Leaders Inspire
Action is listed as one of the most popular TED presentation of all time. His definition is :

« Your Why is the purpose, cause or belief that inspires you. »

– Simon Sinek, (October, 2011)

Your purpose is not a tangible thing, it is ‘why’ you do what you do. For instance, why
you do the work you do. Why you have the relationships you nurture. Why you make the
contributions you commit to. Your purpose is not a value. A personal value is a deeply held
belief in which you have an emotional investment and which influences your behavior. Values
tend to come from learned experiences. For example, growing up your parents might have
divorced and you developed the value of love and honesty. Or, you might have observed
bullying at school and developed the values of fairness and justice. Another distinction is
between purpose and goals. Goals are things you want to achieve including your career,
financial, family, well-being.

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

Your ability to join up your purpose (why), values (how) and goals (what) becomes a golden
thread running through every aspect of your work. It ensures that you are clear, on track
and focused on what is most meaningful to you.

2.2 DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE

There are three primary steps to discovering your personal purpose:

1. Record peak moments from your life so far, i.e., experiences when you have
been at your best, fulfilled and in flow.
2. Reflect upon what was happening, what activities you were doing that made
the experience so memorable and why they were so meaningful to you.
3. Identify a standout theme that has the biggest impact for you.

Case 3
Stephen was a lawyer specializing in conducting due diligence on major deals.
Frustrated in his role and questionning his future we agreed to discover his personal
purpose before making any life changing decisions. I asked him to think about the
activities in his life, which displayed him at his best and caused him to be most
fulfilled. He recounted the following memories:

• Growing up Stephen loved playing sport. The vital question was why? What
was it about those activities that brought out the best in him? He identified
several themes – winning, teamwork, having fun, and testing his limits.
• Getting a 1st in his degree. Focusing on his academic acheivement Stephen
realized that this was to do with fulfilling his potential.
• Pulling off this first deal. Stephen lit up when he described how he supported
a big client in accomplishing a game-changing deal. Stephen recognzied it was
the element of helping others that had more significance than completing the
transaction itself.
• Having children. A typical peak experience for many people, Stephen became
visibly moved talking about the birth of his first daughter and, in particular
the courage of his wfie who showed such remarakble determination during a
difficult labour.

We summarized the main themes emerging from his key experiences in order to explore
any linkages or patterns they had in common. Stephen highlighted the following:

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BOOK TITLE Discover Purpose

1. Courage
2. Helping others
3. Learning
4. Winning
5. Fun

We continued to explore why these were so meaningful and he shared the significance
of making a difference in people’s lives, and in particular helping them achieve their
potential. This drive was shaped by Stephen’s need to continuously learn and understand
what he was capable of. I asked him if it would be true to say that his purpose had
to do with knowing himself and being the best version of himself in order to help
others be the best they can be? Stephen verified this observation and resonated with
the logic flow of being the best he can be, fulfilling his potential, stretching himself
and being energzied. He could apply this to all areas of his life including being a
father, husband, son, lawyer, partner…in fact any role or activity.

Stephen arrived at the purpose statement ‘To be the best I can be’, as the essence of
his big why.

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

Discovering your purpose is one of the most important acts you can make in life. The
opportunity to know your purpose lies in your hands. By committing to a journey of
revisiting peak experiences, i.e. when you have been at your best, most fulfilled, in flow,
inspired and connected, it will show you the way to purpose.

2.3 YOUR PURPOSE AT WORK

Life is too short to not love what you do. What if your work was an expression of your
purpose? What if your purpose and work connected in ways you haven’t yet considered?
Having a clear purpose guides your work and becomes the fuel to run on.

Case 4
Emma Gilthorpe, COO, Heathrow described her experience starting at the company
and how her sense of purpose and work united: “The first time I really noticed my
deep-rooted love for what I did was when I arrived at Heathrow. Prior to that I
had been working in telecommunications for 15 years. I genuinely enjoyed what
I did, but after a few months at Heathrow I realized that this was different. I
experienced more excitement, more energy, more focus. I could see I was making
a tangible difference day-to-day through my actions – for passengers, airlines and
colleagues – creating a fresh sense of fulfilment.

Discovering your purpose can point you in the direction of the work you love. You can then
assess opportunities against your sense of purpose. If you are working in an organization,
make sure it is aligned with what you are passionate about. The holy grail is to find ways
of getting close to doing 100 per cent of what you love and that adds value to a business.

Integrating your purpose and work usually requires a ‘wake-up’ call in the form of a setback,
failure or frustration to get people’s attention. I have observed a range of occasions including
firings, business failures and relationship challenges which have turned people to asking why
they do what they do, how they could do things differently and what role purpose plays.

Case 5
Liam was a highly ambitious property development director in a global company.
One of his peers succeeded in gaining a promotion ahead of him. Liam was ready
to throw in the towel as the peer was younger and he thought he was ahead in the
pecking order. I coached Liam just in time before he handed in his resignation and
challenged him to use the experience as a work-defining moment. What if, rather
than fixating on a title, he utilized the disappointment as a reason to dig deep,
discover his purpose and see his work differently?

