The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. —Mark Twain
A version of this article appeared in the May 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review.
From Purpose to Impact
Figure out your passion and put it to work.
Summary.
Reprint: R1405H
Over the past five years, there’s been an explosion of interest in purpose-driven leadership. Academics, business experts, and even doctors make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional leadership and the pathway to greater well-being.
Despite this growing understanding, however, a big challenge remains. Few leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose, the authors’ research and experience show, and even fewer can distill their purpose into a concrete statement or have a clear plan for translating purpose into action. As a result, they limit their aspirations and often fail to achieve their most ambitious professional and personal goals.
In this article, the authors present a step-by-step framework that leaders can use to identify their purpose and develop an impact plan to achieve concrete results. Effective purpose-to-impact plans use language that is uniquely meaningful to the individual, rather than business jargon. They focus on future, big-picture aspirations and work backward with increasing specificity. And they emphasize the individual’s strengths and encourage a holistic view on work and family.