As a business leader, psychologist, and educator, I am\u00a0often amazed by what seems to me to be an epidemic of anxiety, dissatisfaction, disengagement, and depression in this culture.\u00a0\u00a0From the boardrooms to the classrooms to the therapist’s chair, people\u00a0seem to be\u00a0continuously reporting feeling more overwhelmed (“work never seems to end”), less energetic (“I can’t seem to get out of bed without my morning coffee – sometimes two cups!”), and not very hopeful about the future (“oh, well, I guess that’s life – you learn to accept it”).\u00a0\u00a0 From time to time, I have felt these feelings myself as I attempt to maintain a satisfying business and personal life – and I’m considered in some circles to be an “expert” on how to run a more efficient business and live a happier life!\u00a0 What is going on here?\u00a0 After countless conversations with my colleagues, clients, and other experts in the field, I believe we may have come to a very important answer; one that can positively impact your business and – most importantly, I think – your life in very meaningful ways.\u00a0 I want to begin this article with a discussion about what I call “The Purposeful Doing Movement.”<\/p>\n
What is the Purposeful Doing Movement?<\/strong> The Purposeful Doing Movement is a movement of people interested in helping\u00a0individuals and teams\u00a0to get what they want out of their work and lives while also helping them to feel very good while pursuing these desires.\u00a0 I’ve found (and maybe you have, too) that there is a widely-held myth that success and consistent well-being (or overall life satisfaction) cannot coincide with each other – that\u00a0we must pick one\u00a0or the other (for example: “you cannot run an extremely\u00a0profitable business and be a comfortable, happy person at the same time”).\u00a0 Many people have expressed to me a strong belief that one either consistently gets what one wants out of work\u00a0and life OR feels consistently and authentically happy – and that these two things are often negatively correlated (as one becomes more successful, one must give up more and more of what makes them authentically happy: time with loved ones, leisure activities, evenings at home, and so on).<\/p>\n This is a very powerful myth.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, I’ve met many people who agree publicly that success and life satisfaction can occur together (and even some who teach others that it is possible) who\u00a0do not actually live according to this stated belief.\u00a0 They will tell others this is combination is possible, but privately, their lives are out of whack as they struggle to keep a healthy work and home life going.\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that popular book titles such as Only the Paranoid Survive<\/em><\/strong> and A Shark Never Sleeps<\/em><\/strong> might help to perpetuate this myth.\u00a0\u00a0I sometimes offer counter-slogans like “Only the Purposeful Thrive” <\/em><\/strong>and “A Shark Never Gets to See His Son’s Baseball Games”<\/em><\/strong> to try to get across the difference between simply surviving\u00a0vs. actually\u00a0thriving in life.<\/p>\n Who Thrives (as Opposed to Simply Surviving in a “Paranoid” Way)?<\/strong> Our team has found that those who are able to pull off both a successful and extremely satisfied life tend to be what we call “Purposeful Doers.”\u00a0 A Purposeful Doer strives to perform only the most important things in life – and to consistently decrease time and energy spent in activities that are not extremely critical (which can include some “important, but not critical” activities).\u00a0 This means that the often tough work of prioritization is constantly necessary in order to thrive in business and in life.\u00a0 Dropping\u00a0priorities from one’s business and life\u00a0as new ones enter our lists can be quite challenging – especially\u00a0priorities that are deemed to be important sometimes.\u00a0 A Purposeful Doer revisits his or her (or her team’s) most important objectives on a regular basis to\u00a0identify what\u00a0can be done more – and what ought to be done less.\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that this is a critical aspect of thriving in life.<\/p>\n Like many Excellence University associates, John Spence <\/a>works with quite\u00a0a few Fortune 500 companies.\u00a0 In one of these companies,\u00a0employees are often told\u00a0“everything is a priority” – and are thus consistently given new priorities without being given the opportunity to drop less critical ones.\u00a0 “Everything is a priority,” is, of course,\u00a0a\u00a0new way to do a very old thing:\u00a0fail to\u00a0prioritize\u00a0– and this failure\u00a0makes Purposeful Doing impossible.