Crafting Your Purpose with John Coleman

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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.

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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately

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and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that

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inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential. Business can be

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such a force for good in the
world, elevating humanity. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want

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Working on purpose. Now. Here
is your host, doctor Elise Cortes.

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Welcome back to the Working on Purpose
Program. Thanks for tuning again this week.

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I'm your host, doctor Relise Cortes. Don't you lie from Dallas,

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which is home base for me.
If you don't know me yet, I'm

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a management consultant specializing in meaning and
purpose, organizational logo therapist, inspirational speaker,

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social scientist, and author. My
team and I help companies discover and

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articulate their purpose to thread it through
culture and operations. We work with forward

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thinking or forward reaching organizations to develop
inspirational leaders. We create cultures where people

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actually want to come to work and
do their best, and we provide programs

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like the grab your gusto that enable
individual team members to discover and unlease their

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passion and purpose at work to catalyze
fulfillment, engagement, and productivity. You

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can learn more about us and how
we can work together at eliscortes dot com.

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With us today is John Coleman.
He is an investor, writer,

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and public speaker. He's also the
managing partner at Sovereign Capital. Sovereign's Capital,

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a values aligned investment firm, and
he's also the author of the new

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book, The HBr Guide to Crafting
Your Purpose. We'll be talking about this

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new book, especially as it relates
to corporate purpose. He joins today from

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Atlanta. John, Welcome to Working
on Purpose, Alice. Thank you so

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much for having me on today,
So very welcome. You know what's so

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delightful about my job, John,
is that I in my very own business.

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When I see an email come in
from a PR person who introduces me

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to someone like you, why wouldn't
otherwise have a reason to meet So I'm

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thrilled to meet you. Well,
I'm thrilled to meet you as well,

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and a big fan of what you're
doing here. Awesome. Well, we

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have much to talk about. I
want to just start by something. Let

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me just start selfishly, can I? Yes? Please? So, as

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you know, I read your book
a cover to cover whenever I have an

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author, and that's part of my
own education and tutelage. So thank you

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for teaching me. But you start
your book, and it's a beautifully written

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book. It's very easy to follow, it's very well organized, it's so

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accessible, So kudos for that.
But let's just say, right out of

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the gate, you talk about this
idea that most inspiring people that we encounter

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aren't inspiring by accident, and then
you go on and share this really great

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story about a bus driver named Curtis
who is in the Lake Highlands, Dallas

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area that's literally just a stone throw
away from where I live. Literally I

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could probably crawl there if I need
to. Wow, you talk about this

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really awesome bus driver. So let's
just start right out of the gate.

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Tell us about Curtis and why you
position him first. Right out of the

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gate about people being not inspiring by
accident, Yeah, absolutely. You know

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I encountered Curtis Jenkins's story almost by
accident. I think someone forwarded it to

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me at some point. It was
covered by a local news station there and

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I just thought it was one of
the most inspiring things that I'd seen and

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really emblematic of the types of topics
that I was considering at the time.

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You know, I think we're plagued
by this idea that purpose is something that

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happens to us, right, that
it's a pot of gold at the end

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of the rainbow that we behind,
rather than something that we can really craft

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into our lots and build into everything
that we do. And I think almost

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any job in any life can be
extraordinarily meaningful, and I thought this segment

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was really emblematic of that. You
know, Curtis drives a bus. That's

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really meaningful work, right, He
takes kids, he keeps him safe,

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he takes them to school, he's
their caretaker during that time. Obviously,

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that's people's most precious relationship is with
their kids, and so he's got a

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really important job. But the average
person in the street would not think a

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bus driver as a particularly meaningful profession. If you watch the clip, though,

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Curtis has managed to take something that
so many people feel is without purpose

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or meaning and craft it into one
of the most beautiful things that you'd see.

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You know, you see Curtis talking
about how he is a caretaker for

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the kids. He've views his job
not just as running from point A to

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point B, but creating, as
the segment calls it, a yellow bus

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utopia. You know, he's the
first adult these kids see when they get

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on the bus in the morning on
their way to school. He's the last

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one they see when they get off
the bus headed home. And he views

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himself as this intermediary between school and
home and one of the most important adults

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in their lives. And he's crafted
the experience on the bus from something where

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the kids just I don't know if
you rode a school bus growing up,

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I did. I know we got
in a lot of trouble on the school

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bus, but I don't ever remember
it being quite as fulfilling as Curtis's rides.

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But you know, he gives all
the kids jobs. They have their

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own titles, president, secretary,
all these other things. He learns about

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their lives, these kids drawing pictures
as they bring him gifts. He tries

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to commemorate meaningful moments in their life. And he's converted this thing that could

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be boring, or that could be
filled with trouble, that could be stressful

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for kids into this wonderful, almost
utopian experience where these kids get a break

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from the rest of their lives and
really get to participate in a community.

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And I thought that that was such
a great illustration of someone, through their

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own creativity and imagination, taking power
of their own life and converting something that

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others don't find meaningful into something so
inspiring that now I think millions of people

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have watched this clip online and so
I was personally inspired by history and just

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wanted to be part of sharing it
with others. What a great way to

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start on and I love that right, it is so accessible and really,

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you know, we individually have complete
and utter control over that crafting, which

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is why I wanted to start the
show on that very inspiring note if you

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will. Okay, so that started, then Curtis is very inspiring here,

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and it's not by accident. Then
you go on and find that you're writing

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is just really quite beautiful. But
you say, put simply, purpose is

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what gives your work in life meaning
and importance, a sense of impact,

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depth and direction. But why does
it matter? Because its absence can be

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devastating, and its presence is essential
to flourishing. Wow Worth parts of admission

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right there. Thank you. You
know. I do think that that people.

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I think people implicitly understand this aleaset. I think all of us know

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that there has to be meaning in
our lives, but we lose sight of

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it. You know, sometimes the
most important things are the easiest to keep

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your attention on it or the hardest
to keep your attention on and focus on.

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And one of the things I point
out in the book is if we

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reconceive of work life balance to lead
to a flourishing life, right, because

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most of us don't ever ask the
question, what is it that we're balancing

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for? If the point of all
of this is a flourishing life, one

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that's meaningful, one that's deep,
one that's rich, one that is a

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great example of the human experience,
I think that's really balancing joy and purpose

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and all that we do. And
I talk about that a little bit more

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deeply in the book. I think
we all know what it means to pursue

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happiness or joy. Right. We
like pleasant experiences. We love to go

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on great vacations, we love to
spend time with friends, eat great food,

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but on its own, without any
sense of meaning or purpose. All

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of that really can lead to superficiality. Right, there are a lot of

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people who have tons of leisure,
who have tons of happiness or joy,

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whose lives aren't as full as they
want. My example, I love to

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use of this if you've read The
Great Gatsby, which is a wonderful and

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literature f Scott Fitzgerald focuses on these
incredibly wealthy people in New York whose lives

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are full of pleasurable pursuits, and
ultimately they're deeply unhappy. And I think

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that's because they neglect to combine that
kind of happiness or pursuit of joyful experiences

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or pleasant experiences with something meaningful.
You know, certainly meaningful experiences without any

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sense of can be difficult. I'm
a dad, I've got four kids.

