A lot has been written and commented about the concept of purpose in recent years.
On the TED website there are currently over 800 talks and articles about or featuring purpose.
Scientific research has proven that having a purpose boosts performance, resilience and even your health.
Some people have one all-encompassing purpose that defines who they are and all they do.
Others develop a purpose in an area of personal development or significant personal challenge.
Alternatively, it’s recognised to be beneficial to have a range of purposes that apply to different areas of your work or life more broadly.
Making a habit of having a purpose is a good thing – particularly when you apply it to your everyday working life.
Purpose can, and should, come down to the most basic of things you do.
For example:
developing a purpose in relation to meetings will help make the meetings more focussed on actions.
developing a purpose for your individual role in a meeting will help that meeting to be successful and more efficient, as well as helping you to perform at your best.
knowing what the purpose is for the next e-mail you write to your team will help you craft something more useful for them rather than just clogging up their in-boxes.
In addition, you can use purpose to help your team or business become more focussed on outcomes not inputs.
To do this be willing to ask of each other:
what is the purpose of doing this meeting/pitch/re-organisation/project?
what are we trying to achieve with this project?
will doing this help us to grow our business/meet our goals/avert a crisis?
To be blunt, knowing the purpose of doing something can often come down to simply asking “what’s the point?”
Start asking yourself and others this question today and see how it helps you do things better.