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first met Melissa West during my John C Maxwell cer- Abby grows her team to understand the
tification. Her energy and passion for living a purpose
I driven life was alluring and powerful. Her message on importance of purpose at work: making
the importance of discovering your purpose and then living those away from home feel at home.
it resonated with me both individually and as a leader. How
do you know if you are taking steps in the right direction
if you do not know what you are here to do? How do you
measure success if you do not truly know what you are
trying to achieve? Better yet as a leader how do you create
team engagement and keep them willingly on the right
track if they do not know why and how their job matters?
It is easy to see how Melissa’s message and workshops (Hot
Pursuit Master Class and Blueprint for Success) address
the personal journey to discovering your life purpose. But
how and why should those lessons show up in the corporate
world?

purposeful

work

Contributing Author: Abb y
ABBY FLYNN

As a leader I invest a significant amount of time in devel-
oping my team and sharing our purpose with them. Our
purpose is what we are here to do in our business, why were
we created and what do we need to do to work at our best.
Below is an example of our company’s purpose statement:
A BLUEPRINT OF PURPOSE AT WORK
“We are here to make our guests feel the same warmth and
comfort as if they were home no matter what brings them aking the journey to creating a company purpose will
to our doors. We were created to wrap our guests in fresh, help your team better understand their value and the
authentic, heartfelt service experienced from the first hello to Tmore employees feel valued the more they invest in a
the next. We are your positive, we are your light, and we are consistently high level of performance.
your consistent commitment to true hospitality.”
If you understand the “why” the next step is to understand the
Giving your team a purpose gives them something to strive “how”. Take time with yourself as the leader to think about
for that goes beyond the boundaries of their positions. No what you are here to do. Then you need to take time with
leader wants to hear “that’s not my job” and giving your your team to have them weigh in. On my team we host-
team a higher purpose, a bigger picture, eliminates the “not ed a series of small group sessions and we brainstormed. I
my job” argument. In our purpose there are no positions, encouraged my staff to share words or ideas about what they
no specific roles, just people helping other people and by feel they are here to do. Once I had their ideas I took them
default that makes everything our job. Once a purpose is and condensed the collective view of the team in to a purpose
created then you can begin to share with your team how statement that we share at every meeting and display by our
their position and their work help us live our purpose. In time clock. We reflect on whether this past month of perfor-
order to have true team engagement your staff needs to mance is an indicator of us living our purpose or whether we
know how they benefit the organization and its success. need to take action in a different direction to stay on track.
What’s to prevent them from leaving for another job or For us this has resulted in 10 national awards and a consistent
from calling out or from not caring if they do not under- #1 ranking in our market over the past 3 years. Now it’s your
stand that they are a significant contributor to the bigger turn to take the journey. What can developing a purpose, en-
picture purpose, even the least glamorous jobs like in our gaging your team to live within it and taking consistent action
case dish-washing or housekeeping? towards living it out help you achieve?!?

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