I have the attention span of a squirrel on steroids.
I get lost in thought and forget what I’m supposed to remember.
The great idea I’m thinking right now is being pushed out by the next great idea. If I don’t quickly write it down, it’s gone forever. I think I’ve forgotten all my best ideas.
Purpose aids memory and drives performance:
You can’t perform when you forget what you’re doing.
I had a 7 a.m. meeting with a CIO yesterday morning. As I left the house, my wife said, “If you want toast with breakfast, bring home a loaf of bread.”
Surprisingly, I remembered to bring home the bread. Why? Toast makes me happy. I didn’t bring home bread. I brought home toast.
Bread is a thing. Toast suggests purpose.
Purpose drives performance.
4 ‘What’ questions that lead to purpose driven leadership:
- What need are you solving?
- What value are you adding?
- What aspiration are you meeting?
- What behaviors fill you with gratitude?
4 ‘How’ questions that lead to purpose driven leadership:
- How are you delivering happiness?
- How are you enabling connection and strengthening relationships?
- How are you developing and maximizing human potential?
- How are you making the world a better place?
4 “Why’ questions that lead to purpose driven leadership?
- Why are we really doing this? Why are we really having a meeting, for example?
- Why does this activity/service/product matter to customers?
- Why did you get up today?
- Why are you reading this blog post?
My wife helped me bring home the bread by skillfully connecting task with purpose.
How might you connect purpose to today’s tasks?