The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. ~Thomas Carlyle

I write about purpose frequently. I think it’s because early in my own life, my options for purpose seemed more limited than plentiful. The options were connected to a handful of job functions (teacher, nurse, secretary) or who I would marry. Consequently, my purpose would be a farmer’s wife, a teacher’s wife, etc. Somewhere along the way I began to look at life and work differently. I’ll credit my liberal arts college education.

Last week I facilitated a training on personal leadership. For the first time, the client sent one of their managers to speak to the group about his own experience with self-leadership. I was a bit apprehensive since I had no communication with this manager until he walked into the room. I was not only relieved, but elated that he shared his own personal purpose statement and then asked the class to each write their own purpose statement.

They were put on the spot so I shouldn’t be too critical. However, I noticed that a number of them basically summarized the bullet points of responsibilities that were a part of their job description, or essentially described their basic work function.

Real purpose transcends job function. Purpose gets at the core of who you are, it’s a part of your character, it’s what gets you up in the morning.

The job function of our guest speaker was a marketing manager for drill bits. Yep, that’s right, all those little accessories, like drill bits, that are part of power tools. Did his purpose statement have anything to do with drill bits? No. Synonyms of purpose are drive, resolve, tenacity, and doggedness. And that quite accurately describes his purpose statement.

For some of the class participants, their purpose statements resembled synonyms for task or responsibility like duties, chores, assignments, charge, or job.

When the manager left the room, I asked the class what they observed about his self-leadership. They quickly commented about how passionate he was. His passion was quite evident and I believe it’s because what was driving him was not “drill bits” but his tenacity and doggedness to create a product line for the company that was truly world-class.

For some, or probably many, stepping out of your job function and looking at your work from the perspective of purpose is a challenge. I think that purpose is a lens you choose to look through. This manager could look at his job through the lens of selling drill bits and saw blades. Instead, he made the choice to look at this job through the lens of dominating a market, developing people, and building something bigger than himself. He was working on-purpose.