How to Answer "Now What?!?"

So we have achieved success. 

Perhaps we climbed the ladder at our firm.  We launched a start-up or our own fund.  We attained some recognition in the market as an expert.  As a result of these accomplishments, we now have many of the personal accouterments we always desired; a beautiful family, nice home and a fat bank account enabling loads of leisure activities.

Its all good, right?

No exactly.  We still struggle with anxiety.  We remain restless.  We can’t shake the nagging sense of emptiness.

“Now What?!?”

The source of these emotions is a mystery.  We don’t know how to find the antidote.   We feel adrift, uncertain where to turn or who to speak with.  Are we the only ones feeling this way?

“Now What?!?”

Careers are a journey.  Along the way, we experience plenty of twists and turns, some planned and some not.  Occasionally, we need to stop and assess where we’ve been and where we stand. 

Taking the next step is hard if we don’t have our bearings on the Destination.  Without guide posts, navigating through lots of options can land us in a ditch.  And we want to be sure we have enough drive to reach the finish.

Having traveled the Self-Discovery path with many executives and leaders, I’ve found a few important steps:

•       Articulate the Purpose for your work. (the Destination)
•       Define your Core Values  (the Guidelines) 
•       Identify your Strengths and Engagement Drivers  (the Engine)
•       Determine your primary Motivators (the Fuel)

Purpose:

The Purpose for our work helps establish our Destination.  Purpose is the point of our career, the reason for our work and the impact to we wish to make.

To be as successful as we have become, we have been blessed with great skills and abilities. A Purpose defines how we will use these gifts to benefit something larger than ourselves. If you’re struggling with a lack of meaning, it’s likely your Purpose is either undefined or simply too small.

Here are some questions to help define the Purpose of your work:  Do you want to build something lasting? Do you want to disrupt the status quo? Do you want to initiate change? Do you want to solve important problems? Do you want to stand up against injustice? Do you want to make people’s lives better? Do you want to invest in others? Do you want to inspire the next generation?  Do you want to be a role model? Do you want to advance a struggling community?

Core Values

Core Values define what we stand for and what we are unwilling to compromise. They serve as guidelines keeping us on course to our destination.  We discussed Core Values in this blog post .

Strengths and Engagement Drivers:

We lead best when we operate out of our strengths.  Understanding how we are gifted will generate more confidence in our leadership approach.  Leadership 360 reviews are excellent sources of input.  StrengthFinders by Gallup is a quick and insightful tool I often use with clients. 

High Engagement is essential to strong leadership.   Yet many executives find their level of Engagement waning.  Their heart is not engrossed in their work as it once was.  So, what is the cause?  Extended success can generate routine at work. 

The frenetic nature of a C-level role may force us away from those aspects of our craft we love most.  Others find their days reduced to meeting after meeting, fire after fire. Without engagement, leaders are no longer thriving at work, merely surviving.

The drivers of Engagement are those aspects of work that energize us most. They are the areas we are most passion about, the activities we want to tackle head on.  Are you excited when creating a new vision or strategy? Implementing a new idea?  Filling a market need? Wrestling with an intellectual challenge?  Solving complex business puzzles? Initiating organizational change? Teaching others?  Nurturing talent? 

In contrast, the engagement detractors are the things that frustrate and drain us. The tasks we try most to avoid.

While we can’t spend all our time on engagement drivers nor completely eliminate detractors, we can determine how to spend more time on the parts of work that engage us most.  To do so, may require hiring or developing those around us and delegating certain tasks to them.

Motivators

As we reviewed in this blog post, our Motivators can be both externally driven (Extrinsic) or internally driven (Intrinsic).

Taking the time to carefully consider our Purpose, Core Values, Engagement Drivers and Motivators will help us to tackle the question of “Now What?!?”.  In the coming weeks, we will walk through the Self-Discovery process and the impact it can have on your professional and personal life.