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

Liam was willing to experiment. He spent the next few weeks exploring his purpose.
I challenged him to reflect on when he was at his best, energized and fulfilled in his
work and life. Through his reflections Liam alighted on some meaningful themes
such as creating possibility, simplifying complexity, helping others and experiencing
freedom. He distilled these into the essence of his purpose: ‘To inspire others to
be free and fulfilled.’ I encouraged him to look at his work through the lens of
purpose. What would it be like to commit to a purpose, not a position? What
would it mean to focus on being purpose-led rather than to be led by a title? Liam
came up with the following overview:

My success
My purpose My priorities My actions
critieria

Start the day by

Make work Inspire self
To inspire others to putting my purpose
an expression Inspire others
be free and fulfilled at the top of my
of purpose Do inspired work
’to do’ list

Define the team

purpose together and
Develop a Align the team to
start weekly update
purpose-led team lead with purpose
meetings with a
’purpose moment’

Create a compelling
Engage
narrative to
stakeholders
Drive sustainable demonstrate the
through purpose
growth impact of purpose on
and link purpose
performance to share
with performance
with stakeholders

2.4 IDENTIFY TEAM PURPOSE

As a team leader you need to be able to answer the following critical questions:

• Why does your team exist?

• What is the big why of your team?
• What is the real value of your team?
• What difference do you want to make as a team?

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

It is important for a team to discover its core purpose, to provide clarity about why it exists
and to foster a sense of shared identity. However, this needs to be an authentic process. It
is damaging to a team if they go through the motions of identifying a team purpose when
there is no genuine buy-in or commitment.

To help a team decide if they want to engage with the discovery of a unified purpose start
by exploring the pros and cons for having a purpose. For example:

Pros

• Having a shared lens for decision making

• Boosting energy and resilience for performance
• Creating a sense of collective meaning and pride

Cons

• Failing to embed it in a meaningful way

• Having unclear ways to measure impact
• Being used to form a silo against other teams

If the team buys into the idea of identifying a team purpose a simple process to enable this is:

1. Ask each team member to write down five words that they associate with why
the team exists, when the team is at its best and what impact the teams wants
to have, e.g., success, performance, inspiration, leadership, talent, growth,
effectiveness, innovation, sustainability, trust, enjoyment.
2. Capture all the words and group them into themes, e.g., people, performance,
growth
3. Make linkages with the themes to create a compelling purpose statement, e.g.,
inspire sustainable growth.
4. Agree success criteria for bringing the purpose to life in the business, e.g.,
how will you know that you are delivering on the purpose? One team I
coached used a stakeholder lens of the 4’s to evidence their purpose: Colleague.
Consumer. Customer. Community.
5. Put purpose on the team agenda, e.g., start important team meetings with a
‘purpose moment’ where team members are invited to recognize examples of
the purpose being lived in the business, and opportunities where purpose can
be amplified.

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BE PURPOSE LED Discover Purpose

Summary

The second step to being purpose led is to discover your personal purpose, and if you are
leading a team to help the team identify its own purpose. This gives you the clarity and
focus to bring your purpose to life and make it real.

Discover purpose Personal purpose Team purpose

1. Record peak moments from

your life so far.
2. Reflect upon what was
happening, what activities
you were doing that
Process made the experience so
memorable and why they
were so meaningful to you.
3. Identify a stand out theme
that has the biggest impact
for you.
1. Team members write down
5 words associated with why
the team exists
2. Group words into themes
3. Translate themes into
a compelling purpose
statement

Statement My purpose is… The team purpose is…

How will I know that I am How will we know that we

Measurement
being purpose-led? are being purpose-led?

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BE PURPOSE LED Develop a Purpose Mindset

3 DEVELOP A PURPOSE MINDSET

3.1 MINDSET SHIFT

Our mindset is an established set of attitudes we hold. Through the study of neuroscience,
using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other imaging techniques, we can now study
the structures and functions of the brain in real time. Recent advances have shown that the
brain is far more malleable than we ever knew. These new understandings give us deeper
insights into how we develop our mindset, what obstacles prevent us from having the type
of attitudes we would like and that with practice, neural networks grow new connections
leading to new mindsets.

3.2 OPERATING ON AUTOPILOT

Upon awakening what is on your mind?

• Emails;
• Meetings;
• Tea or coffee?
• The weather;
• The commute;
• The kids

You’ve got to admit, it is an inspiring list! There is one thing these thoughts have in
common … task. More specifically they are a ‘to-do’ list which is associated with operating
on ‘autopilot’. Brain researchers estimate that the human mind takes in 11 million pieces of
information per second through our senses. Our brain is consciously aware of approximately
40 of them. The unconscious mind, which operates on autopilot, manages the rest. The brain
creates ‘mental shortcuts’ to help us interpret information faster and save energy in making
decisions. Therefore, upon awakening we can speed through the non-essentials without
having to drain energy. However, operating on autopilot is not sufficient to be purpose led.

3.3 MAKING CONSCIOUS CHOICES

Probably the biggest breakthrough in psychology in the last century was the recognition
that in-between a stimulus and a response there is a gap in which we can make conscious
choice. This insight is most accurately described in the extraordinary work of Victor Frankl.
In his momentous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl made the profound statement:

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BE PURPOSE LED Develop a Purpose Mindset

« Everything can be taken from a man but one thing : the

last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in
any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. »

– Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (May, 2004)

Life happens; however, we choose our response to life happening and the outcomes of our
choices will determine our experience.