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I joke with people that sometimes being
a dad of a young kid is a

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very purposeful but not a very pleasant
experience, right when you're changing diapers at

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two or three am. And if
it was all that, it would be

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really hard. But kids are also
fun. I get to play on the

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trampline with them, I get to, you know, watch them play music

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or watch their basketball games. And
it's that intersection of purpose and enjoy and

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all that we do. That I
think creates a truly meaningful and flourishing life,

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and I think can be the answer
to a lot of the social ills

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that we're experiencing. Now. Beautiful, I said. In fact, you

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do a nice talking about that very
example in the book which just really brings

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it home. So one of the
things that I find really compelling, I've

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been I've been studying meaning and purpose
a meaning for over twenty years, purpose

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for a good oh gosh, I
don't know, eight or so years,

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probably ten years. And the thing
that I found really interesting about what you

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also write about here is there's a
and what we say, what we know

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in my world of logo therapy is
there's just the called existential vacuum, which

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really speaks to that that meaninglessness that
you're speaking about here. So you do

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something really beautiful in your book too, that I think is really really important

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to bring home further what you were
just talking about. But you talk about

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this idea, this lack of happiness
in the US and beyond, and you

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say, there's something happening as a
social and emotional level, at a social

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and emotional level that is hollowing out. How we experience that and that hollowing

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out is the excidential vacuum, you
say, even in places like the United

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States, and a lot of this
looks like a crisis not of simple material

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circumstances, but of meaning, belonging, trust, and significance. We can

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have everything and still want something else. And it's that else that I think

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is what people are scratching for,
and that else in my world, I

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believe is meaning and purpose. Gosh, I love that phrase, existential vacuum.

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I'm actually unfamiliar with it, so
I've learned something today too, and

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I think that's such a really great
description of it. You know. One

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of the things that really turned me
onto this topic was, if you study

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recent history in particular, we are
living in one of the most prosperous,

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peaceful times in history, right the
COVID pandemic notwithstanding, certainly that's thrown a

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wrinkle into things for people. But
if you rewind to twenty nineteen when I

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started the book, I finished in
a very different world. It certainly was

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one of the most peaceful, prosperous
times. And there were exceptions to that

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countries or individuals or groups of people
who weren't experiencing that prosperity. But along

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with those increases that you can see
in every way imaginable, we haven't seen

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an increase in happiness, right,
We really haven't. And in fact,

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some of the richest, most prosperous, most peaceful, most developed countries in

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the world are some of the least
happy, right or where happiness is called

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or declined, And so it gives
you a sense that there must be something

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deeper than just a person's material or
external circumstances that's creating that lack of fulfillment,

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right, or that lack of happiness
and flourishing. You see that in

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the workplace. Certain engagement scores around
the world, as you all know a

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lease, are incredibly low. I
think one of the most recent global engagement

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scores I saw was that fifteen percent
of employees feel engaged globally. I think

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the US that rises to around thirty
percent, still a remarkably low number.

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And when you look at scores for
where people get a great sense of purpose

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and meaning, you know, work
tends to be at the very bottom of

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those lists. And a lot of
surveys I saw one recently where it fell

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below reading and music and pats.
I mean it was you know, we

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spend more than a third of our
lives at work for many of us,

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and yet it's one of these places
that's incredibly empty of meaning for us.

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And so that really was one of
the things that encouraged me to dig into

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this topic of why people were feeling
so empty and why they didn't get a

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sense of meaning either at work or
in the rest of their lives, and

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how we could begin to fix that
on an individual level. So you're making

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me think of two things really quick, John, So, I had the

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aptornagy to live in Brazil in my
mid twenty back in the nineties, and

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it was an incredible experience. These
are people, a lot of these people

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really they're struggling to put you for
one meal to the next. But those

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people have the ability to be able
to savor and enjoy the moment like I

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never had ever been able to see
or experience. They taught me so much

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about relationships that brasilience did. It
really was an incredible life lesson. And

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then the other side of that,
still in the b department. You probably

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know this, but the country of
Bhutan is one of the very few in

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the whole world that measures happiness not
GDP, but happiness. I think there's

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something we can learn from that.
Yeah, those are such wonderful examples,

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and you see that around the world, right, particularly in cultures that explicitly

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value that sense of happiness and fulfillment, particularly those that value relationships in community

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which we can come to, which
are such an essential part of purpose.

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And I think that's one of the
things that's a struggle now in the developed

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world, or at least parts of
the developed world, in the United States

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certainly, and most certainly in this
time of COVID, when so many of

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us have been isolated, we're interacting
virtually rather than in real life. I

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think that isolation from community, that
detachment from a sense of engagement and purpose,

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has only risen in that environment and
made this even more pressing a topic.

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And you're right. I think we
can look around the world through a

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lot of places that aren't necessarily as
prosperous as the United States, but have

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really gotten have begun to think about
this more deeply, and have have populations

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that are experiencing this more more deeply. This just occurred to me, John,

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if you don't mind me kind of
delving into this. You just mentioned

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something really really interesting and near and
dear to my heart. As a management

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consultant, obviously, I'm very very
interested in helping my clients to be able

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to attract the best their best talent
and keep them keep them engaged in performing.

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And we have this thing going on
right now, as you know,

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it's called the Great Resignation, and
if you look at what's under that,

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you know a lot of people are
quitting their jobs before they even have anything

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else lined up. And I've been
very curious to understand what under the hood

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of some of that movement, and
I have seen in part that part of

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what's driving those numbers is that at
least some of those people are out to

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try to figure out how to work
on their own. Now they're now saying,

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I'm tired of the job thing and
not find a satisfaction that I want.

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Just now's the time I'm going to
go try to make it on my

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own. Do you have any perspective
on some of the inputs that are driving

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some of people's desire to want to
move in the Great resigation? I think

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this is such a fascinating question,
and I think we're all trying to figure

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this out right now. I love
your perspective on this as well as I've

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reflected on it. I think it
could be a few things. You know.

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One, at the most basic level, I think a pandemic like this

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where people have felt at risk,
right, particularly in the early days of

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this, we felt at risk.
Getting a sense of your own mortality really

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gives you a sense of perspective about
what's going to make your life worthwhile.

