Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

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What is so Important about Purpose at Work?

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What is so Important about Purpose at Work?
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Why talk about your purpose? Aren’t you too busy for such introspection?

When you are driving for results, it may seem odd to reflect on your purpose.

But purpose drives results. If you aren’t in touch with your purpose and the meaning of your contributions, you may be creating results right now, but you may lose the longer game.

And if you can’t help your employees see the value of their purpose as it relates to company results, you are losing out.

Here’s the long-game secret to staying engaged, performing well, hitting target goals – and helping others to do all this, as well:

Purpose + Motivation + Engagement = Results

These three things work together to help us move forward in life with joy and resolution. Together, they are what compel us to climb mountains, to learn foreign languages, and to work with commitment on those challenging new endeavors that require tenacity and perseverance.

You see, all humans seek meaning and purpose. We ask ourselves questions such as, “Why do I exist?” “Why am I here?” “How do I bring value to life, to the larger picture?”

Understanding the answers to these questions is a powerful driver. If we do not find our purpose in life, we lose interest in life. Purpose is what tells us the value of our unique self. It gives us a reason to be, a goal to work toward. If we can’t understand our reason for existing, we lose sight of our value as human beings.

If, on the other hand, we understand how we best contribute to a larger picture, how we bring value to life’s table, this allows us to recognize our worthiness as human beings.

When we have purpose, we live differently. Looking outside ourselves to a larger picture removes the tendency to center on ourselves. We a sense of well-being and contribution. Our dopamine rises to give us pleasurable feelings of energy and positivity. We have a reason to live.

In his epic work, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl illustrates this. As he recounted his experiences in a World War II concentration camp, Frankl observed that those inmates who gave themselves a goal or recognized they had a purpose were much more likely to survive. Some held onto the vision of seeing their families in the future, and Frankl himself found purpose in reconstructing a manuscript he had written and lost on the way to the concentration camp. This purpose, these goals often meant the difference between the will to live – or not.

As you can see, purpose drives motivation.

What is your purpose?

Purpose compels us seek to achieve something with our contributions so that we can fulfill this purpose. We are stimulated to move forward, to target goals that will help us reach what we feel is our purpose – and as we see in Frankl’s illustration, is what gives us a reason to live, even in the most difficult of circumstances. We are motivated.

And motivation is what gives us the energy, drive and excitement to move forward in a certain direction or go after something we want to achieve. It’s the fire that fuels us and is necessary for us to steadily remind ourselves of who we are, our meaning and purpose.

But if purpose and motivation are what gives us meaning and energy, engagement is what keeps us going. Engagement compels us to persevere when times get challenging. We need engagement to truly reach the top of the mountain or to master that foreign language. One can be motivated to begin a new endeavor, but quickly abandon this when the going gets tough.

Think about a time when you set out to achieve something great and succeeded. What kept you going when you faced obstacles to your goal so that you remained engaged?

How can you use your experience with this to motivate and engage others so that they move forward with purpose? Here are four ways you can begin that are simple to implement with great returns:

  1. Be intentional about recognizing your team members as human beings.

We talk a lot about how to recognize and reward people for their good work, because this is key to motivating them. However, there are lots of resources out there on this, so I want to focus on a more basic, daily recognition of others as human beings. Begin the day and each interaction by eliminating feelings of anonymity. Check in by touching base personally before jumping into the task at hand. Remind them that you care about them as people by asking about their family, their weekend, or if they’ve been able to work on that hobby lately. We all get extremely busy, and sometimes, this can become a troublesome trend whereby people feel undervalued or not seen. Don’t let this become your culture.

  1. Find out what drives your team members.

Set a time when you can talk to your reports individually about their career aspirations and how you can best support them. Include an exploration about their strengths, what they feel they bring to the larger picture, and what drives them. They will feel recognized, supported, and energized. This also helps you to move them toward those projects, assignments and roles that most excite them – and will benefit the company most. It will aid you in knowing how to coach and mentor them, seeking those opportunities that align with their passion and interests.

  1. Connect work to a higher meaning.

When motivating and engaging others, it’s necessary to help them remember how their work connects with higher meaning. In order to do this, we need to understand how tasks and activities assigned to a role affect the larger picture. Let’s say, for instance, that some of your employees are in charge of customer service. The role requires problem-solving for customers all day long.

If your employees understand their contribution to the larger picture, this can keep them motivated and engaged when the going gets tough. Here’s how you help them make this connection: list the outcomes that come to mind when you have a satisfied customer.

I can think of the following: A happy customer = boosted company reputation, new business leads and referrals, more company profits, more jobs… This is one example of taking one’s tasks and responsibilities and connecting them to a higher meaning. When we understand our contribution to this larger picture, it reinforces our purpose, allowing us to recognize our value and worth.