Case 6
The President of Americas for a global company, Linda was a big advocate of
the power of choice and encouraged her team to embrace it. For instance, on a
Monday morning when many people were getting ready for work, Linda would
deliberately thank people for choosing to come to work. This would leave many
perplexed as their belief was that they had to go to work, but Linda would go on
to explain that she recognized they had chocies. They were choosing to to serve this
particular organization vs. the competition. They were choosing to give of their time
vs. allocating it elsewhere. She would thank her team for attending her meetings
and recognize their commitment to working together vs. operating in silos. This
approach had a big impact on engagement and reflected in the overall company
employee engagement scores, plus the loyalty people showed to Linda through her
followership was legendary.

Do the choices you make help you be purpose led? Becoming conscious of the choices you
make is an important skill to develop given the impact of them. It stops you from reacting
to life as a passenger and puts you firmly in the driving seat.

3.4 BEING INTENTIONAL

Alongside choice, there is one further consideration which is instrumental in developing a
purpose mindset – intention. Every thought and action we have is motivated by an intention.
As a consequence, to be purpose led starts by setting a deliberate intent.

Case 7
Sharon was a formidable saleswoman. As Director of Sales & Acquisition for a major
media company she operated in a fast paced company culture. When we kicked-off
our coaching programme Sharon was obsessed by a number she was targetted to
deliver. The company repuation with investors and analysts rested on her hitting
the target. For Sharon, the stakes were also high at home. Married with two young
children, Sharon was challenged to have the capacity to parent in her preferred

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BE PURPOSE LED Develop a Purpose Mindset

way. Where to start in making changes? Intention. I asked Sharon to reflect upon
being intentional to be purpose led. We had defined her purpose together which
she articulated as ‘the art of the possible.’ For 90-days she agreed to start each day
by putting her purpose at the top of her ‘to do’ list. This gave her the opportunity
to strengthen her intent, which in turn shaped her choices. By the end of 90-days
Sharon found that she was naturally focusing on ‘the art of the possible’. This
challenged her to think differently about her daily challenges and to make smarter
choices about how to navigate her to path to thrive at work and home.

Intention is a leadership muscle that you need to exercise daily. I recommend you ask
yourself the following types of question to keep you on track:

• What is my intention as a leader?

• What is my intention today?
• What is my intention for the meeting I am about to run, or participate in?
• What is my intention for the conversation I am about to have?
• What is my intention as a human being?

Subject to the question you are asking yourself, let your answer guide you in the direction
you want to go.

3.5 BEING PURPOSE-LED

We are called ‘human beings’, not ‘human doings’ for a reason. However, in our task
orientated and busy worlds, we forget and can let our ‘doing’ dominate. The construct we
tend to adopt is the following:

Have Do Be

We tell ourselves ‘when I have what I want, I will do what I want to do and be the type
of person I want to be’.

Case 8
I coached a chief financial officer of a public company who was not happy in role.
Just about to turn 50, David’s grandfather had been a coal miner and his father a
professional footballer. Unfortunately, his father had broken his back in an accident
and, as a consequence, had to re-educate imself to get back on a career track. David

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BE PURPOSE LED Develop a Purpose Mindset

had learned a work ethic which drove him. Aware of the sacrifices his ancestors had
made, David had a mindset based on the following: ‘If I have enough money, I can
do what I want and be happy when I retire.’ In other words he had ten more years
until his elusive happiness. In our coaching David had arrived at his purpose, ‘To
be the best I can be.’ This inspired him and he could see how he could apply it as
a husband, father, CFO, leader and team player. In light of this, was waiting until
retirement to be happy really the best approach? He needed to make a fundmental
shift and put his being first.

Be Do Have

You will always have a ‘to-do’ list. Even when you die there will be a list. But the big
question is, how do you want ‘to be’? The invitation is to put your ‘to be’ at the top of
your ‘to do’. It is impossible to be genuinely purpose-led if you just focus on doing. We
get trained to do. We get rewarded for doing. We get addicted to doing. But doing is not
a solution for being purpose-led.

Summary

Here are the purpose-led steps:

Steps Focus

1. Know your Make sure you have clearly defined your purpose so you
purpose have absolute conviction about your reason for being

2. Prepare your
Each day, take a moment to set your intention to be purpose-led
mindset

3. Define what Be clear about the evidence required to bring your purpose
success looks like into fruition and to know what you want to create

4. Take specific
Make a plan of the actions you will take to follow your purpose
actions

5. Review your Set aside regular time to step back and reflect
outcomes on your progress and challenges.

Help and inspire others to discover and live their purpose.

6. Encourage others
This will challenge you to increase your clarity about
to be purpose-led
what leading with purpose means and looks like

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

4 APPLY PURPOSE SKILLS

4.1 PURPOSE-LED SKILLS

If there is an absence of intention to be purpose-led, then nothing will change. However,
unless you master the skills to be purpose-led you will be limited in your efforts to put
it into action. There are six fundamental skills which if you apply at work, will make a
significant difference to your ability to be purpose-led:

Purpose-led skills

Listening

Learning Storytelling

Decision
Influencing
making

4.2 THE ART OF LISTENING

In my research on listening, I have identified two schools of thought:

1. The quality of content determines the quality of listening. In other words,

interesting content and delivery cause great listening.
2. The quality of the listener determines the quality of delivery. Whereby through
great listening it brings out the best in others.

