People vs. Purpose.
A few years back, we won a high-stakes consulting project. It was for a large conglomerate with a grand vision. The work we were doing promised to transform the face of an industry.
The team started excitedly but it took just a few weeks for that excitement to turn into stress.
Despite doing our best, we were struggling to make much headway.
We were running into serious roadblocks trying to get the much needed support from key senior stakeholders at this client.
Some were plain incompetent. Some were information hoarders who would not share anything. Some were not aligned to the vision, and hence unsupportive. Some saw this new project as a transgression into their territory and would create unnecessary roadblocks.
Now, on an average consulting engagement you do face such issues with a few stakeholders and you typically know how to work around them. Here, the magnitude was multiplied manifold. This was sapping the team of its energy and motivation.
In a moment of reflection during those days, a realisation dawned on me that helped navigate the challenges of the project. It has now become an useful compass to minimize work related stress.
At work, the source of stress is almost never the work itself. It is always the people we need to work with. And, ironically, if we focus our energies on people - what they said, what they did or did not do, how they behaved, how capable they are and so on - we multiply our stress and dilute our impact.
A better approach is to focus on Purpose - why we are doing what we are doing - and let it dictate our thoughts and actions related to the people we must work with. This way, we emotionally detach ourselves from the idiosyncrasies of specifc people. The power of the purpose propels us to do whatever needs to get done. We find a way to navigate obstacles including those created by people, without ever making it personal.
Only pre-condition for this to work is that we should know the purpose of our work and should be aligned to it.
Good managers and leaders know this. They work extra hard to help their people find their purpose.
Do you know why you do what you do at work?
#work #leadership #purpose #stress #motivation