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When I was in graduate school,
we responded to this wonderful poem I think

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it was Mary Oliver poem about what
is it you plan to do with your

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one, wild and precious life?
You know it well, it's a great

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poem that the line after that is
actually about it being so short, right,

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and about how your sense of mortality
should drive your desire to live a

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more meaningful life and to take it, not take it for granted, but

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treat it as precious. And I
think in an environment like that, certainly

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people get a sense of that,
and that just brings closer to their hearts

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the idea that they want their life
to mean something, they want to leave

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a legacy. I also think that
as we've disrupted people's traditional environments, right,

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we get in our rhythms, we
get in our routines, go to

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an office nine to five, you
put in your time. You kind of

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fall into habits. This pandemic has
totally disrupted our habits, right, disruption

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often makes us think about things.
I think in a different way in my

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own experience, if I just use
that as an example, although different experiences

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apply. You know, when I
came into this, I was in a

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more nine to five office environment.
I traveled four days a week, probably,

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you know, I just took a
lot of things for granted in the

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way that I did life. I
spent you know, a year at home,

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basically working from home. I started
having breakfast and dinner with my kids

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every day. I started popping out
in the middle of the day because we

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were cooped up inside. I started
taking walks in the afternoon and doing calls

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while walking around a park. And
suddenly I realized there were all of these

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ways I could be doing life differently
that could create a more integrated life for

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me. You know, some of
those that probably won't be able to last

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forever. I've already gotten back where
it's hard to take a walk in the

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park every day. Right now,
the schedule is not quite as consistent as

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it was during COVID, But this
idea of having dinner and breakfast with my

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kids more frequently, the idea of
having a more flexible schedule while I try

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and draw boundaries. I think everyone
is experiencing that in certain ways, and

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it's helping them to reevaluate the priorities
that they have and the type of life

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that they think they can craft that
suits their unique sense of purpose. Beautifully

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said John beautifully said, with so
many of those points, it's so great,

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such an important thing to chew on
and try to get our heads around.

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Let's grab our first break. It's
already that time. I'm your host,

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Doctor release Cortes. We've gone there
with John Coleman, who is the

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author of the HBr Guide to Crafting
Your Purpose. We've been talking a bit

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about some of the notions of what
people think about purpose and some of our

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ideas about what's happening in the world
related to it. After the break,

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we're going to get more into some
myths about purpose and ways to craft and

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shake purpose. Stay with us.
Will be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes

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is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose, and inspirational speaker and author.

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She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership

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and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

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To learn more or to invite Elise
to speak to your organization, please

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visit her at elisecortes dot com.
Let's talk about how to get your employees

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working on purpose. This is working
on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To

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reach our program today or open a
conversation with Alise, send an email to

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a lease Alise at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

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Thanksteresting with us, and hope we
get back in the program. I do

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want to invite you to check out
my book that I got out in November

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of twenty twenty. It's called Purpose
United, How Inspiring Leaders Ignite Passion and

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Elevate Cause. I really wrote the
book to awaken readers to their passion and

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their purpose and help them transform themselves
into inspirational leaders. You can find it

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on Amazon, and I do use
that as a basis for my Widely Inspired

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Leadership program and the Grab Your Gusta
program. Hope you check it out if

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you're just joining the program today.
My guest is John Coleman. He's an

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investor, writer and public speaker.
He's also the managing partner at Sovereign's Capital

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of Values aligned investment firm. He's
also the author of the new book The

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HB Your Guide to Crafting Your Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Les Cortes.

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So for this next bit, John, I wanted to get into write

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out of the gates. Some of
the things you talk about. You talk

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about three myths about purpose, and
I think that's incredibly useful. One of

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the things that I find when I'm
out speaking and sharing is people confuse meeting

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and purpose all the time. They
confuse goals and purpose. So these three

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myths you're talking about, what are
they? Yeah? So I kind of

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it took me about ten years to
come to a real realization about these myths.

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And I remember it started for me
about ten years ago. I wrote

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a book called Passion and Purpose.
And it wasn't explicitly about purpose. That

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wasn't the core content of the book. My friends and I had set out

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to write a book on next generation
leadership. We were coming out of the

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Great Financial Crisis and we were trying
to ask the question what will leadership in

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the future look like? I should
have predicted it, because there was this

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red thread throughout where everyone talked about
purpose in their lives, so we made

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it part of the title. It
became a theme of the book. And

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in the very first book that I
had, I remember I was speaking at

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the koop a bookstore in Harvard Square, and a young lady stood up,

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I assume an undergraduate, and asked
the most obvious question in the world,

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which is, how do I find
my purpose? At least you wouldn't believe

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it, But despite the fact of
having written purpose in the title of my

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book, I had no idea how
to answer her question. I remember saying

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something because I thought I had to. It wasn't fulfilling for me. I'm

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sure it wasn't fulfilling for her.
And it really bothered me that I didn't

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have a good answer to that question. And so as I reflected on it

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over five or six years, I
really came to believe that that single question

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actually contains three fundamental myths that we
hold about purpose. So how do I

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find my purpose? The first of
those is that purpose is a thing that

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you find right a pot of gold
at the end of the rainbow, as

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I said earlier, and I believe
instead that purpose is a thing that you

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built. Purpose is around us all
the time. There are sources of meaning

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in your life every day, but
it's about mining those sources of meanings,

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seeing them in a new way,
and crafting them into your life. Second

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thing is that purpose is a single
thing, Right, how do I find

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my purpose? And I think that
this is the source of so much angst

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for people. We're looking for one
single thing to give their life meaning.

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And what I should have said is
your life is always already full of purpose.

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When I spoke to that young lady, I should have said, you're

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in community groups, you've got friends, you've got family, you're working on

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your own development at college. There
are a thousand different ways in which you

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have purpose today. And it's looking
to see those plural sources of purpose,

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not a singular source of purpose,
that really creates a fulfilled and balanced life.

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And the third myth that I think
we hold is that purpose is stable

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over time, and I think that
it changes over time. Again, there's

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this myth that there's this one thing
that will change your life. Right,

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it's neo getting red pilled in the
matrix and finding the purpose of his life,

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or any Hollywood story where there's a
hero's journey and someone suddenly encounters this

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transformational experience. I think that's actually
quite rare for most people. And I

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think instead, we have different sources
of meaning and purpose at different phases of

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life, and learning to see that
and to embrace that can make us more

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content. It can eliminate some of
our anxiety about the topic, and it

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can really enrich our lives as we
learn to embrace new sources of purpose at

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different points of transition for us.
Beautiful. Yeah, and then going on

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too that John, One of the
things that I also appreciate you doing the

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book is you talk about ways to
shape purpose. And to your point,

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what I find what I'm out speaking
to people and if I talk about this

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thing about purpose, I immediately notice
people getting more as you say, tense

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and anxious and like, I don't
know my purposes. I don't know I'm

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a failure. No you're not.
That's way different set of questions here.

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So this is incredibly encouraging. I
think that you talk about ways to shape

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purpose, So share a few that
you talk about in the book, would

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you please? Yeah? Absolutely,
so I kind of talk about four primary

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ways in which I think people can
shape purpose, particularly into their professional lives.