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BOOK TITLE Apply Purpose Skills

One of the weakest skills I see demonstrated by people at work is listening. For instance,
capable and committed employees spend hours, if not weeks and sometimes months,
preparing for executive presentations. Often before entering the meeting room tensions
are already high because the Executive Committee is running behind and employees
are told to shorten their presentation. On the back foot, they enter the room, only
to be greeted by bored looks, or people on their technology. As the presenters try and
engage the executives they might be told to hurry up, get to the point and make their
request. This is not a listening environment, and this will certainly not get the best
out of others and add value to the business. In fact, it does the complete opposite.
The failure to listen switches people off, sometimes to the degree that highly talented
leaders want to leave the business due to poor listening skills.

Everyone has the innate ability to be a great listener. However, like a muscle it needs
to be exercised on a consistent basis. There are five levels of listening to be aware of:

Levels of Listening

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

Compassionate

Attentive

Selective

Pretending

Ignoring

How well do you listen? Do you pay little attention? Have you become good at faking
listening by nodding your head and making polite gestures, while being checked out? Do
your ears stand up when the topic at hand is aligned with your agenda, only to quickly
get distracted again once the moment has passed? Do you try hard to pay attention, show
interest, ask relevant questions and make useful remarks?

The highest level of listening is compassionate listening. This is when you suspend your own
agenda and demonstrate full commitment to understanding others. You are not waiting for
a gap so that you can jump in with your point of view. You are not looking for the flaw
in the thought process or to make someone wrong. You are not questioning to catching
someone out. Your genuine intent is to listen to get the best out of others. What emerges
from compassionate listening are new possibilities, alternative ideas, greater clarity, issue
resolution, deeper insight and trust. Linking listening to being purpose-led means that you
will sustain it in an authentic and meaningful way.

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

4.3 STORYTELLING
Stories connect. Stories build relationships. Stories provide insight. Stories are the most
powerful way to communicate in a compelling way. Being purpose-led means using the
power of storytelling to bring your purpose to life and.

Case 9
When Paul moved into the energy sector, it was a very different world to his
previous role in an FMCG company. His new organization had a strong culture
based on rock solid values, however, it had been under huge amounts of political
and consumer pressure and had lost its way. Paul had a clear purpose and wanted
to quickly engage his team with what he stood for and to help create shared
understanding in a meaningful way. He scheduled a team offsite so that he could
have quiet, focused time away from the business. Paul opened the meeting with
a personal story to set the tone. He shared examples of when he had been at this
best, and worst in to order to help his team understand his drivers, how to get
the best out of him, and how to disengage him. He had asked the team to prepare
their own stories coming into the meeting and they built a foundation of trust
together through stories.

Here are six techniques for being a great storyteller:

1. Be clear about your purpose. Being rooted in your purpose provides a

compelling reason for why you do what you do and why you are sharing what
you are sharing. It will inspire and engage others.
2. Be authentic. Being yourself means having the ability to show up as your
real self and to connect with others in an open and transparent way. In your
storytelling, it’s vital for others to connect with who you really are.
3. Apply the rule of three. Discipline yourself to land three key points with any
message. Use simple language so that it is memorable and your story sticks. If
it’s your personal story, then share three key themes linking to your purpose to
illustrate your big ‘why’. If it’s about your company, priority, or project share
three big ideas to illustrate the direction you want to go.
4. Keep your stories short. Have a clear beginning, middle and end. Short is
clear and compelling. Brevity equals clarity.
5. Be creative. Explore the use of language, metaphors, imagery and descriptions
that have emotional associations to intensify your story and to bring your facts
to life.
6. Practice. Storytelling is an skill which you can improve. Early on in my
career I received a powerful piece of feedback from a client who said that I
should share my own stories in order to make my presentations more real. I
have practised storytelling ever since and now I receive feedback that people
appreciate my stories and want more.

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

4.4 INFLUENCING
As a leader the ability to influence is one of the most critical skills to succeed. Being
purpose-led gives you a competitive advantage as your clarity will engage others and seeking
to understand others’ sense of purpose strengthens the relationship.

Case 10
Faye had just transitioned into a new senior operational role in her company. With
a background in procurement Faye’s reputation was clouded by concerns about her
forensic eye for detail and quick judgment. Although these were useful strengths
in her previous role, she now needed to influence senior peers. Faye was preparing
for her first major executive committee meeting. The expectation was that she was
going to drive hard on the numbers. I asked her about what success looked like
as a result of the meeting and she said that, ultimately, she wanted to engage her
peers to collaborate together. I suggested that she lead with purpose in the meeting
to set a different tone. She described her purpose as, “To bring the best out of
others and acheive greatness.” She chose to position her presentation with a story
about her commitment to get the best out of others and her intent to understand
her peers in order to make that happen. Through her transparency and sharing her
sense of purpose she was able to influence in a meaningful way.

There are six skills to develop for influencing with purpose:

1. Be outcome orientated. Begin with the end in mind to understand where

others are coming from and what success looks like. A simple approach is
to focus on ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’. Why will give you an understanding of
purpose. What clarifies success and how will give the indicators about what it
will take to succeed.
2. Listen to understand. As we have already discussed listening is the investment
required to build a strong relationship.
3. Seek win/win. Make sure you adopt a collaborative approach as this will
achieve the necessary equality to influence going forward.
4. Clarify expectations. The ability to influence is strongly linked with setting
and managing clear expectations. For instance, if you know somebody’s
expectations you can navigate them in a proactive way.
5. Be adapable. Everyone is different. Every purpose is different. It’s vital to adapt
your mindset and behavior to meet people where they are. You can then go on
a journey together.
6. Be consistent. It is rare in a working relationship to encounter anyone who
likes surprises. The way to avoid surprises is to be consistent in your narrative,
approach and delivery. When underpinned by your purpose this provides a
robust platform to influence.

