Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction
00:00:13: Some research statistics
00:00:44: Having purpose vs being purposeful
00:02:56: The Squiggly Career Sweet Spot...
00:03:14: ... 1: values
00:03:44: ... 2: strengths
00:04:23: ... 3: improvements
00:05:13: ... 4: impact
00:06:21: Creating your personal purpose statement
00:06:39: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: Do you need a purpose at work?  That is a topic that we have been talking about this week.  So, we've been diving into the world of purpose and thinking about what do we really think, and what is actually really helpful.  So, there's some research that's been done by McKinsey, which says that 85% of people have this kind of connection understanding of having a purpose at work, but actually only 65% of people could articulate it clearly so that they know it for themselves or could share it with other people.  So, Sarah, where do you sit on your purpose?  Can you clearly articulate it to other people?  Do you think we need one?

Sarah Ellis: So, no and no.  I feel like here we're really the exception to the rule.  I've read quite a lot about purpose and passion.  I think those two phrases get woven together, and my conclusion is what's more useful is to think about, "What does purposeful work mean to me?"  And I think the reason for that is when you say purpose, I find it a bit abstract, not that connected to my day-to-day.  We have a purpose at Amazing If that I feel very connected to, to make careers better for everyone.  But then I don't go, "Oh, but that's my personal --"

Helen Tupper: "That's what I live for, that's what I work for!" 

Sarah Ellis: I sort of do live for it quite a lot of the time.  But even then, even though that's our company and that's something we came up with together, even then I sort of go, "Oh, I don't feel that comfortable", or I would question the usefulness of going, "Well, I'm going to keep coming back to that as a filter for my decisions".

Helen Tupper: And also, I feel like we're different people with different motivations.  And so, if that's our company purpose, I'm like, "Well, where's my individual take on that?  It doesn't feel quite unique to me if we've got the same thing".

Sarah Ellis: And it's a popular topic, so I think that then has prompted lots of questions from our listeners and viewers.  So, people saying things like, "Well, I've worked for 20 years but I feel like I don't have a purpose.  Am I getting something wrong?"  So, there's this purpose pressure.  There's some people saying, "Oh, but I'm interested and curious about loads of stuff, and is that a problem?  I want to develop in different directions".  And then, some of the people saying they feel like their purpose is not the same as their company's purpose and is that a problem?  So, I wonder if sometimes we're getting distracted by some of the wrong questions. 

Helen Tupper: Yeah, purpose becomes a problem rather than something that helps us progress in our career, which is what we really want, we want purpose to be a guide. 

Sarah Ellis: So, we think purposeful work is useful for three reasons.  One, you'll make better decisions and choices for your career.  They're a great filter for your future.  When you know what purposeful work looks like, you can aim to do more of it.  Two, on a busy or a bad day, I think reminding yourself of what purposeful work looks and feels like, why you're doing what you're doing, can be really helpful.  And I do think it gives you a sense of care, motivation and commitment that isn't there if you just go, "Oh yeah, I enjoy my job".  If we don't go beyond that, I wonder if we are missing a bit of a trick.

Helen Tupper: So, the exercise that we think is really useful to connect you to your purposeful work is to start to discover your Squiggly Career Sweet Spot.  And there are two aspects to finding your Squiggly career sweet spot.  There's some reflections on some internal elements and then some external elements.  So, I'll do the internal and Sarah can do the external.  So, on the internal front, first thing for you to think about is what are your values?  These are the things that motivate and drive you.  You might have done some work on this, so you might already know them.  So, for example, some of mine are freedom, which means being unconstrained about my choices and achievement, which means lots of wins along the way.  If you have not done work on your values, do not worry.  We have a free toolkit which will work you through the steps, and we will link that in our PodSheet so you can download that and do that after today.  So, that's the values bit, what motivates and drives you. 

The second bit on the internal side is about strength, so what work gives you energy and what do you want to be known for?  Again, you might know this, you might be really clear.  So, I can say, "One of the things I want to be known for is making things happen".  Or you might be starting from scratch with your strengths and thinking, "I don't know what my strengths are".  Don't worry.  We'd suggest go and get some strengths-based feedback.  It's the easiest way sometimes to know what your strengths are, is to see what other people see when they work with you.  So, just ask a couple of people, "When do you see me at my best?"  But just remember, strengths are your choice, so it is your decision about what you want to be known for.  Just take their answers as some data for your development.

Sarah Ellis: So, now thinking more outward-looking and sort of external to you, starting by asking a question around improvement, "What do you want to make better from the work that you do?"  So, that could be better in terms of, "I want to do better writing, I want processes to be more efficient, I want our operations to be even better for our customers".  Whatever that sounds like to you is the right answer.  So, again, there's no sort of, "Oh, it must look like this".  If I was answering it, I would probably start with something around just, "I want everything to be more useful".  I think I am really driven by what we do being used and useful, and so everything, that is my filter.  So, "Is this going to be useful for somebody in a meeting, in their day job, in a team meeting?"  So, that's things I want to make better, learning and career development every day. 

The last area of your Squiggly Sweet Spot is about the impact that you want to have.  And this is more about, "What do you care about that is bigger than you?"  So, this could be a sense of connection that you feel to the organisation that you work for, not always, but maybe you work for a company where they want to make understanding money more transparent and more open to everyone, and you might actually really feel that that's very purposeful.  Maybe it's more about a kind of cause that could be outside of your organisation, it could be more about your industry, or it could be more about a group of people or your community or in the wider world.  So, however you want to answer that question is right for you.  When I think about what I care about that's bigger than me, a good question here I think to think about is, like, this is something that you can't achieve alone, and probably your company can't achieve alone.  So, I think about making learning and development available to everyone, whatever career stage you're at and wherever you come from.  Now, that's part of what we try to do at Amazing If, but we are not all of the answer to that. 

So, if you and your company are all of the answer to this last one, you might not be zooming out enough, you might not be thinking big enough. 

Helen Tupper: And so, we took all of the insights from the Squiggly Sweet Spot, because I was the guinea pig in our full episode that we released earlier this week, and we put it through ChatGPT, which is a good way of taking all this detail and creating something that's simple, succinct and memorable.  So, if you want to learn a little bit more about what that told us so that you can give it a go, make sure you listen to that full episode. 

Sarah Ellis: So, that's the end of this Squiggly Career Short.  We hope you found that useful and that maybe you're a bit more purposeful at work as a result.  We love any fast feedback that you might have for us.  We're helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com, but that's everything for today and we'll see you soon.