  1. Give people more authority – not just responsibility.

People thrive on decision-making authority. It’s empowering and allows them to learn and grow, releases you to focus on other things, and brings fresh perspectives to the company. This means that you need to take more of a coaching and mentoring approach to your leadership. This helps you to leverage your people power and ability to achieve at the same time that you grow and develop others so that they can assume more responsibility.

Motivating and engaging yourself and others requires intentionality. It requires different conversations, but ones that are much more meaningful and rewarding. I challenge you to begin by incorporating one of the four steps above to see how it works for you.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

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Five Ways to Motivate Employees and Drive Results

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Five Ways to Motivate Employees and Drive Results
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How do you motivate employees and drive results at the same time?

When we think about a results-driven leader, we picture someone who is driving with intense focus toward a goal. Eyes front. No nonsense. A person who embodies the message, “Get out of my way, I will win!”

On the other hand, motivation requires that a leader possess a high degree of people skills, directing his or her energy toward inspiring and building positive relationships with their team. This requires taking the time to help employees develop new skills and talents along the way to success.

This is a lot to ask!

How do you, as leader, manage all this without losing your own focus or momentum?

Here are a few simple shifts that will help you both drive and motivate your team.

1. Leverage is your best friend – embrace it.

As a leader, you may feel as though you bear the burden of full responsibility to achieve the goals that have been placed before you. Not so!

Your job is to set the vision, map out the course, assign responsibilities, teach people the right steps to excel, and coach them to the finish line. If you feel as though you are pulling and dragging people to reach this finish line, you are carrying weight that doesn’t belong to you. You have disempowered your team. Your team wants to feel valued and that they contribute toward the larger picture. Put on your coaching “hat” and get out of the way.

2. Your foundation is everything.

Your foundation consists of your plan, your people, and the resources to do the job.

a. Is your plan solid?

Does it contain the “teeth” to leave no room for question? If your people are stalling at certain points, this means you need to clarify how to move forward. And are you regularly checking to see if the plan is moving your team in the right direction? This tells your team you care about them and their success.

b. Do you have the right people in place?

If you have a chronic underperformer, the finger should point back at you. What does this person need in order to perform more effectively? Have that conversation and if you discover that you are part of the problem, adjust and rewind. If, on the other hand, you find that the person simply isn’t the right fit, do yourself, the employee, and the rest of the team a favor and have the critical conversation that has been looming for some time.

c. Are you providing your team with the resources they need to do the job?

This is a big item. If you are asking them to reach the seemingly impossible, you also need to identify what they will need in order to achieve this. A runner can’t run without a well-mapped out course and the right amount of energy bars and water. Likewise, your team member can’t perform to capacity unless he receives the right kind of support and resources. What do your team members need in order to work more effectively? Ask! This helps them to see you have their best interests in mind and want to see them win.

3. “Rinse and repeat” should be your mantra.

It’s not how many steps; it’s how many right steps.

Be careful that you don’t throw your team off course if you aren’t seeing big results quickly. Check your direction, and check the steps you have outlined to get there. I recall leading a multi-million dollar campaign that had never before been achieved. As I learned to put together the strategic plan that ultimately helped us reach and exceed $21.3M in four years (unprecedented!), it was a real eye-opener to realize that just five steps, when repeated over and over, reaped the lion’s share of our results.

Have you identified your own multi-step formula? When you do, and you allow your team to flex and grow while working these steps, it allows them to master these, as well, because they must repeat them many times.

People love learning, and they love achieving. This is motivating. And that is what this does.

4. Evaluate often and collaboratively.

You need to have regular meetings set up to evaluate progress – no surprise (but I’m astounded at the number of leaders who don’t do this).

However, if you want to motivate your people, if you want to help them learn and grow, you will want to conduct your evaluations in a different way.

First, be sure you begin these meetings with celebrating what has gone well. Identify what is working and recognize people for their efforts.

Secondly, identify the “points of learning.” What didn’t work as well as you had hoped? Have your team dissect this with you and keep the focus on the moves and tactics that needing adjusting. No finger-pointing.

Third, address any big concerns, and allow the team to give input as to how these concerns might be addressed. You are allowing them to participate in creative problem-solving and to give them a “voice” in the solution. Again, feeling as though you are part of the solution and that your thoughts count is very motivating and reminds people that they are important to the larger picture.

5. Celebrate.

It is always a sad sore spot with me when leaders are recognized for achievements and efforts, and the team goes unrecognized.

Begin with your team – recognize them for efforts even if you can’t recognize for results.

Identify what about their contribution was helpful – get specific. In other words, saying “Good job on last week’s efforts, Dan,” rings hollow. But “Good job on your efforts to negotiate with our competitor, Dan. I believe your connecting with them will bear fruit,” is much different. Tell them why you are recognizing them and be sincere.

And when it comes time for you as leader to be recognized in bigger meetings, don’t forget to call out how your team helped to win. You truly could not have done this yourself – and you need to recognize this with others.

