Your values define who you are at the deepest level in your heart. They influence and orient your actions, your behaviors, your way of thinking and perceiving the world. Unique to you, they help you navigate. But navigate to… where?
In this second segment of our Leading with Authenticity theme, we will help define this where, your reason for being, your purpose in life, your calling.
For leading with authenticity, or simply being authentic, you want to know who you are, what drives you, and live by those defining principles, so the leader within can emerge and make the world better.
Unless you lead in times of crisis, the authoritarian style of leadership is no longer what team members of the new generations want nor expect. Today, an authentic leader will undoubtedly be more mobilizing, even (or especially) when this means being vulnerable and not having all the answers.
If you read part 1 of these series of blogs, you have already pinpointed your values. Now, how do you define your purpose? The answer to this can emerge from your life’s journey so far. What significant events shaped you? Changed you? Think perhaps of tough moments in your past. Hardship helps forge our character. Use this experience to reframe your life and define your purpose. Figure the meaning of your life’s story until now, and how you can find the aspiration to move forward and lead others.
A key question to reflect on is, what character trait did you develop through life’s adversity? Did you develop a high sense of responsibility and taking ownership while a parent was sick? Did living in poverty nurtured an uncommon learning ability so you would graduate from university and never lack money yourself? Or did being left aside as a child because you were different make you grow inclusive of others or selfless?
These past moments of stress, pressure, adversity, uncertainty help understand what is genuinely important and dear to you today. They have forced you to dig and discover your own resources, they have shaped you and how you perceive the world.
So stop for a minute and reflect on what can these life’s stories teach you about yourself and how you want to change the world. If you were to represent your life as a timeline, what would be the inflection points, and what did they teach you?
I realize these are no easy questions. Unlike the value exercise in my former blog, this is not as straightforward and you may not finish this reading with all the answers. But you can begin to gather insights and craft a first draft of your life’s purpose.
In view of your journey, what is it that you want to be? What is it that you want to do for the world? Here are a few examples to get you started:
You may want to be the empathetic listener, healing the suffering ones through your non-judgmental presence. In which case your life purpose could read “to be a trustworthy listener suffering people need to begin healing”. This is how you go about impacting the world. An in your leadership role, this could translate as taking time to understand people, issues, context. It could mean you don’t make decisions lightly, and always factor in your people’s best interest over cold, number-based data.
Or, your purpose statement may read “to be an inspiring leader that helps employees of all horizons develop and grow into the leaders they were themselves meant to be”. In your leadership role, this purpose could look like trusting your employees with taking charge of major, challenging projects that will force them to develop new skills and leave them deeply fulfilled and proud after their completion.
One last example, perhaps you were changed by your parents’ fights over divorce at a young age, and your purpose is around the lines of “being the middle ground where everyone can find peace of mind in times of trouble”. And in your professional role, this could show up as inclusiveness, as a calm and reassuring voice in this VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous).
Think through these examples and let your unique purpose emerge.
How does it contribute to improving the world?
How does it show in your current role?
How does it look like as a leader?
Don’t hesitate to talk to a closed one, a trusted friend to get feedback on this purpose. Does it sound like you? Or get a coach to help figure it out, dig deeper or refocus your purpose and make it unique and motivating to you. There is no limit to what you can become, no ceiling to what you can aspire to be.
To go further : I suggest reading True North, by Bill George and Jack Clayton.
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