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

4.5 DECISION MAKING

There are 4 primary lenses to look through to support decision making:

1. Purpose – being clear about your rationale for decision making.

2. People – ensuring that you have considered relevant stakeholder groups,
e.g., colleagues, consumers, customers and community to drive equality and
inclusivity.
3. Profit – making the necessary trade-offs to deliver the plan.
4. Planet – putting the environment and sustainability at the heart of your
decision making.

In my experience the majority of people prioritise ‘profit’ as the primary criteria for decision
making, however it is critical to recognize that this is one factor. In order to provide a
balanced framework for decision making you need to address each of the 4P’s and bring
them together in a coherent way.

Case 11
I coached a leadership team at Heathrow Airport who were accountable for building
an underground tunnel to support passenger mobility. The tunnel was the size of
several football pitches costing nearly £100 million. In order to make the right
decision they used the 4 organizational priorites: Great place to work (people);
Great place to live (purpose); Beat the plan (profit); A world worth travelling
(planet). This framework enabled the team to consider the pros and cons of the
various options on the table and reach a unified decision making strategic trade-
offs across the priorities.

4.6 LEARNING
When I ask people in positions of leadership what is the number-one quality they look
for in others there is a consistent response: intense curiosity. The definition of curiosity in
the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘a strong desire to know about something’. Being curious
means that, whatever happens, you will be in the best possible place to respond. When
you let purpose fuel your curiosity it means that you look at everything through a lens of
multiple options. This open-mindedness is contagious and means that others benefit from
your infectious curiosity.

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BE PURPOSE LED Apply Purpose Skills

How do you get curious and stay curious? When you are faced with the unknown, uncertainty
and unpredictability, how do you respond? For instance, during COVID-19 everyone was
faced with unprecedented change. Initially, it was the perfect storm of a global health,
socio-economic and business crisis. There were no precedents. There were no clear plans.
The longer it went on, the more it impacted business performance, as well as personal
wellbeing and resilience. Those able to ride the waves of change were fuelled by curiosity,
asked new and different questions, created new ways of working, delivered different services
and became energized by the process – despite the level of hardship endured.

Being curious is a foundation for a healthy and rewarding working life. Your ability to
translate experiences through a lens of learning and purpose will sustain you through the
toughest times and will inspire you to new heights in the good times.

Summary

The fourth step to being purpose-led is to apply the 6 purpose skills.

1. Make listening a priority.

2. Become a great storyteller.
3. Master influencing others.
4. Consider multiple data points when making decisions.
5. Stay constantly curious.

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BE PURPOSE LED Build Purposeful Relationships

5 BUILD PURPOSEFUL
RELATIONSHIPS

5.1 HUMANITY
Business is relationship. How do you prioritize relationships at work? What is your
purposeful relationship plan? How deliberate are you in building great relationships to
enhance your work? In our fast moving, digital world it is essential to become skilled at
demonstrating humanity through empathy, understanding, compassion, acceptance, openness
and communication – underpinned by emotional intelligence.

Case 12
Sam leads an operational team in a unionised environment where historically
there has been low trust. Sam leads with humanity through providing transparent
leadership, she is highly inclusive in her style and takes a collaborative approach to
decision making. During the global pandemic Sam needed to form a new team in a
virtual environment. She decided to bring the team together online for a storytelling
session in order to set foundations of trust, openness and care. Sam led by examples
following the brief I set which was to share 3 key life experiences, lessons learned
and impact on personal values. This disclosure gave meaningful insight into each
team member’s humanity and contributed to a new sense of cohesion as a team.

Your ability to combine a human approach at work with the commercial reality will set you
apart in coming across as a future leader who deeply understands the vital role humanity
plays in organizations.

5.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business
School and author of The Fearless Organization has pioneered the concept of psychological safety:

« I define psychological safety as a shared belief held

by members of a team that it is a safe environment for
interpersonal risk taking. Individuals feel they can speak up,
express their concerns and be heard. This is not to say that
people are ‘nice’. A psychologically safe workplace is one
where people are not full of fear, and not trying to cover
their tracks to avoid being embarrassed or punished. »

– Amy Edmondson, The Fearless Organization (December,

2018)

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BE PURPOSE LED Build Purposeful Relationships

In 2012 Google embarked on an initiative – codenamed Project Aristotle – which set out to
answer the following question using data and rigorous analysis: what makes a Google team
effective? Over two years researchers conducted in excess of 200 interviews with Googlers
(their employees) and looked at more than 250 attributes of over 180 active Google teams.
They thought that if they found the perfect mix of traits and skills necessary for a brilliant
team, they would solve the problem. What they actually found was “Who is on a team matters
less than how the team members interact, structure their work and view their contributions ».

