The Value of Purpose

After reading a recent article ^[1] in the New York Times about the value of purpose in one's life, I reflected on how valuable the component of purpose is within the Performance Fuel formula at eRep.

Purpose is knowing that what you do matters and will be appreciated.

There is a paradox about having a sense of purpose that may strike some as odd. Happiness and purpose are not necessarily correlated. In fact, purpose and meaning (eudiamonic well-being) and happiness (hedonic well-being) are inversely related. ^[2]

Ask yourself this question: when the alarm goes off on Monday morning, what motivates you to get out of bed and get ready for work?

When we are engaged and enthused about our role within the organization, it becomes markedly easier to skip the snooze button and get to work on time. It can even be a joy.

To achieve that joy, we must know and understand the innate, unchanging nature of our core values. We must fully grasp how we are hardwired and seek the job that matches it. Without that alignment of being the right person in the right seat, engagement and that sense of joy for the role will be elusive.

Without purpose, getting out of bed every morning will feel like work.

Does that sound familiar? If so, you may not be in the right role. Or more to the point, perhaps you are in the right role but it lacks a sense of purpose and meaning.

We can be very good at our job, but we cannot reach our full potential if what we do doesn't matter or won't be appreciated.

Organizations must embrace the value of purpose with their entire team. This goes beyond mission and vision statements. Those are often too high above ground level to resonate with most workers. Purpose is established in the day-to-day. The employee asks, "Do my objectives for this week matter? Will my effort be appreciated?"

For the individual to get the answer to these questions, they need feedback from their direct leaders. They need the clarity of knowing what they are to accomplish without ambiguity (this is the ?clarity' component of the Performance Fuel formula).

Interpersonal feedback is the key — or feedforward as we like to call it. Reading a company-wide mass email sent out once a year with buzzword-heavy mission and vision statements won't cut it. The direct supervisors need to understand the core values and functions of their team, work with them to establish realistic, measurable objectives, and communicate why those objectives matter. Finally, they need to convey a genuine and personal sense of appreciation for the individual and their effort.

The eRep Performance Fuel application harnesses the formula of clarity, purpose and feedback to bring that appreciation and engagement to your team on a daily or weekly basis. No other product comes close to empowering teams and measuring their happiness and engagement with both subjective and objective metrics.

Contact eRep.com today to find out how the Performance Fuel application can take your organization to new heights of success.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/upshot/finding-purpose-for-a-good-life-but-also-a-healthy-one.html

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11148302