RECAP: 2018 FOX Rising Gen Forum

Leading with Purpose: Bringing Meaning to Your Work

Presenter:
Arthur Woods, Co-Founder and COO, Imperative
@ArthurWoods

Session Description: 

Purpose-driven leaders tap into what really motivates both themselves and others, and as a result they inspire their teams to achieve extraordinary results.  Leading with purpose is particularly important to millennials and rising generation leaders.  This session covered the purpose economy, and participants had an opportunity to discover their own Purpose ProfileTM using an online assessment

 

“2/3 people in jobs do not find a sense of personal meaning in their work."
- Arthur Woods
“We can make the greatest impact when our values align with our purpose."
- Arthur Woods
Key Takeaways:  
  • Connecting to purpose and meaning leads to increased productivity, significantly stronger relationships, better health, and less stress.
  • There are three key aspects of personal purpose that form our “why:” 1) Impact – what we contribute to the world and who we choose to serve. 2) Values – govern how we see the world. 3) Craft – is what we bring to the world and our approach to problem-solving. 

    • Our “impact” comes from who we choose to serve.  It can be individuals, organizations, or society.

    • Core “values” drive our moral foundation. Values generally fall on a spectrum between harmony and karma. Harmony is about looking at the world as equal and figuring out how to serve those that have less. Karma says that if you put in effort you will see results. Sometimes you need to flex muscles to use both “harmony” and “karma” to motivate others. It can be a very powerful blind spot if we don’t know where we fall on the spectrum.

    • The “craft” drivers come down to the way that we lead. They may be a combination of any of the following: Human – empathy/expertise in those you serve; Knowledge – insights, evidence, and understanding for strong direction; Structure – process, systems, and structure for scale and repeatability; and Community – empowerment, relationship building, and encourage collaboration. 

  • The final step is to bring all these drivers together to develop your own purpose story and statement so that you can describe how you see the world, how you want to make impact, and what you care about.
     

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES >
(FOX Members only)