But Why?
But Why?
Michelle had made the decision to move on from the organisation she had been with for some time. When we spoke, she said her reason for leaving was around not feeling fulfilled and satisfied with what she was doing anymore. She didn’t feel like she was being ‘stretched’ and she had no balance in her life. She loved the people she worked with but she had lost her mojo.
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Why you need to know your why
My work with senior leaders who are transitioning from one role to the next chapter of their career typically falls into two scenarios. The first is leaders who are moving away from what they say is an uncomfortable position or situation, or they are in a job or organisation they dislike. What’s interesting, is these leaders don’t always have strategic clarity around what they are moving to. It’s often a ‘moving away from something icky’ situation or moving away from something or someone in the current organisation that they can no longer tolerate. The challenge for leaders when they are in this space is they don’t always make the most strategic moves or decisions with their career. This can lead them to repeat the same situation in a new role or organisation.
The second group of leaders is those who are enjoying the organisation they are with and believe in what the company stands for but they want to keep developing their career. Often, these leaders can feel a little pigeonholed and lack clarity around what their next move could be and why that move would be a good idea. These leaders can also end up constraining their thinking as they see themselves embedded in the organisation and can’t always see the wood for the trees. They need some help to open up their minds to other future possibilities – whether that is within the organisation they are with or in some new venture.
Regardless of the path the leader is on, our work often starts around what they would ultimately like to do. We want to shift the focus toward the future. What’s the big picture they are working toward. For some people, they haven’t thought about this before so we start to get clarity around who their future self is and what they will be doing.
I wrote about your big picture last week and you can revisit it here. Assuming we have clarity around that, we now want to focus on why that big picture is important to you. Once you truly understand this, the energy and cadence you gain to help you achieve your big picture are amazing.
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An organisation’s why
We tend to be familiar with organisations who articulate their mission or purpose (their why). This provides the company with clarity on its higher purpose. If employees don’t connect with this higher purpose, they are probably in the mode of turning up and collecting their paycheque. This makes it harder to motivate them to go the extra mile, especially in times of crisis or uncertainty. At the same time, customers are more attracted to organisations that have a reason for being that goes beyond profit. Customers want to do business with organisations that are asking and answering the questions “why?” and “so what?”.
Simon Sinek with his popular TedTalk titled How great leaders inspire action has been viewed over 54 million times. I know a lot of organisations who use this as a regular reminder to keep connected with why their business exists. If you haven’t had a look at this, you might find it interesting.
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How to uncover your personal why
This same concept of gaining clarity on your higher purpose, your personal why can be applied to yourself. Your why for your career gives you a higher purpose for working and that supports your efforts towards your big picture. Without that higher purpose, it is harder to muster the energy and passion needed to overcome all the obstacles on the way towards your big picture. At the same time, you become more attractive to other business relationships when you have a clear purpose or why. People also want to do business with individuals who are asking and answering the questions “why?” and “so what?”
As an individual, what is the best way to uncover your ‘why’? It sometimes sounds easier to do than it is. So here are some tips to get you started. It often requires us to reflect on some useful questions and write them down in a journal or draw our reflections. We may want to do this over the course of a few weeks, and it can be useful to dedicate some specific time when your mind is ‘fresh’ so you don’t get distracted by all the other thoughts of the day.
So here are some questions you might find useful:
What makes you come alive?
What are your innate strengths?
Where do you add the greatest value?
What is the contribution you make through your work? To Whom?
What are the higher reasons why you work and put up with everything that you must deal with?
How will you measure your life?
It was Viktor Fankl author of Mans Search for Meaning who said “he who has a why, can endure any how“. If you are looking to gain more energy and motivation for where you are heading, the true value is in understanding why that is so important to you.
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And …
Going back to the lovely Michelle, she has left that corporate role and she is now working in an organisation that more closely matches her own big picture for her career, satisfies her ‘why’, and is a great match with her personal values. She is also satisfying her higher purpose by being involved in some volunteer work and giving back to her community. Michelle mentioned that it would have been extremely easy for her to fall back into a similar corporate role. Had she not done this level of thinking before or gained the clarity around what she really wanted to do. She may not have achieved that sense of fulfilment as we uncovered things that she didn’t even realise, were so important to her.
Having this level of clarity is like being the archer who effortlessly hits the bulls-eye every time. If you are ready to invest in yourself and gain more clarity around where you ultimately want to be and why that is important to you, we should chat about my Leading with Impact 1:1 Coaching Programme. Feel free to drop me a message so we can connect and explore if this programme would be the right 1:1 Coaching Approach for you.
Lead with Impact,