Are you working on purpose?

That may sound like an odd question: Are you working on purpose?

After being inspired by one of Tim Ohai’s posts How to Drive Purpose Into Your Team and writing for the Sales Leadership Corner about it in Calibrating Purpose I kept thinking… which tends to be a little dangerous.

Thinking about how each of us shows up to work each and every day – do we have a purpose? are we intentional about why we are there? do our actions move us toward our goals?

If you answered: no – no – no, consider this from Tim’s post:

… people who don’t have a personal purpose at work will actually create waste.
In the form of wasted money.
In the form of unnecessary drama.
In the form of upset customers.

That might have made you pause for a moment, how much of your day – week – quarter – year – career are you wasting because you don’t work on purpose?

Knowing your purpose will allow you to soar to new heights. Working on purpose will keep you tied to the ground.

Step 1 = take the time to reflect and figure out what your purpose is. Ask yourself how you would answer the question from Tim Ohai’s post “Tell me about a time when you did your best work – when both the outcome and the way you felt were outstanding.”
Step 2 = now look at the organization you work with, what is it’s purpose AND how does yours tie in?
Step 3 = make sure that the work you do can be directly tied back in your mind to what you defined in steps 1 & 2.
Step 4 = at the end of each day, check how you did: what activity did you do today? how did that activity move you forward in your purpose?

That is what working on purpose looks like.