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They're obviously quite a lot of other
things, but particularly as it relates

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to work, I talk about four
ways to shape your life. One is

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it's kind of a dual concept.
It's two concepts, to craft your work

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and to make work a craft.
The first of those, crafter work,

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is a very popular concept in the
management literature today, at least which I'm

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sure you're quite familiar with, called
job crafting, and it's this idea that

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you can make the job you have
the job you want by learning to think

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of it differently and change small things
about your job that makes this core set

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of activities that you do more meaningful
and more purposeful for you and more enjoyable.

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A great example in the management literature
from a professor who studied this is

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she followed around janitors in hospitals,
so people who have again kind of an

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unglamorous job, janitor in a hospital, and she found that there was a

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real segregation between those who found great
meaning and purpose and what they did and

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those who didn't. And as she
followed those who found greater meaning, she

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found that in yead of just viewing
their jobs as janitorial services, they really

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viewed themselves as caretakers and helpers for
patients. One of them would move artwork

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around hospital rooms so that patients who
were there for a long period of time

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didn't have to stare at the same
artwork every day. One of them would

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experiment with different cleaning fluids to make
sure that we're finding things that were least

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irritating to their patients. They just
really transformed their own work. It was

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still the same job that these other
folks had, but like Curtis Jenkins,

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they learned to think of it in
a different way and to craft it to

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be something more meaningful. So that's
that concept of job crafting or craft for

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work. The second I think is
to make work a craft. And there

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used to be this really deep concept
of craft in work for thousands of years.

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Actually it still exists in certain places, but that we've lost. In

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the book that I interview, a
wonderful person named Luke Pontiful, and Luke

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started something called the Thorn Willow Press, which is one of these wonderful eclectic

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businesses that makes handmade paper, do
letterpress editions of books that are just beautiful,

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you know, something totally different than
you would get normally. But the

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idea is that there's this work of
craft around book making and making paper and

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printing beautiful things that helps to embody
those things with a real sense of soul

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and meaning in themselves. It's the
idea that you take on any activity you

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do in your job, whether that's
PowerPoint or Excel or handcrafting letterpress books,

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and you work to perfect that and
you treat that as something that's deeply meaningful

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to you, so much so that
you're trying to improve every moment of every

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day. And that's treating your work
as a craft. The third that I

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talk to is connecting your work to
service. Right, and you look at

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almost any of the literature out there
in social sciences, and there is almost

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nothing that improves your happiness or sense
of fulfillment as much as serving others.

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We lose sight of that in the
job, but the opportunities for service are

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all around us every day. Our
colleagues, it's our customers, it's our

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partners, it's vendors. You know, when Curtis Jenkins sees the kids on

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his bus, he doesn't see an
obstacle he doesn't see an obligation, he

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sees an opportunity to serve, and
that view of service really transforms work.

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And then finally investing in positive relationships. And I think this is actually if

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I were to highlight one thing that
I think is that the core of purpose,

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it's positive relationships, it's meaningful community. I won't go on about it

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too long, but there's this wonderful
study called the Harvard Grant Study, and

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they studied these men. It started
back in the nineteen forties, so it

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was an all male study, although
there was a parallel women's study, And

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as they studied these men over the
course of seventy or so years, eighty

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years, I think by the end
of it, the primary researcher on the

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study, who is this kind of
staid Harvard academic, was asked what the

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core finding of the work was,
and he said that happiness is love,

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full stop. That when they looked
at the lives of these individuals, the

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ones who ended up the happiest and
most fulfilled in their lives and deep meaningful

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relationships, they had a sense of
love. And so I find investing in

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positive relationships at work is something we
all need to focus on to get more

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greater meaning. Mm hmmm hmm.
So as you were talking, John,

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I was thinking, because I have
such a great part. My show is

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such a it's a thought leadership platform, and I use it as a way

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to be able to teach myself and
then share that learning with people around the

409
00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:26.720
world. And you're reminding me a
B. B. Bocolandro on my radio

410
00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:32.240
show, and she really talks about
a concept of social purpose that is somewhere

411
00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:37.440
between your job crafting and your connector
work to a service. But she had

412
00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:41.279
this quick, little short example of
this parking attendant, so similar kind of

413
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.200
idea. Right, he's parking cars
all day, but what he does is

414
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:48.440
he takes it upon himself as as
after he parks somebody's car, he goes

415
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:52.319
around to all of the cars that
he's parked and he measures the tread on

416
00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:56.559
all those cars, and then he
goes and he reports to the owners when

417
00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:59.880
it comes up, you are dangerously
closed to blown a tire. Get these

418
00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:03.640
change right away, Stadt And you
know, because he knows that if they

419
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:06.960
walk out of there and they you
know, they don't know, and he's

420
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:10.079
saving lives, right, And so
for him, it's a simple little thing

421
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:14.519
that he's doing to inject a little
bit of social purpose into his job that

422
00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:18.079
makes him feel like I'm serving other
people, I matter, I'm making a

423
00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:22.640
difference, and it's beautiful, it's
so simple. I love that. And

424
00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:26.960
you know, there are hundreds of
people who have his job right and it's

425
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.319
very rare for one of them to
look so deeply into that job to find

426
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.440
something so meaningful and service oriented.
And I think literally all of us,

427
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:37.279
every single one of us, if
we look at our jobs differently, would

428
00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:40.680
find things like that that we absolutely
make in mind for our own meaning.

429
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.079
Absolutely, And that's why I wanted
to talk about this, because I stand

430
00:28:44.119 --> 00:28:48.400
for empowerment. I stand for encouragement
and inspiration and all the things that we've

431
00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:52.720
been talking about so far are all
things anybody listening can start to sprinkle into

432
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:56.200
their own individual work lives and help
their team to do the same. So

433
00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:02.519
I find that just already lifting.
Yeah, that's fantastic. So you have

434
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.400
us a really fan I'm a sucker
for acronyms, and you have this labour's

435
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:10.559
acronym that we have to talk about, so being able to find purpose through

436
00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:14.079
this acronym. And again, I
love this John because again for those people

437
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.440
who are like I don't know what
my purpose is, but you do.

438
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:18.759
It's just that you haven't really articulated
it or you haven't got your arms around

439
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:22.079
it. So talk to us about
labors, if you would please. L

440
00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:27.640
is for love. Great way to
start. Acronyms are super helpful to me

441
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:30.839
as well. And you know,
I wouldn't pretend that this is everything that

442
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.000
you could find that gives a source
of meaning, but I find this.