They learned that there were five key dynamics which set successful teams apart from other
teams at Google, and the number-one factor was psychological safety. Psychological safety
starts with a purposeful decision to have the courage to speak up, have voice, encourage
others to take risks, have their back and challenge the status quo. One of the primary ways
of translating it is through vulnerability. At work, vulnerability can take many different
forms, including :

• Speaking up in a meeting to propose a risk or untested idea

• Admitting publicly that the project you championed failed, and offering lessons
learned in the process
• Disagreeing with your boss or offering a different way forward
• Willingly giving up time or resources to help someone on your team, taking
away from the resources you have to acheive your own goals
• Sticking up for a teammate in the face of unfair criticism
• Volunteering to do something you don’t know how to do
• Showing emotions when you’re under pressure or stressed out

Being known for combining purpose with pyschological safety is a powerful recipe for
getting ahead in today’s world of work.

5.3 INCLUSION
Diversity and inclusion are two interconnected concepts that need to be clearly understood
and integrated into ones’ sense of purpose. Ultimately the point of being purpose-led is to
have a positive impact on others’ lives. In the absence of appreciating difference and creating
the conditions for people to feel included then the effects of purpose will be limited.

Diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one
another – respecting and appreciating what makes us different. Some elements of diversity are
visible such as gender, language, age, ethnicity and some disabilities. However, the majority
of what makes us different is unseen including physical ability, sexual orientation, gender
identity, marital status, thinking style, income level, skills, religion, political preference, job
level, education, family status, culture, values, experience and invisible disabilities.

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BE PURPOSE LED Build Purposeful Relationships

Inclusion is ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to and influence
every part and level of a workplace, which creates a sense of belonging where everyone feels
safe and can bring their full, unique selves to work.

Case 13
Keith’s personal purpose was to maximize opportunity. Upon leading a new team
he wanted to create an inclusive envioronment. The team he inherited possessed
a healthy mix of different genders, ethnicities, personalities, ages, experiences and
capabilities. He encouraged everyone to work in collaborative and transparent
ways – sharing information freely, focusing on improving things together and being
given equal opportunities to thrive. Keith asked me to conduct a set of diagnostic
interviews with the team to understand if the intent to be inclusive was real. In my
conversations people talked about the sense that there was an ‘in’ ‘and ‘out’ group
within the team where some appeared to be more included than others. Some felt
that Keith had a couple of go-to people who always seemed to cover for him and
had the opportunity to gain more visibility with senior leadership. People struggled
with the different personalities in the team, as some members came across as more
loud and forceful in their views.

When I shared these findings with Keith, he was grateful for the perspective and
slightly dismayed that, while he had tried so hard to recognize the diversity on
the team, there were still examples of exclusion being evidenced. Keith used the
information to set up an ongoing development programme where bias – conscious
and unconscious could be addressed and the conditions for greater honesty and
courage in facing the immediate issues within the team could be resolved to foster
an inclusive environment.

To make inclusion a priority link it you purpose and adopt an approach based on three
conditions:

1. Say – make a more inclusive culture a collective priority.

2. Do – ensure that each inclusive statement is backed up with a tangible action.
3. Drive – reinforce opportunities to build a more inclusive culture.

5.4 TEAMWORK
For those working in teams it’s very powerful when you are able to make linkage between
your personal purpose and the team. It develops new levels of partnership which can give
rise to learning, innovation and collective delivery. To make this happen it is important to
create opportunities where team members can come together and share about their own
sense of purpose.

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BE PURPOSE LED Build Purposeful Relationships

Case 14
I coached a cross-functional matrix team filled with highly experienced technical
experts in their field. They could have operated in silos, however they recognized
that they would achieve alot more as a team. We came together as a team to explore
people’s personal puropse and see what connections would be made across the team.
Everyone had the opportunity to share when they have been at their best, what
it meant for them and their own personal purpose. It was an illuminating process
as understanding deepened about people’s motivations, aspirations and how they
could become stronger as a team.

It is essential to be able to form partnerships through teamwork across increasingly

boundaryless functions and organizations in order to share insight, blend capabilities and
drive high performance. Another key element of using purpose to enable teamwork is trust.
Everyone has a different baseline for trust. For some people their starting point ‘I don’t trust
you until you have proven you are trustworthy,’ whereas for others it is the opposite, ‘I
trust you implicitly until you give me reason not to.’ I encourage people to be transparent
about their expectations, which speeds up the ability to anticipate and address any possible
trust issues.

Trust is not an accident. There are three key steps to create the right conditions for high trust:

1. Assume good intent. Be deliberate in how you build trust. Send clear signals
that your starting point in a relationship is trust. Have conversations with your
line manager, peers and colleagues about what is required to trust.
2. Be transparent. I encourage people to be as open as possible with sensitive
information, while respecting the privacy and emotional needs of others.
In my experience ‘brutal candour,’ as it’s often called, can decrease trust
because it lacks the emotional sensitivity required to create the right level of
understanding. Be willing to share the truth with compassion and adopt a
purposeful approach.
3. Provide autonomy. In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates
Us, bestelling author Daniel Pink draws on 50 years of behavioural science
to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation. One of the
essential elements he describes is autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives.
The opportunity to make conscious choices that influence and impact our own
life is critical for healthy development.

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BE PURPOSE LED Build Purposeful Relationships

Summary

Given the importance of relationships at work mastering the essential skills to build purposeful
ones will be a big boost to put purpose into action.

