Let me make an assertion – those driven by a deeper purpose are the ones who make change happen.
People inspired by a bigger vision have a greater impact.
They are filled with passion and purpose. They are inspired to go over and above and do all that they can to get the job done.
It is the visionaries that show us how to expand the boundaries of possibilities.
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Proverbs 29:18
A vision is a picture of a future state that inspires passion in people. And in a leadership arena, people choose to follow, under their own power.
In clarifying your vision, try considering three areas: Why you do what you do, how you were created, and what you hope to accomplish.
Why You Do What You Do
What are you passionate about?
Has a God-sized vision gripped your life to excites you to the point of terror and calls out the courage in you?
What do you believe in, so deeply, that it is non-negotiable? It defines your worldview, how you see the world.
A few examples:
“All people matter to God. Therefore they are worthy of our love.”
– Warden Cain
“Empower the individual to upset the status quo.”
– Steve Jobs
“People have dignity, what you do all day long, matters.”
– Luke Harris
Why you do what you do goes a lot deeper than making a paycheck or making a name for yourself.
Your purpose is something much bigger than money. It is a belief that transcends what you do or who you work for.
We all know how important it is to believe in the company you work for and the products you are selling. You have to be smoking what you are selling to remain in integrity.
You are more than what you do for a living. What you do matters, but it is not who you are. You were made for more.
Your purpose is not something that you make up. It is something that has been with you and part of your life all along.
Before it can gain any power or achieve any impact, an arrow must be pulled in backward, 180 degrees away from the target. And that’s also where a WHY derives its power. The WHY does not come from looking ahead at what you want to achieve and figuring out an appropriate strategy to get there. It is not born out of any market research. It does not come from extensive interviews with customers or even employees. It comes from looking in the completely opposite direction from where you are now. Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention.
Simon Sinek – Start With Why
When you look for your purpose, look at some stories from your past or pivotal situation that defined who you are. What did those situations and how you responded to them say about how you see the world or what you believe?
Once you clarify your purpose, it gives you a lens, a perspective, or a framework to evaluate your decisions.
How You Were Created
What were you uniquely wired to do? Are there things that come easily to you, that when you do them, it doesn’t feel like work? You feel like “I was made to do this!”
There are a set of activities that fall squarely in your strengths, the things that you are great at. In the sales area, these are typically a drive to achieve, relationship building abilities and asking powerful questions that challenge people.
Look over the last ninety days and think of a day that was awesome at work. What were some of the activities you were doing that made it great? What are those things that when you do them you thing, “I love doing this”?
It is also important to look at your weaknesses. With the help and perspective from my coach, over some time, I was able to shift my role so that I wasn’t spending much time in the things I’m not good at. It had a huge impact on not only my production but also my fulfillment at work.
You can find your weaknesses by looking at the activities you hate doing. These are the things you don’t look forward to, are no good at, and they suck the life out of you.
For me, it is completing my expense reports and order entry/order management in the work computer system. Both of them require some data entry and some sort of organization — foreign activities for me.
I couldn’t get away from the expense report, so I changed a few things to make it a little more fun, and I became more organized by putting all my receipts in one place.
With our computer system at work, we shifted responsibilities amongst our team so that this wasn’t something that I would have to do very often. Other people are good at that type of thing, so it made perfect sense. It’s hard to estimate that amount of disasters that have been avoided by this simple shift. I still have the keys to the system, but people thank me when I don’t drive it.
When you are considered how you were created, it is also important to think about what values you have. Things you value may be connection, freedom, vulnerability, courage, or growth. When you know your values, they become a guiding principle for how you live them out in your behaviors.
What Do You Dream of Achieving?
Looking over the year ahead, or even six months from now, what is something that you would like to achieve, that if you achieved it, you would know it was a big achievement?
By setting goals that are big enough, they challenge you to grow. Not just about how much money you want to make, but what you want to do outside of work with your personal life too. How will you change the lives of others?
If a goal is big enough, it will change the systems and processes of how you get things done. And a team that has a big collective goal will come together to achieve it.
That is what happened to our team at the start of 2017. We had just fired our largest customer, a disorienting exercise in itself. I didn’t know how we were going to plug the hole.
An idea got thrown around that if we get $2 Million in new business in 2017 at margins we liked, then we would be ahead. At the time, the vast majority of our business is from repeat customers. We didn’t have a system to track new business we landed; we didn’t know how long it would take or the number of activities to support the goal.
The goal became: Implement a sales process to support $2 Mil of new business in 2017. We started tracking new accounts, and it brought focus to the sales team.
It took around four months that land the first million, then two months to land the second. We ended the year with $3.6 Million in new business. We were all surprised and thrilled.
More importantly than achieving the goal. We have been able to replicate it over the following years. We know how long and the number of activities it takes to land $1 Mil in new business. This is valuable information as it gives us a gauge on how we are doing, regardless of outside business conditions.
Goals bring the challenge to improve. They help us stretch ourselves. It is where we bounce up against failure and disappointment, to the point where you have to reach out for help and support from others.
Goals are a great way to tap into your personal development network.
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But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.
Psalm 39:7