443
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.279
We're thinking about these plural sources of
purpose, right, this idea that there

444
00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:40.480
are different ways in which we can
achieve purpose. It is helpful to at

445
00:29:40.559 --> 00:29:42.640
least anchor in different areas in which
we could find that. And so I

446
00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:48.200
have this labor's labour's acronym. The
L is for love. Some meaningful relationships

447
00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:52.559
which we just talked about, and
it's first for a reason. I think

448
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:57.880
that every life deserves and is worthy
of meaningful relationships, love based relationships and

449
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:02.000
finding ways to InCor break those into
our life, to invest in those.

450
00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:04.319
I think that's been a part of
the great resignation and this change during the

451
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:08.839
pandemic, when we've been either most
exposed to that or in our isolation,

452
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.440
been most longing for that, and
so I'd encourage everyone to think about love.

453
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:18.640
The A is for avocations and or
self improvement. These are hobbies basically,

454
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.680
or things that we do for self
improvement, and I think this is

455
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:23.200
something we neglect. You know,
when you get caught up and just doing

456
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:26.880
your responsibilities as a parent, for
example, or someone at work, you

457
00:30:26.920 --> 00:30:30.359
can lose sight of these things that
you do for fun that give you meaning.

458
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:36.200
Whether that's knitting or running five k's, or singing or playing guitar.

459
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:40.079
There are all sorts of things in
our hobbies and the things that we do

460
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:44.079
for self improvement that I think,
if structure properly, can give us a

461
00:30:44.119 --> 00:30:48.200
great sense of meaning. The B
in labors is for beauty, and again

462
00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:52.599
something I think we often overlook,
although when you say it people go yes,

463
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:55.920
of course, like that is where
I get purpose, but we don't

464
00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:59.599
focus on it. Right. It's
when you go to go to a park

465
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.079
look around. I've talked to multiple
people who said the same thing about COVID.

466
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.480
When they'd go walk around outside because
they wanted to get away from their

467
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:10.880
desk. It was this transformational experience
to see the flowers and hear the birds

468
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.119
and see the trees, and it
was beautiful. It's why we put great

469
00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:15.759
artwork in a room, and many
of us ser obsessed with that. It's

470
00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:21.640
reading a great poem, right,
So it's not beauty as a lot of

471
00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:23.920
celebrity magazines would define it. But
beauty in the deepest sense of the word

472
00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:30.799
is finding something that gives us a
sense of perspective on life. O is

473
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.920
for occupation, which we've talked about
quite a lot. It's our work,

474
00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:38.440
right. I had a great mentor
who when I was transitioning jobs recently.

475
00:31:38.799 --> 00:31:41.279
You know, I talked about these
plural sources of purpose and I said,

476
00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:44.880
you know, I'm a little light
in the occupation area, but I have

477
00:31:44.920 --> 00:31:47.519
all these other sources. And he
pushed me and he said, John,

478
00:31:47.559 --> 00:31:49.359
you know you're spending thirty to forty
percent of your life at your job.

479
00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:52.960
That can't be something that's light on
purpose. That has to be quarter your

480
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.799
purpose. And that's such a good
push for all of us, Right,

481
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:00.759
don't accept a lack of meaning in
your work, because that would be a

482
00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:04.400
waste of a wild and precious life. And it's something we all need to

483
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:09.160
focus on. The R is for
religion or philosophy, and so I'm a

484
00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:15.359
big advocate if you look at the
research around the world studies of different religion,

485
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:20.319
so I'm not necessarily focusing on a
particular religion. There's a lot of

486
00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:24.599
research that shows that people who have
a sense of their religious or philosophical orientation

487
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:29.480
and the values inherent in that a
thing greater than themselves, that sense of

488
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:34.480
perspective and direction and mission gives them
a deeper sense of purpose. And so

489
00:32:34.519 --> 00:32:37.119
my encouragement to most people is to, regardless of what that is, for

490
00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:40.400
you, to really investigate it,
to put thought into it, and to

491
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:44.680
take the time to reflect on it. And then the s and labors is

492
00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:49.319
for service, which we talked about. I think a life without service is

493
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:52.599
not a completely full life, and
that we all have opportunities to serve others

494
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:57.559
and it's something very easy at execute
if we just begin to look around us.

495
00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:00.240
Delightful, John absolutely love it.
Great way to send us into our

496
00:33:00.279 --> 00:33:04.680
last break. I'm your host,
doctor Release Cortes. We know with John

497
00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:08.839
Coleman. He is the author of
the HBr Guide to Crafting Your Purpose.

498
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:13.319
We've been talking a bit about ways
to craft purpose into our everyday lives.

499
00:33:13.640 --> 00:33:15.640
After the raak, we're going to
dive more deeply into building corporate purpose.

500
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:20.559
Stay with us, We'll be right
back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management

501
00:33:20.599 --> 00:33:25.880
consultant specializing in meaning and purpose and
inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies

502
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:34.160
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and
develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures

503
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:39.000
that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more

504
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:44.799
or to invite Elise to speak to
your organization, please visit her at elisecortes

505
00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:49.000
dot com. Let's talk about how
to get your employees working on purpose.

506
00:33:55.200 --> 00:34:00.839
This is working on Purpose with doctor
Elise Cortes. To reach our program today

507
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:07.839
or open a conversation with Alise,
send an email to Alise Alise at elisecortes

508
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:15.000
dot com. Now back to working
on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us,

509
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:16.559
and welcome back to working on Purpose. Before we get back to John,

510
00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:19.920
I want to share a bit more
news with you, and that is

511
00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.239
that in August of twenty twenty one, I was able to get this anthology

512
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:27.159
out. So I literally scoured the
world to find twenty five women to share

513
00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:30.840
their most intimate stories of how they
discover their purpose and are now serving from

514
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:34.599
it. It's called Passionately Striving and
Why. So that is now available on

515
00:34:34.599 --> 00:34:37.679
Amazon. And I'm actually more proud
of that particular book than i am my

516
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:39.880
own first full length book. I'm
very proud of I could bust. Now

517
00:34:39.960 --> 00:34:45.719
I'm moving on and trolling the world
for men to showcase their stories of purpose.

518
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:47.360
So you know, any men who
are living their purpose and want to

519
00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:51.199
be part of this book, please
contact me. You're just joining us.

520
00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:53.360
My guest today is John Coleman.
He is an investor, writer and public

521
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:58.559
speaker. He's the managing partner at
Sovereign's Capital, a values adlined investment firm.