\u00a0 In\u00a0organizations with this mentality, all things are thought about as equally valuable.\u00a0 Once again, this can set up a culture of\u00a0“nothing is valuable” – because value is by nature relative.\u00a0 Something is valuable because it has more value that something else – diamonds are currently viewed as more valuable than gold, gold more valuable than silver, etc.\u00a0Stating that all metals are equally valuable makes diamonds, gold, and silver immediately lose their value – and makes them less desirable to many people previously interested in owning them.\u00a0 Stating that all objectives are of equal priority can make the most important objectives seem less so – and can also de-motivate individuals from going after them as vigorously as they might otherwise.<\/p>\n This “everything is a priority”\u00a0approach is thus a precursor to what I call the “Frenzied Mindset” – a mindset which we will address later in this article.\u00a0 Purposeful Doing (the antidote to the Frenzied approach), on both an individual and team\/organizational level, demands constant attention to priorities, consistent execution of those priorities, and consistent dropping of activities not strongly associated with the most important things.\u00a0\u00a0 In other words, a team must know what is considered a diamond so they can pursue more diamonds and waste less time on tin.\u00a0 This is certainly not easy – and it takes time and energy to identify diamonds, gold, silver,\u00a0and tin.\u00a0 However, the rewards of Purposeful Doing and Purposeful Leadership are immense – and the ramifications of not doing so are often disastrous.\u00a0 We will get to the benefits of Purposeful Doing\u00a0next – and will also\u00a0cover\u00a0the fallout from failing to live and lead this way later in this article.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n What is the impact of Purposeful Doing?<\/strong> Why be a part of the Purposeful Doing Movement (as either a leader, an individual, or both)?\u00a0\u00a0 The short answer is that we have seen this approach drastically and positively change people’s businesses and lives in tremendously positive ways (including our own).\u00a0 It has been our experience that the few people who commit to Purposeful Doing not only achieve their objectives in more quality ways, they also report feeling better about their lives as a whole and to have more satisfied work forces.\u00a0 Books by such authors as Stephen Covey, Jim Collins, and others who write about success and satisfaction seem to align with this view.\u00a0\u00a0Purposeful Leaders have a large positive impact on the lives of people who follow them.\u00a0\u00a0For those of you who are sports fans,\u00a0Coach\u00a0Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts are a great example of this principle.<\/p>\n Last year, the Indianapolis Colts\u00a0were having a typical regular season in\u00a0 the National Football League – outstanding offense (led by All-NFL quarterback Peyton Manning) making up for\u00a0a very poor defense (last in the league in some categories).\u00a0 As many of you may remember, the defense suddenly became incredibly effective in the playoffs – often outperforming its offense and leading the team to its first\u00a0championship in decades.\u00a0 When Coach Dungy was asked by the press to explain this sudden change in defensive effectiveness, his answer was very meaningful, I think.\u00a0 He said that he believed that the team was doing too many things on defense during the regular season and needed to stop doing so many things in order to focus on doing fewer things better in the playoffs.\u00a0 This strategy struck me as the essence of Purposeful Leadership — and the results (a championship team that really seemed to enjoy each other and their jobs better) were indicative of a team that bought into this approach.<\/p>\n Another interesting effect of Purposeful Leadership that may be important to mention: Many people associated with these Purposeful Leaders — like Coach Dungy — tend to want stay with them for long periods of time, often\u00a0even declining larger paychecks to continue to experience the culture that these leaders bring about (what I sometimes refer to as a “Culture of Sanity” in a world that can seem very frenzied).\u00a0 Some might say that these\u00a0employees profit less by giving up larger paychecks to stay with these Purposeful Leaders – but I beg to differ (strongly).\u00a0 In order to explain this disagreement, it seems important to get back to the definition of words like “profit” and a word that seems strongly associated with profit: “wealth.”<\/p>\n How do you define\u00a0“wealth” and “profit?”<\/strong> Although this may sound like a silly question at first, many might be surprised that wealth was originally\u00a0defined as “the possession of well-being” (I know I was).