It Ain’t (Just) About the Pay; Purpose Matters!

Now that we’ve worked through a big-picture idea covering the importance of leading with a clear purpose and some very specific steps we can take to paint a clear picture of the purpose our organization is striving to achieve, all while staying dialed in our own definite purpose as we push through it all, let’s change our focus to be sure we’re helping every individual on our teams work toward a purpose that’s just as clear. For those of us who have accepted the responsibility of leading a team (of any size), we’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it CAN’T be just about the pay. The same holds true for great people in any other role as well!

Several years ago, while I was still providing safety and human resources support for a local company on a part time basis but working every other waking minute in our business, I bumped into someone at a career fair (where I was representing the local company) who said, “I’m seriously considering starting a business like yours and offering leadership training.” Cindy and I had developed a relatively strong local presence at the point, our social media following was starting to gain traction, and we had hosted some fairly large events. At face value, I can certainly understand why they made that statement. But I responded with the most transparent answer I possibly could, saying that I would absolutely recommend it as long as they were willing to make several upfront investments into infrastructure and licensing while working nearly every waking hour for their first few years without taking a salary for themselves. Their facial expression showed me the clarity of purpose (or lack thereof) they had for making their initial statement… I’ve shared a bit about our purpose, and I’ll go into more detail on that later on, so you have some idea of why we’ve been willing to do what we do. Let’s be completely honest here though, having a clear purpose isn’t something that’s just for leaders!

As I’ve said multiple times already, leading is hard… But so is delivering outstanding results consistently and being a great team member - in any organization! Nearly all of us are faced with choosing our career based on money or passion; we rarely get to pursue both. And when we do, it’s almost always later in our careers and when we’ve got the money thing somewhat figured out.

While my response at that career fair may sound sarcastic, that was definitely not my intent (at least that time). I was able to share that statement with complete confidence because I was working to achieve a very definite purpose and didn’t really care how much work, or how little pay, was involved in the process. Let’s be honest though, we’ll seldom see any two people be motivated by the exact same thing. The majority of folks you and I interact with will not have interest in accepting leadership responsibility. Many of them can, however, be incredible team members! But to attract those great team members, we’ll need to provide them with a distinct reason for joining the teams we lead. That’s why purpose is important, for them as much as for us, so that’s where we’ll pick up next time…