Purpose Keeps the Tank Full!

I’ve made a few references already in making a case for just how important it is for every leader to have a clear purpose that energizes them. Without having that in place, the challenges we face as we lead our teams can become more weight than we’re willing to carry, and I’ve seen countless examples showing that any financial advantages that come with leadership are rarely enough to do it well over the long haul! Being able to prioritize our tasks so we capture our best possible Return is certainly a large piece of the puzzle, but there will be times where even that won't give us all we need to keep our tanks full.

In two separate lessons of our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy and I emphasize the power of building strong connections with the team we lead but we caution participants to recognize that not everyone on their teams will enjoy the same things they do or get recharged in the same ways. We go on to share a few of our own experiences to paint a picture of how leaders will often need to adapt to the people around them to build strong connections, earn influence, and lead their teams to achieve great results. We’ll look at this more soon when we change gears and work through ways we can help our team members work to their own meaningful purpose. Quite honestly, this will rarely be something a leader can do without expending a lot of their own energy - and it won’t likely be something that keeps their own tank full…

However, being able to keep our own purpose top of mind through it all AND tying even the heaviest tasks back to it based on our own unique behavioral style can make our lift significantly easier. Whether we like it or not, we gave up the opportunity to like everything we do when we said YES to leading others - and I’m sure anyone who has children can relate, at least a little bit… I’ve heard folks say things like “When you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s CRAP! Even when we’ve got a clear purpose that drives us, we’ll still have our share of junk to push through. The key to keeping our own tank full, though, is in having the right ratio between the things we love and the things that suck but still have to be done. We’ll begin working through that next…