Psychological
Humanity Inclusion Teamwork
safety

Demonstrate
Assume
humanity through Enable others
Ensure everyone good
empathy, to speak up
has an equal intent, be
Insight understanding, without the
opportunity transparent,
compassion, fear of negative
to contribute provide
acceptance, openness consequences
autonomy
and communication

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BE PURPOSE LED Do Purposeful Work

6 DO PURPOSEFUL WORK

6.1 DO WHAT YOU LOVE

A staggering 90,000 hours of our lives (on average) will be spent working. Around 20 to 25
per cent of our waking adult life. This means our relationship with work is therefore one
of the most critical parts of our life. It can be a challenging relationship; frustrating, and
far from straightforward. Or it can be rewarding, satisfying and incredibly fulfilling. This
is, of course, also a relationship which will continuously evolve. Across our lives we change
as people which will inevitably change how we work. The world of work is also developing
at an accelerated rate. Right now, we are all moving into a new and more dynamic world.
More options are becoming possible and changes are happening fast.

Take this opportunity to pause, reflect, review your work and set yourself up to do purposeful
work in the future. Ask yourself: How will you know that you are doing the work you
love? What does good look like? What does great feel like? In the absence of a clear and
compelling reason for work, it will be driven by external influences. To do what you love,
change your definition of work so that it embraces love.

« Love is the most underused word in business. It seems

to be incongruous that as human beings we carve out
8-10 hours of our day to live in enviornments where love
is supposed to be absent! I believe that most people love
some of what they do, but what’s really important is to love
who they work with. Can anyone say ‘I love my job!’ without
loving who they work with ? Love has been programmed
out of business and we need to bring it back. Be open to
loving the people you work with and letting them know as
it would be very difficult to develop a mindset of loving
your work if you didn’t share it. »

– Paul Snyder, Executive Vice President Stewardship,

Tillamook County Creamery Association

Purpose is the fuel to spark a better relationship with work. Once you’ve had the ‘wake-up’
call about the power of purpose and aligning it with your work, you need to make it stick.

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Case 15
When Staynton left university, he went into a marketing and sales role. It was
one of the most informative points in his career. He was doing what he thought
graduates should do. Securing a role, and earning a reasonable amount. However,
the work he was doing didn’t make his heart sing. It was in the financial sector
and the outcome of his work was actually getting poor people into more debt.
He became very low and felt heavy. At that point he vowed he would never do
anything again that wouldn’t help the world become a better place. He wanted to
make sure that whatever he does makes his soul sing and his heart go into rapture.
The work he does has to be purpose-led. He needs to feel that the work he does has
a bigger cause beyond himself. His why is making sure he contributes to healthier
and better communities, breaking down barriers and helping people live a good life.

What vow have you made about work? What is your normal mindset for work? What do
you focus on? To do what you love ask yourself: What kind of difference do you want to
make in your work? How can your work create new possibilities for the better? How can
you be purpose-led in your work?

6.2 PLAY TO STRENGTHS

The global strengths movement started six decades ago when Don Clifton, creator of
CliftonStrengths posed a simple question: ‘What would happen if we studied what was
right with people versus what’s wrong with people?’ He wrote: ‘There is no more effective
way to empower people than to see each person in terms of his or her strengths.’

Marcus Buckingham, creator of the Standout Strengths Assessment, clarified what strengths
actually are and are not:

« Strengths are not something that you’re good at, just like
weaknesses aren’t something that you’re bad at. A strength
is an activity that strengthens you. That you look forward
to doing. It’s an activity that leaves you feeling energized,
rather than depleted. A strength is more appetite than ability,
and it’s that appetite that drives us to want to do it again ;
practise more; refine it to perfection. The appetite leads to
the practice, which leads to performance. Leveraging your
strengths and managing around your weaknesses isn’t just
about making yourself feel better. It’s about conditioning
yourself to contribute the best of yourself, every day. »

– Marcus Buckingham

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So what are your strengths? Reflect on the various activities you are involved with and the
impact on your energy. What energizes you and strengthens you? What de-energizes and drains
you? What patterns and links do you notice that equate to a strength – that is, an activity
that strengthens you, you want to do and leaves you feeling energized. The following table
shows examples of activities that energize/de-energize and their links to different strengths:

Activity Insight Strengths

Energized by the challenge

of being deadline driven, Execution
overcoming roadblocks and Pace
Delivering a project
delivering tangible outcomes. Focus
De-energized by ’office politics’, Drive
seeking consensus and indecision.

Energized by being part of a

team, creating joint solutions and
Empathy
making things better as a result
Connector
Working collaboratively of partnership.
Harmonizer
De-energized by silo ways of
Relational
working, big egos and personal
agendas.

Energzied by thinking ahead,

conducting scenario planning and Analytical
seeking causes/reasons. Planner
Developing strategy
De-energized by lack of sound Learner
theories, unclear patterns and Futuristic
outcomes.

Energzied by inspiring others,

Influencer
unlocking performance and
Communication
Leading teams developing talent.
Development
De-energized by negativity, lack of
Activiation
accountability and action

There is no doubt that playing to strengths is one of the most effective ways of activating
momentum on your journey to loving what you do and doing what you love.