\u00a0 Many great individuals across the years, from Benjamin Franklin to such authors as\u00a0Napoleon Hill (in his classic Think and Grow Rich<\/em><\/strong>), to many popular modern authors have spoken of multiple\u00a0sources of\u00a0wealth (including health, love, friendship, piece of mind,\u00a0ability to do what one wants to do, etc.).\u00a0 Of course, in our current culture, we often define wealth (and, thus how to profit) exclusively through a financial lens.\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, it has gotten to the point where we often say someone is “doing well” if he or she is earning a large paycheck or that someone is “worth a lot” if they have a lot of money in the bank.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0I think we all know people who sacrifice their “possession of well-being” for large paychecks or big bank accounts – and are really not doing very well at all.\u00a0 Could this narrow view of profit and wealth be why we are the richest (financially) nation on earth and still experience the epidemics I mentioned above (anxiety, dissatisfaction, depression) – epidemics that are hurting our collective wealth?<\/p>\n When one considers the\u00a0definition of wealth\u00a0identified above (“the possession of well being”), the limitation of thinking about profit as simply financial profit becomes obvious.\u00a0 To attempt to get this point across, I often ask people this question: “If you considered wealth\u00a0and profit to be about enhanced well-being – that is, you profited most from enhancing your well-being and\u00a0providing\u00a0others with the opportunity to do the same – \u00a0how profitable were you (or was your business) this past month?”\u00a0 More often than not, I get the answer: “Not as much as I would have liked” – even from those who experienced significant financial profit (“Yeah, I made a lot of money, but I didn’t see my kids and I can’t do this at this rate much longer – I need a long vacation!.” or “We did well, but I really don’t enjoy going to work everyday.”).<\/p>\n I think Purposeful Leaders\u00a0often pay attention to profit as\u00a0it relates to\u00a0its original definition (well-being) more often than other leaders.\u00a0 They\u00a0seem to\u00a0me to be concerned about the creation wealth and profit not only in the financial realm, but also in the\u00a0other critical areas listed above (especially in relation to\u00a0a Culture of Sanity).\u00a0\u00a0In his classic book Good to Great,<\/em><\/strong> Jim Collins\u00a0describes financial profit as similar to blood in the body.\u00a0 Certainly blood is important to life – without it, we cannot live – but can you imagine being completely obsessed with\u00a0your blood pressure while paying no attention to other aspects of\u00a0your life?\u00a0 That may be a good metaphor for those who are centrally focused on financial profit alone – often to the detriment of one’s (and one’s team’s) overall wealth.<\/p>\n I think all of the information above\u00a0begs the question, “who in their right minds would not want to be a part of the Purposeful Doing Movement?”\u00a0 We think no one – most leaders actually tell us that this way of leading and living is probably the best way to do things – but\u00a0could it be that most of us are NOT in our right minds most of the time? \u00a0Is it\u00a0possible that we are too obsessed with\u00a0our team’s “blood pressure” (or financial profit)\u00a0too frequently\u00a0rather than creating robust profit and wealth (including finances, but not limited to that form of profit)?\u00a0 Read on if you would like an answer to that important question.<\/p>\n If Purposeful Doing is so great, why is the\u00a0“movement” so small right now?<\/strong> This is a great question – and one that is constantly on my mind as I interact with hundreds of people a week who are pursuing their individual and business goals.\u00a0 I think the answer is similar to the answers that many people give for why they do not do a lot of the things that they “know” would be good for them (such as exercise, more rest, a better diet, more time with loved ones, etc.).\u00a0 This question interested me so much that it was actually the topic of both my Masters Thesis and my Doctoral Dissertation while pursuing my\u00a0Ph.D. at the University of Florida.\u00a0 What our research team found was that the difference between those who did things that they knew were good for them and those who simply “wished” they did these things came down to the 5 critical factors listed below (accompanied by quotes to explain how I believe these items may work against a Purposeful Doing habit):<\/p>\n What we’ve found is that, unfortunately, we all frequently have these factors working against\u00a0us when it comes to making the commitment to a more Purposeful team, business, and\/or life.