522
00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:00.519
He is also the author of the
new book The HBr Guide to Crafting

523
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:05.000
Your Purpose. I'm your host,
Doctor's Cortes. So for this last bid

524
00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:07.440
here, John, I really wanted
to delve more deeply, specifically into the

525
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:10.320
corporate realm. And as you heard
me saying my introduction, I do this

526
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:15.679
kind of work with organizations. It's
incredibly meaningful, so powerful, and I

527
00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:19.679
really appreciate the way that you went
about talking about some of your approaches in

528
00:35:19.719 --> 00:35:22.880
your book, So I want to
get into some of that next. So

529
00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:28.079
first you talk about there are six
key actions we can take to make work

530
00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:30.800
relationships more fulfilling and meaningful. So
I want to start with that, because,

531
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:35.079
as you say, relationships are so
so important, and what is a

532
00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:42.039
company if not but a whole series
of connections and relationships. So these six

533
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:45.679
key actions, what are they?
Pleas talk? Yeah? Absolutely, and

534
00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:49.199
at least I know you've done incredible
work on this topic, and I wish

535
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.480
we could speak in greater depth about
yours, but I know you'll do that

536
00:35:52.559 --> 00:35:54.880
in other forums, and I can't
wait to read some of the books that

537
00:35:54.920 --> 00:36:00.480
you've spoken about to you know again, because relationships are so central to life.

538
00:36:00.519 --> 00:36:05.039
Positive relationships are so central to life, and work is where we spend

539
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:10.000
forty percent of our lives. Neglecting
your relationship at work is I think a

540
00:36:10.039 --> 00:36:14.119
real gap that most people have.
I mean, too many people are either

541
00:36:14.599 --> 00:36:19.440
stuck in toxic work environments, or
simply aren't investing in positive relationships, or

542
00:36:19.480 --> 00:36:22.719
have allowed work relationships to go stagnant. And so I offer just a few

543
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:28.880
potential ways in which people could begin
to improve those One of those that I

544
00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:30.800
talked about at the beginning is to
adopt the mindset of care and trust.

545
00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:37.599
You know, I think many work
environments, people can become defensive. They

546
00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:43.760
can become a little paranoid might be
the wrong word, but skeptical of the

547
00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:47.280
motivations of others around them, and
fear of others around them, particularly if

548
00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:52.039
they've gone through difficult things like layoffs
before, if they've had a difficult relationship

549
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:55.440
with a colleague, and you know, sometimes that's warranted. I think sometimes

550
00:36:55.480 --> 00:37:00.840
there are negative environments, but I
encourage people, especially before relationships have had

551
00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:05.119
a chance to go that way,
to really try and force yourself to adopt

552
00:37:05.199 --> 00:37:08.000
a mindset of care and trust,
care for your colleagues, trying to serve

553
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:12.559
them, trying to invest in them, and a trust that they also will

554
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:15.599
try and serve and invest in you, at least until they breach that trust.

555
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.280
Because trying to start out on the
right foot at least gives a relationship

556
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:22.440
a chance to get off the ground
and gives people a chance to live up

557
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:28.119
to those positive expectations. The second, which I think many people have written

558
00:37:28.119 --> 00:37:30.519
about, is to find a mentor
and to be one too. I add

559
00:37:30.519 --> 00:37:34.960
that last part because I find that
almost everyone wants to find a mentor,

560
00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:37.760
and I think that's incredibly important.
But One of the things I used to

561
00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:43.079
push my teams on was everyone would
come to me asking for mentorship, even

562
00:37:43.199 --> 00:37:45.599
very senior people. But I rarely
had people come to me asking to be

563
00:37:45.639 --> 00:37:49.960
a mentor to mentor others. And
my point to others is, I think

564
00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:52.960
it's incredibly important that you have mentors
in your life. If you don't have

565
00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:55.760
four or five or six people at
work and outside of work that you would

566
00:37:55.760 --> 00:38:00.559
consider mentors, I think you should
go find those people. But for every

567
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:04.239
person that you find as a mentor, my push to others is to be

568
00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:07.119
a mentor to that many people right
to pay it forward, because you'll get

569
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:10.440
a lot out of those relationships,
and you'll be helping others to live more

570
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:15.679
fulfilled as well. The third for
me is to focus on your most positive

571
00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:19.639
relationships. I think there can be
a tendency to focus on the negative,

572
00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:23.880
a tendency to get sucked into the
more difficult relationships. Just as it's a

573
00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:28.880
tendency to focus on our negative attributes
rather than our strengths, and just as

574
00:38:28.920 --> 00:38:31.960
one great piece of professional advice is
to lean into your strengths to accentuate those

575
00:38:32.440 --> 00:38:37.800
I think spending time on positive relationships
is a good thing. The fourth that

576
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:40.360
I talk about is to repair broken
and stagnant relationships. I mean that goes

577
00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:45.159
without saying again there are times when
you should walk away from a relationship,

578
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:50.039
but you should at least not approach
them passively. You know, if there's

579
00:38:50.079 --> 00:38:53.519
a chance to restore something, take
the leadership role in seeking to restore that.

580
00:38:55.159 --> 00:39:00.519
The fifth concept I talk about is
to continuously pursue new and diverse relationships.

581
00:39:00.519 --> 00:39:04.079
And I think this links. You
know, we all talk about diversity

582
00:39:04.119 --> 00:39:07.480
every day now and diversity in hiring, et cetera. Diversity is a very

583
00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:10.800
personal thing too, which is to
surround yourself with people different from you,

584
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:15.400
to surround yourself with people with different
experiences, who look different, who have

585
00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:20.920
different cultural experiences, because that's a
personally enriching thing just as much as it's

586
00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:24.199
an organizationally enriching thing. And then
the final piece of advice I have to

587
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:29.199
people, even about work relationships,
is to find time for your relationships outside

588
00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:30.800
of work. You know, there
are a whole group of us who get

589
00:39:30.880 --> 00:39:36.239
so caught up in our professional lives
that we neglect our friends, our parents,

590
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:39.760
our brothers and sisters, our families. And you've got to carve out

591
00:39:39.800 --> 00:39:45.039
time for those things, because that's
what makes work even more meaningful. I

592
00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:50.320
like how that creates an overall just
abundant fabric, a strong fabric in your

593
00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:52.320
life. I just really like how
that just all works together. So that's

594
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:57.599
beautiful, nicely done. And again
back on the whole thing, I really

595
00:39:57.639 --> 00:40:00.400
appreciate just a lot of what you
emphasize is important importance of relationships. But

596
00:40:00.519 --> 00:40:04.800
I also really like that diversity piece
too. I love to be around people

597
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:09.519
who have a very profoundly different way
of the way they grew up is very

598
00:40:09.559 --> 00:40:14.760
different from mind I have learned so
much, for example, from my black

599
00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:17.199
friends. Oh my gosh, Black
Lives Matters. I learned so much about

600
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:21.079
the experience of what it is to
grow up as a black human being in

601
00:40:21.079 --> 00:40:23.440
the United States. It is profoundly
different than what I experienced, and I

602
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:29.599
learned. I learned a lot about
wow, you know, shaping of mindsets

603
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:34.719
and really you know, not to
be so not to take so I don't

604
00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:38.880
want to say not advantage, but
are just for granted how easy my life

605
00:40:38.920 --> 00:40:42.880
has been. Well, I think, you know, one of the things

606
00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:45.320
to go on a bit of a
tangent. At one point I wrote an

607
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:50.559
article about the benefits of poetry for
professionals, and one of the great aspects

608
00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:54.079
of good poetry is that really good
poetry shakes up your way of seeing things.

