How Each Thing Ties to Your ONE Thing

With that last reference to Jeff Henderson’s book Know What You’re FOR in mind, I want you to consider one more idea that still resonates with me several years after reading it for the first time. Make no mistake though, it was packed full of amazing ideas; this one just connects here really well! Jeff shared a story about his time as a minister, where his church was experiencing significant growth and had dozens of guests every week. They had a group of volunteers designated to check in with guests but those volunteers often struggled to get to everyone. Some of those volunteers were growing very concerned that this would result in first time guests having a bad experience. Jeff emphasized the importance of “doing for one what you wish you could do for everyone,” and not worrying about the things that were out of their control.

When it comes to helping our team members identify the clear purpose that drives them and how that purpose connects with our organization’s overall purpose, the idea of doing for one what we wish we could do for everyone won’t be enough. That’s where it will be critical for us to make sure we’ve done a tremendous job of helping the leaders that support us connect their purpose with the organization’s purpose AND we’ve empowered them to be able to do the same for the team members they’re leading. To achieve the best possible results from leading with a clear purpose, we really do need everyone to be working toward a purpose that’s just as clear as our own. The reality we’ll have to face, as will many of the leaders on our teams, is that much of the work we’ll need to do as we help ALL of our team members make the connection themselves will not necessarily be what any of us love most.

This is where Henderson’s idea (kinda) ties back to what we looked at before from Marcus Buckingham - but we’ll need to add a bit of our own creativity! If we’re being reasonable, we’ve accepted the fact that we can’t only do the things we love; leadership (or anything else that requires acting even a little bit responsible) doesn’t work that way. But if we can get to the point where around twenty percent of our tasks are indeed things we find joy in - those things they tie directly to fulfilling our clear purpose - there may just be a way we can apply Henderson’s advice to the rest…

Here’s where I’ll be brutally honest with you. I nearly failed my English class as a junior in high school and I just stopped registering for classes at the community college I was enrolled in when English Comp was next on the list. To that end, I never earned the Environmental Science merit badge as a Boy Scout because of the requirement to write a 500 word essay. To this day, writing is not something I really enjoy.

If you and I talk about catching up over lunch, on a web conference, or possibly even a phone call, there’s a high likelihood that I’ll send you my calendar link to choose a time that’s open. That link then creates an appointment on both our calendars with any additional detail needed to ensure we have a productive session. Just like writing, the technology tied to that calendar link and the calendar tool itself aren’t things that I prefer.

OK then, Wes, why do you spend so much time doing things and using tools that you don’t necessarily care for if it’s so important to be working toward a clear purpose that we love? 

At this stage, I write almost every day; not because I like the process of writing but because it’s something that I know I need to do to be the most effective I can be in the things that tie most directly to my purpose. The calendar and any technology around that helps me control the time I have available so I get the most results from it. I’ve learned to treat them as means to an end, and that end is the purpose I’ve identified that gets me out of bed every day and keeps me pushing forward.

By tweaking the idea of doing for one what we wish we could do for everyone to how I think about the things I rarely want to do (but realize are necessary), it helps me grind through them knowing the impact they have on the things I really do want to do, the things that truly are connected with my clear purpose. But to even tolerate them that long, I’ve got to think about them in terms that tie back to how I’m wired…

Connecting It All to Our Purpose

I remember laughing out loud at my new boss during the first 60 day review I had experienced as a new employee since I was a teenager. In early October of 2014, I started a position with a new company for the first time since March of 1996. During that initial performance evaluation just two months later, Rob commented on how detail-oriented I was and how that was impacting the work I was doing to process payroll, manage the company’s human resource system, and help him with safety training. As I laughed, he said “I realize you haven’t changed jobs in a long time but I’m not sure you’re supposed to laugh when I give you a compliment.” We had a great relationship from the start, and still do today, so he wasn’t offended like a lot of bosses would have been when they’re too caught up in their title. I explained to him that I was anything but detail-oriented! However, I had worked really hard to create systems that would help me handle the details I was responsible for without completely falling on my face… Those same systems have also been what’s allowed me to grind through those details I don’t care much for, like writing and being meticulous about how I use my calendar, while keeping my clear purpose top of mind!

At the risk of being accused of beating the proverbial dead horse, I’ll stress once more that no leader will ever have the luxury of only doing the things we truly love to do. In fact, a large majority of the tasks we’re responsible for completing on any given day will be things we don’t really enjoy - and some of them will just plain suck! Having systems in place to help us manage those less than desirable tasks will help us avoid dropping any of the balls we’re juggling, but that won’t always be enough to help us tolerate them - let alone like them!

Even with having what I believe are some solid systems in place for close to two decades, I still have to work at how I manage the way I think about the more excruciatingly detailed tasks on any given day… As we looked at How We’re Wired Impacts How We Pursue Our Purpose, I shared how Fast-paced and Task-Oriented I was. While I take pleasure in checking those tasks off my list, I can assure you that each task I have written on that list DOES NOT have a ton of detail included. One of the things that fuels me the most is generating massive results. I’ve always lived by the idea of “if one is good, then ten has to be better.” (When I applied that to how I approached weekend softball tournaments, things could often get sketchy…) To keep from going completely nuts as I work through the systems I’ve put in place so I can effectively work through even the most painfully detailed tasks, I’ve learned that I absolutely have to keep focused on the overall results I’ll be able to achieve.

I won’t pretend that I ever really love the detail work that I can (usually) tolerate by sticking with the systems I have in place, but I definitely love the results I’m able to achieve through the process! And for me, seeing those results feeds my fire to work even harder. Don’t misunderstand me here, though. Any time I mention the systems I use, I try to be very intentional to emphasize that I’m not suggesting they’ll work the same way for everyone. I highly doubt that you’re wired just like me, so your systems will need to support your needs. The point really ties back to how we think about the tasks we’ve created those systems to help us manage, and connecting even the most annoying tasks we’ve got to push through back to our own clear purpose. When you get that part down, I’m guessing that you’ll experience the same kind of energy I do from getting results!

Purpose is a Precursor to Contribution!

Earlier I shared Marcus Buckingham’s comment about love being the most powerful force in business for driving behavior - except he probably spells it behaviour… In that same talk, he said that “love is the precursor to contribution,” and related it to the engagement we can achieve from our employees and clients when we provide them with an experience they truly love. With that in mind, I’ll challenge you to think back to the 57 percent improvement in discretionary effort that I’ve referenced a few times already from the HBR article and the piece from the Forbes article stating that, “Loving your job is not just an added bonus to success, but actually an important precursor. If you enjoy what you do, working at it is easier, and your motivation to improve is somewhat innate, rather than forced.”

If we can become effective in connecting the most annoying tasks we’re responsible for back to something we really do love - that clear purpose we’ve been looking at - even those are likely to suck a little less. And if we’re able to keep how they tie to our purpose woven in with the things that motivate us the most (based on our individual behavioral style), we can expect a boost of energy to come with it!

Think for a minute about the things you’ve been involved with where time just flies by, as opposed to the ones where you feel like it’s been the longest week of your life and it’s only 10am on Monday… How much more do you feel like you’re able to accomplish on the things where time moves fast? And how much more energy are you left with even when you step away from those tasks? For me, it’s often hard to stop. The tasks that I love most, the ones that I can directly connect to the clear purpose that gets me out of bed each day, seem to be the ones where I find myself still plugging away late into the evening without being the least bit tired! But the inverse is just as true; just a small amount of time tied up with the things that are out of that scope can drain me almost immediately…