\u00a0 Unfortunately, these challenges\u00a0set\u00a0us all\u00a0up to\u00a0experience a condition that\u00a0I call\u00a0“Frenzy-holism.”\u00a0 Read on for the symptoms associated with this all-too-common condition (and barrier to Purposeful Doing).<\/p>\n What are the symptoms of the “Frenzy-holic?”<\/strong> Before I go on it might be valuable to say that I am going to discuss this condition as someone who experiences it himself from time-to-time – which makes judgment of the condition impossible.\u00a0 The Frenzy-holic struggles with Purposeful Doing (much like the alcoholic struggles with being sober) not because he does not agree with consistently doing the most important things (and consistently decreasing time spent in less important things), but because he is currently (and for a variety of reasons – 5 of which are mentioned above) addicted to the Frenzied lifestyle.\u00a0 What are the major symptoms of Frenzyholic?\u00a0 Here are some our team has observed over the years (in ourselves and others) – see what you think:<\/p>\n It’s been my experience that a huge challenge to Purposeful Doing is the fact that (like many alcoholics) many of us are proud of being Frenzied.\u00a0 Like many alcoholics are proud of how much alcohol they can consume without passing out, many of us will respond to those who accuse us of being too busy by saying something like, “I know, I know, I’m just not happy if I’m not doing something all the time,” or “I should cut back – maybe next year” (I’ve certainly been guilty of this).\u00a0 All the while, feeling as though our ability to “take” this sort of lifestyle makes us better leaders or people.\u00a0 To combat this proud (but, perhaps, mistaken)\u00a0response to Frenzy-holism, I think it could be important to make clear the “fallout” of Frenzied Leadership – if you are interested in\u00a0knowing more about the often catastrophic effects of Frenzied leading and living, please read on.<\/p>\n What is the fallout from Frenzied Leadership?<\/strong> <\/strong>Very often, the\u00a0Frenzied Leader\u00a0leaves quite a bit of carnage in his or her wake – both professional and personal wreckage.\u00a0 Those who are working with or for the Frenzied Doer often experience what scientists call the \u201cstress contagion effect,\u201d or feeling as though another person\u2019s problems are their own problems.\u00a0 Thus, the frenzied doer spreads the effects of this lifestyle to employees, co-workers, friends, and family members – creating great strain on their businesses, their co-workers,\u00a0and their loved ones.<\/p>\n Another frequent effect of Frenzied Leadership (and living) that we’ve observed is what Dr. Martin Seligman\u00a0refers to as\u00a0“Learned Helplessness.”\u00a0 Members of Frenzied Teams know that if they complete one task, five more will be assigned to them as soon as they are done.\u00a0 Eventually, one learns that one is helpless in the face of this Frenzied Onslaught – and this learning often leads to anxiety, depression, and – eventually – giving up.\u00a0 The Frenzied Leader may eventually experience the same feelings – because everything is a priority there is a never-ending pile of work on their desks and no “light at the end of the work tunnel.”\u00a0 There is thus no way feel that one can win – and the only way out is to check out emotionally (stop caring) or to leave the job in search of a more sane culture.\u00a0 Not great choices, but often the only ones that people feel they have under Frenzied Leadership.\u00a0 Obviously, the costs of Frenzied Leadership are not something to take pride in – knowing how much pain this leadership (and life-)\u00a0style causes is often motivation to begin a commitment to\u00a0increased levels of\u00a0Purposeful Doing.<\/p>\n How can you become part of the Purposeful Doing Movement?<\/strong> If becoming more Purposeful sounds like a good idea to you, here are what we have found to be the 6 steps toward increased Purposeful Doing levels in your business and your life.\u00a0 It is probably important to note that, like almost all aspects of meaningful and long-lasting change, these steps\u00a0can sound simple – but they are not easy to complete consistently over the “long haul.”\u00a0 In fact, because most systems are set up to promote Frenzy-holism, we have found that if teams and individuals do not commit to a systematic approach to implementing these steps, they are already setting themselves up for failure.\u00a0 Descriptions of each step toward Purposeful Doing are below, along with some pointers on how to implement them:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n