609
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:59.719
Right, it's hard to read quickly. Yeah, I think that building

610
00:41:00.199 --> 00:41:02.280
experience in relationships is like that,
right. One of the reasons I love

611
00:41:02.360 --> 00:41:07.239
to travel to places and cultures that
are so different from my own. I

612
00:41:07.239 --> 00:41:09.039
lived in the Middle East for a
while. I'd love to travel to places

613
00:41:09.079 --> 00:41:14.159
like China, et cetera, is
you can see a culture that's so fundamentally

614
00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:17.000
different than yours that it forces you
to reconsider things you've taken for granted.

615
00:41:17.159 --> 00:41:21.679
Right, It shakes you out of
your prototypical way of seeing the world.

616
00:41:22.039 --> 00:41:25.960
And I think really diverse friendships and
relationships of different kinds, right, there's

617
00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:30.000
a multiplicity of versions of that do
the same thing. They really force you

618
00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:35.079
to reconsider the world in a new
way. So important, so refreshing too.

619
00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:37.880
Okay, so we've just got a
few minutes lefter, I want to

620
00:41:37.880 --> 00:41:39.400
cover two bits of this here.
I want to talk, if you would,

621
00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:44.119
just briefly about building corporate purpose,
and I like how you talk about

622
00:41:44.440 --> 00:41:49.320
core purpose values and satellite sources of
purpose. I do something similar that core

623
00:41:49.360 --> 00:41:52.159
purpose around the vision and the nission. But would you say just briefly talk

624
00:41:52.199 --> 00:41:54.800
about those things, and then I
want to also talk about the crafting of

625
00:41:54.840 --> 00:41:58.800
corporate purpose. Sure, yeah,
I'll keep it. I'll keep it short.

626
00:41:59.239 --> 00:42:01.719
You know. I encourage correpreations to
think about purpose on at least three

627
00:42:01.800 --> 00:42:06.880
levels. One is the sense of
corporate mission and purpose. I think people

628
00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:09.239
have embraced that, but as we
may talk about further on, there are

629
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:13.480
ways in which to make that core
purpose and mission more authentic. You know,

630
00:42:13.480 --> 00:42:15.360
it's more than words on a page. You can't hire a branding company

631
00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:20.679
to come create your purpose. It's
got to be deeply held. But I

632
00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:22.679
do think that's core to getting everybody
to row in the same direction in a

633
00:42:22.760 --> 00:42:28.239
company. The second is a source
of is values, very explicit values.

634
00:42:28.239 --> 00:42:30.159
And again they've got to be more
than words on a page. And that's

635
00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:34.719
a theme that I would emphasize.
I think you emphasize it. Writing down

636
00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:37.119
a series of values isn't isn't how
you get there. It's got to be

637
00:42:37.159 --> 00:42:42.920
deeply held values within your company that
you help to synthesize and articulate, and

638
00:42:42.920 --> 00:42:47.280
that give people a sense of camaraderie, rallying around these positive attributes that you

639
00:42:47.320 --> 00:42:51.639
all hold. I have a friend
Chris Carneil in the book who runs a

640
00:42:51.639 --> 00:42:54.079
company called booster Thon, and he's
abandoned the use of the word values and

641
00:42:54.119 --> 00:42:59.280
he uses the word virtues now.
He wants to refresh people's view that these

642
00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:01.800
are a positive that have set up
attributes that we hold together. And then

643
00:43:01.840 --> 00:43:07.039
the third thing that I add that
people sometimes execute don't really consider part of

644
00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:10.239
their corporate purpose is this idea of
satellite sources of purpose. So in a

645
00:43:10.239 --> 00:43:15.360
big organization or even a mid size
or small organization, every individual has their

646
00:43:15.400 --> 00:43:22.800
own unique motivations and creating opportunities for
them aligned with the corporate purpose to do

647
00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:28.360
things that are unique to them that
drive them personally, they offer them multitudes

648
00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:30.639
of sources of purpose of work.
I think is a core element of having

649
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:37.960
a purpose driven professional environment. That's
just very crisp and I take a very

650
00:43:37.039 --> 00:43:42.599
very similar aligned approach to what you
just talked about. So we're lockstep there.

651
00:43:43.239 --> 00:43:45.679
Okay. So now finally to finish
out here, I want to talk

652
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:49.119
about crafting corporate purpose. So you
talk, you offer I think it's seven

653
00:43:49.199 --> 00:43:53.119
different different aspects here about crafting,
starting with engaging the organization comprehensively. So

654
00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:57.599
let's just talk through those briefly as
well we could. Yeah, and what

655
00:43:57.679 --> 00:44:00.519
I attempt to address here, I
do think the process can work a bit

656
00:44:00.519 --> 00:44:02.159
different depending on what you are as
a company, where you are in your

657
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:07.119
development. But what I find again
is so many companies have they realized that

658
00:44:07.119 --> 00:44:10.440
purpose is an issue, right,
they get it. That's been a battle

659
00:44:10.440 --> 00:44:14.280
in itself. I remember reading Start
with Why the first time, and it

660
00:44:14.320 --> 00:44:16.480
was kind of this jarring experience that
you should have a why and not just

661
00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:21.559
a why at work. Now I
think everybody's embraced that, but a lot

662
00:44:21.639 --> 00:44:24.440
of companies have failed to understand that
the why has to be like an important

663
00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:29.079
why, one that's deeply held,
one that's authentic, rather than again one.

664
00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:31.760
I see so many companies now hire
kind of a branding agency or whatever

665
00:44:31.840 --> 00:44:37.199
to come right a purpose that's catchy, but is it really held by Is

666
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:42.679
it really held by the company right? And is it deeply worked into the

667
00:44:43.679 --> 00:44:45.679
Is it deeply worked into the fabric
of the company. And so I offer

668
00:44:45.719 --> 00:44:47.960
a few thoughts. One of those, like you said, is to engage

669
00:44:47.960 --> 00:44:52.000
the organization comprehensively. Don't just make
it a CEO thing or a leadership thing.

670
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:58.039
Start to see what purpose already exists
within your company. I think it's

671
00:44:58.039 --> 00:45:02.199
important to periodically revisit those things like
mission and values. Absolutely, they need

672
00:45:02.280 --> 00:45:07.679
dusting and further articulating and refining all
the time. They're a living organism writing

673
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:09.800
over time, and you can't set
it and forget it. You've got to

674
00:45:09.800 --> 00:45:15.400
refresh those comprehensively. I think you've
got to begin to highlight the lives of

675
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:19.400
those who are leading them. When
I worked at Mackenzie and Company, they

676
00:45:19.400 --> 00:45:22.320
were extraordinary at this. They would
highlight people who live the firm values at

677
00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:27.280
every single in person office meeting to
be the beginning of the meeting every time.

