SERVING A MEANINGFUL PURPOSE

Victor Frankl wrote his famous book, “Man’s search for Meaning,” based on his experience in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War 2. When he arrived at the concentration camp, he set himself a goal to learn what is the main difference between prisoners who survived the concentration camp and those who did not. He found that the main differentiator between those who survived and those who did not, was that those whom survived, still had something significant that they wanted to do in the future. This means that they believed that they still had a meaningful purpose to serve. And that provided them with the mental capacity and motivation to stay alive and survive the holocaust.

Serving a meaningful purpose is one of the most significant motivational forces for people to succeed in their private, as well as their professional lives. From a leadership point of view, leaders have to accomplish 3 objectives in this regard:

1. Define and communicate the meaningful purpose of your business. What value is your business adding; how does your business contribute towards making this world a better place; how does your business help people to improve their lives?

2. Help your team members to find their own meaningful purpose. What value do you want to add; how would you like to contribute towards making this world a better place; how do you want to help people to improve their lives; what legacy would you like to leave?

3. Help your team members to create alignment between their own purpose and the business purpose. This means a leader has to help their team members to understand how they can serve their own meaningful purpose within your business. Indicate how they can contribute to making the world a better place within your business; how they can help people within your business and what the difference is they can make by contributing to the success of your business.

When there is alignment between individual and business purpose, it inspires, energises, motivates people to make a meaningful contribution to society and find pride in the value they add to the lives of other people.

Leadership Dynamics facilitates processes to enable leaders to create alignment of purpose and release the energy in people to turn good organisations into great organisations.