6 Proven Ways to Find Purpose at Work

Are your employees disengaged? Are you suffering from high employee turnover?

Imagine a workplace where employees wake up excited to come to work, feeling their job has a deeper meaning. Sound too good to be true? It’s not!

When employees find their purpose at work, it completely transforms how they engage with the business and what they do on a day-to-day basis.

While most employees strive to do well, many view their jobs as a series of tasks. They don’t make a connection with a meaningful personal purpose.

Not having clarity around your personal purpose at work, can impact motivation and lead to becoming disengaged.

(Employee engagement is broadly defined as the level of connection employees feel to their role and the business).

Those that see their employment as allowing them to fulfil their personal purpose at work tend to be more:

A recent survey by Gallup revealed some concerning statistics about employee engagement in Australia.

The survey revealed:

Given we spend so much time at work, and the cost of recruiting and training team members, these figures are alarming!

When team members can fulfill their personal purpose at work the benefits for the business include:

Creating a culture where employees can fulfill their personal purpose at work makes good business sense.

The foundation to allow employees to fulfil their purpose at work starts with creating the right business culture.

In an earlier post I wrote about the power of Servant Leadership. Where the role of the owner/leader is to be a “servant” of others, in particular, their employees. Supporting and equipping them to do what is needed.

Practicing Servant Leadership involves a change of mindset. Creating conditions that allow employees to thrive and succeed.

This is the reverse of what occurs in many businesses that tend to be top down and authoritarian.

Helping employees discover how to link what they do, with their personal purpose, is NOT about asking, “what is your purpose!”

What is important to one individual may be significantly different to others.

The key is to help employees identify what is important to them, then connect this to their daily activities.

It is about understanding team members at a personal level & what is important to them.

There are many different, (and some fun), pathways that can assist on this journey:

Shared values (the business and personal) are a great point to start making a connection between the business and the employee.

Values can be a good foundation on which to identify and build a personal purpose.

For example, one of my strong personal values is fairness. Both in business, and life, fairness is critically important to me. I could not work for a business that sought to take unfair advantage of others. It shapes how, and where I work, and guides my decision-making.

Helping employees connect what they do on a daily basis with the Business Purpose can be a powerful way to increase engagement.

Sadly, too often, for many employees, the Purpose of a business is perceived as increasing sales, margins, and profitability. Why the business exists is overwhelmed by the weekly grind of sales targets and results.

While profitably and growth are important, these are simply outcomes of meeting customer needs, solving problems, reducing frustration, changing how customers feel.

In the pursuit of sales, it’s very easy to lose sight of why the business exists, its Purpose.

To help employees find purpose at work, it is critical leaders educate employees about how, through what they do, they improve, or change, the customers world.

For example in finance, a loans officers function, may be to get the loan approved for the client.

However from a Purpose perspective, they help the client successfully navigate the confusing world of finance. Reduce worry and stress.

Importantly, the provide the client the means to achieve something important in their life (Buy their dream home, car, create wealth).

When the focus and rewards are purely on the sale, rather than the impact on their clients life, it is little wonder we see the high levels of disengagement as revealed by Gallup!

Understanding your customers intimately is a powerful way to help team members discover their purpose at work.

When team members see how what they sell, (or do), changes or improves the customers world, it can fundamentally change how they perceive their role.

Instead of selling a product or service team members may be:

To work, leaders need to understand what is important to team members, then constantly talk in terms of what the sale means for the customer. How their world is changed or improved.

Important: While many products or services may not be life changing – businesses can still influence the customers world by HOW they engage with the customer.

Another practical and powerful way to find purpose at work is to list:

Then look for ways to consciously use these attributes on a daily/weekly basis.

For example, to be at my best, and engaged with what I do, I need to ensure my work week includes, creativity, learning, & importantly, being involved with others.

A fantastic tool to help identify your/your teams signature strengths is Via Character.

Important: It is not enough to know your strengths, they need to be consciously employed.

The more you use your strengths, the more you will enjoy your work, and through this, find meaning in what you do.

A Meaning Map is another powerful, and fun, tool to help you identify elements to provide purpose at work.

To get started, divide a page horizontally with a line.

Then reflect on the last month and:

Important – for items below the line, think about what the opposite of these items would be. This step often reveals what you really should be doing.

Once you have created a Meaning Map for the past month and understand the concept, try creating one for your life.

This will often reveal common themes that were present in some form from quite a young age.

This powerful process can be a helpful guide to find purpose at work.

In my own case, creativity and collaborating with others were evident from a young age. The love of learning developed much later in life.

When I am struggling at work, it is often because I haven’t made time for what is important to me. (Creativity, collaborating, or learning). To turn things around, I consciously plan to include these elements into my day/week).