Is your purpose aligned with the purpose of your team and organisation?
Earlier, this year, I wrote an article about Purpose: what is it and how it supports you to have a life full of meaning and fulfilment. If you have missed it, have a read: https://www.mandercoaching.co.uk/blog-3-1/purpose-to-be-or-not-to-be.
In today's article, I look at how we can align the individual, team and organisational purpose together so that individuals, teams and businesses can thrive.
Individual:
I take as a prerequisite that you already have done some purpose work and you have clarity on what is deeply meaningful to you, you know what motivates you, gives you energy, excites you and in what way you would like to contribute to this world. If you did - amazing! Don`t you just love the clarity that comes with it? Your work does not stop there though…What could you do further to make sure that you will align your personal and professional life to it?
Spend some time connecting with your purpose. This is something deeply personal and it does not exist from the day you received clarity on your purpose.
Reflect on what you have done in the past few years where you felt really aligned to your purpose?
What did you do in your personal life to align to that purpose?
How was your professional life contributing towards aligning to that purpose?
How does the purpose of the team and organisation you work for contribute to that purpose? Can you relate in one way or another: e.g. if my purpose is related to helping people, maybe I am a developer and help people by building a software that helps their lives or maybe I work as a social worker in a care home. Or maybe at the moment, I do not relate completely with my purpose in my professional life but I volunteer in a shelter in my spare time.
What might you do concretely in the short term to align your personal and professional life with your purpose: e.g. next 3 to 6 months?
What might you do in the medium and long term to stay aligned with your purpose? Dream big!
Team:
It is so much more fun and impactful when people in your team go through the same experience.
Share your experience of how you received clarity on your purpose? Inspire others to do the same.
Be curious about what other people find meaningful and fulfilling and have a conversation on how your individual purposes align with the team purpose: help each other to find the links and if you do not find links discuss openly what could that mean and how you could find those links?
What can you do as a team to make sure that you are aligning continuously to your individual and team purpose?
In case you do not have clarity on your team purpose this could be a good conversation by itself and once you figure it out, it can boost the team morale and engagement like never before
Organisational:
Can you relate your individual purpose to the purpose of your organisation? For example: I may want to change people's lives and the organisation I am working for may strive to improve the financial wellbeing of people around the world. Well, in that case, I can directly or indirectly relate to that purpose which can additionally motivate me to contribute to the success of the company. Or if I am in transition for example: I may decide to look deliberately and apply for companies that only align with my individual purpose. This way, I will lead a big part of my life with meaning and will feel fulfilled in my career.
Just Imagine if every student has clarity on their purpose when they leave university and deliberately choose their new job with that clarity. Then, from the beginning of their professional lives, they will be contributing in the way they want and I believe we will avoid quite some mid-life crisis. 🙂
And what happens in your opinion if everyone in the organisation is able to connect and contribute to their individual, team and organisational purpose day in and day out? That is right: success, growth, passion, engagement.
Enjoy reflecting today on how your individual purpose aligns with the one of your team and organisation!
