Are you Clear on Your Purpose?

Each person in the CEO seat has been given distinct leadership skills. You wouldn’t be where you are if you didn’t have them. So, how are you going to apply those skills to make the world better? Why are you doing what you are doing, and why does it matter?

Sometimes when we are given talents, like being a strong leader or an eloquent speaker, we ask: Why? We know in our hearts and minds that part of our talent is meant to contribute to a greater purpose in the world.

But purpose is not just about doing. We also have to think about purpose as a state of being. At one of my recent CEO retreats, we highlighted who we wanted to be as leaders. We pulled out words like courage, grace, and humility. We questioned whether being the kind of leader we set out to be was more important than tackling our to do list.

I remember at another CEO retreat, we were exploring purpose mastery and someone asked: What’s the link between spirituality and purpose? We drew a line on the ground and asked people to stand on the line from low to high to indicate how big an influence spirituality is to their purpose inquiry.

The majority clustered in the top one-third. Participants on the lower end saw purpose more as a clear sense of “why” and living one’s values. People on the high end saw purpose as their guided life plan. For them, it was more about letting go of control, getting out of the way, and letting one’s life plan reveal itself.

So, what about you? Is your purpose about being? Doing? Both?

Do you have tribe that inspires you to stay on purpose?

If not, what steps can you take to activate this for your life?