6.3 BE FLEXIBLE
Work-life balance. Work-life integration. Work-life fit. Work-life blend. Flexible working.
Home working. Agile working. Hybrid working. I suggest that you focus on what I call
‘dynamic working’. When you look at words similar to ‘dynamic’, including energetic,

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spirited, active, lively, electric and passionate, and imagine using that as the basis for how
you work. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘dynamic’ as characterized by constant
change, activity or progress’. This seems to fit today’s world of work, which is constantly
changing and where the outcome has to be progress. There are five relevant ways to embrace
dynamic working:

1. Be proactive. Ensure you are ahead of the curve in naming, defining and
exploring dynamic working. Be at the forefront of working in flexible ways, and
if you are in a position of leadership to encourage others to be flexible.
2. Be outcome-orientated. Recognize that achieving goals is the name of the
game, rather than the process of what it looks like to get there. It’s critical to
get on the same page about what success looks like using the language that
has meaning for others (e.g. priorities, metrics, targets, goals) – in other words
what’s important and what matters most. Involving others in defining shared
outcomes ensures ownership and adds another level of meaning to the process.
It’s also essential to recognize and celebrate success along the way.
3. Be compassionate. In a fast-moving dynamic environment one of the attributes
most valued by people is to show you care. This is best demonstrated
through compassion, which is anticipating other’s situations and showing
you understand. It is applying acceptance and forgiveness when people make
mistakes. It’s about assuming good intent before jumping to conclusions. Jeff
Weiner, the Executive Chairman at LinkedIn, describes compassion as ‘empathy
plus action.’
4. Be authentic. In dynamic working there is no space for pretence. Everything
is moving too fast. Information is flowing freely. Data rules. Technology –
artificial intelligence, automation, digitalization and robotics – continues to
accelerate. Yes, we need to adapt, but it needs to be grounded in our authentic
selves. Being authentic means having a high level of self-awareness – as Socrates
said, ‘To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.’ Authenticity engenders
trust as people know what they are getting.
5. Be intentional. In a 2020 McKinsey Quarterly article entitled ‘The CEO
moment: Leadership for a new era’, Michael Fisher, President and CEO of
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, shared:

« I never purposefully gave thought to whether there’s a

way to be really intentional about how I want to show up
every day. So I’ve added a ‘to be’ list to my repertoire.
Today, for example, I want to be generous and genuine.
I hope I’m that way every day. But today, I want to make
sure it stays top of mind. »

– Michael Fisher

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6.4 DO GOOD
Life is too short to do work that doesn’t make a positive difference and fulfil your personal
mission. In these unprecedented times it becomes an ever bigger imperative to take
responsibility to make a tangible difference to help people, support the planet and create
profit in the process. Wanting to have an impact and make a difference are fundamental
human drivers. The critical questions to ask are: What impact do you want to have? What
difference do you want to make?

One of the most impactful stories I have read is that of Edith Eger who survived the
Holocaust to go on to be a renowned psychologist and specialist in the treatment of post-
traumatic stress disorder. In 1944, aged 16 Edith was sent to Auschwitz concentration
camp. Separated from her parents on arrival, she endured unimaginable experiences. When
the camp was finally liberated, Edith was pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive. Edith
wrote her unforgettable story in The Choice. In her words:

« Though I could have remained a permanent victim…I made

the chocie to heal. Early on, I realized that true freedom can
only be found by forgiving, letting go, and moving on…I
will forever strive to help people make the choice to heal
and thrive. That’s a promise! »

– Edith Eger, The Choice (September, 2017)

Challenge yourself to learn and grow. It is vital to stretch, experiment and try new things.

1. Find development opportunities that combine your learning with doing good.
2. Make sure your work is a stretch and that you are doing things you haven’t
done before.
3. Set things up so that you are working with people who are different from you
in background, presonality, expertise and approach to keep you recharged.

What if the point of work was to help the next generation be better equipped to solve
their problems and make the world a better place ? What if your work was dedicated to
making your version of Steve Job’s sentiment ‘Make a dent in the universe ‘ ? A powerful
process for shaping the future as you would like it to be is known as the ‘rocking chair test’.
Fast-forward to the end of your life. See yourself sitting by a cosy log fire in a beautiful
room surrounded by those people who meant the most to you in your life, work and
community. Everyone is here to reflect on the difference you made in the world. You get
to nominate whom you want to speak and ask to share their experience of you. As you sit
in your rocking chair, you make a note of everything you hear. This is recorded indelibly
in your mind’s eye. It resonates wholeheartedly with what you believe, with what you love
and with how you want to be. It is a future that energizes and inspires you. It is a future
which is purpose-led.

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BE PURPOSE LED Do Purposeful Work

Summary

Don’t wait to do purposeful work.

Every day you have the opportunity to make work meaningful for you, for others and for
the world around you.

Make work matter. Make memories you feel proud of. Make it your life’s work.

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BE PURPOSE LED Table of figures

TABLE OF FIGURES
Have Do Be / Be Do Have Model
Purpose-led skills
Levels of Listening

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BE PURPOSE LED References

REFERENCES

Books:
Edmondson, A.C. (2018) The Fearless Organization – Creating Psychological Safety in the
Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley
Eger, E. (2018) The Choice: A true story of hope. Rider
Frankl, V. E. (2004) Man’s Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the
Holocaust. Rider
George, B. (2015) Discover Your True North – Becoming an Authentic Leader. Jossey-Bass
Goleman, G. (2014) Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Sinek. S (2009) Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Penguin

Articles:
Cranston, S. Keller, S. (2013) Increasing the ‘meaning quotient’ of work. McKinsey &
Company
Dewar, C. Killer, S. Sneader, K. Stovink, K. (2020) The CEO moment: Leadership for a
new era. McKinsey & Company

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