678
00:45:27.639 --> 00:45:30.239
But giving people that sets of pride
and achieving purpose, I think is

679
00:45:30.239 --> 00:45:36.159
incredibly important. I think you've got
to listen at all levels of the organization,

680
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:40.679
just as you need to engage the
organization comprehensively. The Dallas School District

681
00:45:40.719 --> 00:45:45.480
could probably listen to people like Curtis
Jenkins and get a much better sense of

682
00:45:45.480 --> 00:45:47.639
what their purpose is, and so
you never know when you're going to find

683
00:45:47.679 --> 00:45:52.320
things like that. And then I'd
encourage people to communicate consistently. Right again,

684
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:54.679
it's not just to set it and
forget it a one time thing.

685
00:45:55.119 --> 00:45:59.840
This has got to become a continuous
part of the dialogue that you all have

686
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:04.039
as a company. I gotta tell
you, John, it is some of

687
00:46:04.079 --> 00:46:06.519
the most fulfilling work that I get
to do when I go in and I

688
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:08.000
work with organizations and first what we
do is we do, you know,

689
00:46:08.039 --> 00:46:12.599
generally some kind of a survey to
to figure it out how they describe their

690
00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:15.239
purpose, their mission, their vision. And then we as you say,

691
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:19.559
we gather them and we together you
know what I call wild alive scratch to

692
00:46:19.639 --> 00:46:22.039
further refine that. And it is
the coolest thing. And I'm like,

693
00:46:22.119 --> 00:46:24.159
is it this? They'm like,
no, it's not that. Are you

694
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:27.199
saying this? No, it's not
quite that. Well what is it?

695
00:46:27.320 --> 00:46:30.599
And we all come together and we
do it together. It's that as you

696
00:46:30.599 --> 00:46:32.360
say, the comprehensive. It is
the coolest work to get to do.

697
00:46:32.719 --> 00:46:37.320
And then when they live that and
they're like, yeah, we're part of

698
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:39.400
this, this is us. It
is the coolest thing. Cool. I

699
00:46:39.440 --> 00:46:42.920
love that a lease And it's got
to be great for you to know that

700
00:46:42.960 --> 00:46:45.840
you're helping to transform people's lives at
work, right, I mean, you've

701
00:46:45.840 --> 00:46:47.440
got to get a great sense of
meaning out of that as well. I

702
00:46:47.519 --> 00:46:50.639
do. And you know what else
is, here's what I find. It

703
00:46:50.639 --> 00:46:53.679
has been a tough couple of years
leaders out there, and so you need

704
00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:55.920
to be fed. And one of
the ways you can be fed is to

705
00:46:55.960 --> 00:47:00.280
get back in touch with that heartbeat
of your business, the heartbeat of of

706
00:47:00.360 --> 00:47:02.920
why you're doing this. And when
you remember that, sometimes a lot of

707
00:47:02.920 --> 00:47:07.480
the stuff that's facing you gets a
lot easier to deal with. So that's

708
00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:10.119
kind of where me being an organizational
level therapist kind of comes in handy.

709
00:47:10.719 --> 00:47:13.440
So here we are, John,
We did it. We got it all

710
00:47:13.440 --> 00:47:15.000
the way to the show goes by
so fast, you know, the show's

711
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:20.079
listening to my people all over the
world. We're out to really create workplaces

712
00:47:20.079 --> 00:47:22.960
where people actually want to come to
work and give their best. We create

713
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:24.800
inspirational leaders that lead them to their
greatness, and we do business at better

714
00:47:24.880 --> 00:47:28.320
in the world. With that,
What would you all like to leave people

715
00:47:28.320 --> 00:47:31.559
with? Well, I just leave
people with the idea that they do have

716
00:47:31.599 --> 00:47:35.519
a sense of agency. If they're
feeling a lack of meaning right now,

717
00:47:36.280 --> 00:47:39.159
they do have control over reforming their
own lives and taking ownership of it.

718
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:43.880
There is hope, and that the
best time to start is now. Don't

719
00:47:43.920 --> 00:47:45.960
let the perfect be the enemy that
good. Don't wait for something to happen

720
00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:50.480
to you. If you're feeling a
lack of meaning right now, really really

721
00:47:50.519 --> 00:47:54.559
engage this topic and take ownership of
that, because I think everyone's life can

722
00:47:54.599 --> 00:48:00.880
be incredibly meaningful. And the time
to start us todaytiful, John, great

723
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:04.039
way to finish, and I'm certain
that people listening to this, are watching

724
00:48:04.039 --> 00:48:06.280
this are going to want to probably
contact you. What's the best way to

725
00:48:06.280 --> 00:48:08.079
reach out to you. Is there
a website or an email address? Yeah?

726
00:48:08.159 --> 00:48:13.039
So I have a website John Williamcoleman
dot com that you can visit.

727
00:48:13.079 --> 00:48:15.840
It's got my books up there and
it's say on a contact form if you'd

728
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:19.559
like to reach out, please do. It's also on the screen for those

729
00:48:19.599 --> 00:48:22.880
of you that are actually watching it, and once again it's John Williamcoleman dot

730
00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:24.639
com. John, thanks so much
for being with us. It's just a

731
00:48:24.679 --> 00:48:28.400
pleasure to know you. Thank you
so much, Elise, and thank you

732
00:48:28.440 --> 00:48:31.400
for the work you do. Absolutely, if you missed the live show last

733
00:48:31.400 --> 00:48:36.039
week, you always catch Be a
recorded podcast we were on with April Rinnie.

734
00:48:36.079 --> 00:48:39.639
She's the author of Flux eight Superpowers
for Thriving in Constant Change. Next

735
00:48:39.639 --> 00:48:44.639
week, we'll be on the air
with Alicia O'Hare talking about her book and

736
00:48:44.679 --> 00:48:47.679
also what she's doing as at the
leadership consulting firm Tournisault. Her book is

737
00:48:47.719 --> 00:48:52.039
called The Unfolding Path, The Way
we live and lead our lives. See

738
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:53.119
you there. Remember that work is
at least a third of our lives.

739
00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:59.599
So let's work on purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be

740
00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:02.719
sure to tune in to Working on
Purpose, featuring your host, doctor Elise

741
00:49:02.800 --> 00:49:08.400
Cortes, each week on the Voice
America Empowerment Channel. Together, we'll create

742
00:49:08.440 --> 00:49:15.679
a world where business operates conscientiously,
leadership inspires impassioned performance, and employees are

743
00:49:15.679 --> 00:49:21.400
fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there,

744
00:49:21.880 --> 00:49:22.360
Let's work on Purpose.