If you truly want to motivate and inspire your people, let them know they are an integral part of the success.

How do their contributions make a difference? And then, allow them to use these gifts to do so.

Your job is not to run the course alone – it is to coach an entire team to break that ribbon at the finish line. It is when you finally embrace this that you will reach those great results.

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

100 Best Performing CEOs: How Do You Measure Up?

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100 Best Performing CEOs: How Do You Measure Up?
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The Harvard Business Review (HBR) has just come out with its annual list of 100 best performing CEOs in the world.

Who are these leaders and what makes them different?

The team at HBR uses tough criteria to identify and rank these CEOs, assessing their capability to lead in a volatile world.

How do you measure such capability?

Outcomes.

Quite a bit of HBR’s process involves reviewing the profitability and forward movement of the company, seeing how well it sustains momentum in the midst of challenging outside forces – “savvy competitors, demanding customers, profit-hungry investors, political and economic headwinds” (Best Performing CEOs in the World 2018).

How would you measure up?

Is it fair to judge you as leader when external forces aren’t in your control?

Yes and no.

You certainly cannot change or control external forces.

But you can change the way you meet them.

And this is exactly how these 100 best performing CEOs became part of HBR’s list.

Of course, vision, strategy, and focused action all played into successful outcomes. But what makes the difference for winners once the plans are in place are two things: steadiness and stability.

That’s right – steadiness and stability.

Sound dull? These are two of the most underrated traits in leadership – and yet, two of the most important.

Steadiness is the ability to continue pushing through even at the toughest times so that you can emerge from the toughest of maelstroms. And stability is a foundational strength that provides focus, security and safety.

It stands to reason that, unless you can lead with steadiness and stability, you will compromise your targeted success.

I recall a time in my younger years when my then 35-year-old father left his teaching position to develop healthcare facilities. His vision and strategy were sound, and against all odds, he first developed a retirement center, a convalescent and rehab center, and a hospital all within three years. The city sorely needed these facilities – even the hospital which was just a mile from a larger more established one. The administrator of the latter had shared with Dad that they needed overflow facilities and if Dad would develop a community hospital, there were patients waiting.

So Dad began developing these with a passion and determination that were unparalleled. But he met with great resistance. Someone in town complained that if another hospital was built, that his dog would be nervous. Someone else tried to get in front of Dad and quickly develop a hospital before he did, even after Dad had procured the licenses and permissions necessary to break ground. There were fights and opposition all around. And 16 City Council hearings. Sixteen.

I reflect on that and ask how many people would have weathered all this at 35 years old. In the end, he won – and so did the town, which has benefited from these facilities for several decades, now.

But Dad could not have done this without unwavering steadiness – the commitment to push through even when incredibly discouraged and feeling alone. He could not have done this without the stability that his vision gave him – the strength and commitment to move with focus.

How would you rank your steadiness? And your stability in the face of opposing winds?

Here is my personal challenge to you for growth:

  • During this upcoming holiday season, I invite you to reflect on those times when you have faced difficulty, but still pushed through to successful outcomes. Celebrate this!
     
  • Ask yourself where there is room for more steadiness in your leadership…more stability. What stretch goals do you have for yourself, your team, for the company – and how will these traits play into reaching them?
     

Are you interested in developing greater leadership capacity in your work and life?

Come and join me at the Bellevue Club Hotel in the Seattle area on November 28 to hear more about how you can do so. Seating is limited and folks are flying in to attend, so please rsvp only if you are sure you can be there: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-essential-shifts-every-leader-must-make-tickets-51973207262.

Or for Southern California leaders, e-mail me at patti@patticotton.com for details of a private upcoming event in the Inland Empire.

Townsend Leadership

3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make – Part 3

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3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make Part 3: Leadership and Brain Trust
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Leadership and Brain Trust

How well prepared are you to lead into the future?

The world now requires that you lead at a higher level to navigate change and complexity.

It demands that you have a greater capacity for the kinds of decisions and challenges that confront you now and in the future.

This requires a powerful three-pronged approach to support your leadership.

Over the last two articles, we talked about two of these elements, and they are:

Without these two abilities, you as leader may be close to your expiry date.

This week, we’ll talk about the third and final element to developing your leadership capacity: brain trust.

What is brain trust, and why do you need it?

The term “brain trust” is a term that was first coined by James Kieran, a New York Times reporter. He used this term to describe the group of leaders assembled by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his presidential administration. President Franklin brought these “brains” together to advise him, decode problems, and design new solutions for America.

It is critical that a leader has a brain trust for several reasons. Here are the top five:

  • Perspective

Because leading requires complex decision-making, being able to see and understand a problem or challenge from all angles is necessary.

Albert Einstein’s quote reminds us that you can’t solve these with the same mindset that created them. However, it is often difficult to step outside oneself to see these additional angles. Having a brain trust made up of people who come from various industries and backgrounds means you can tap into a vast pool of experience for greater perspective and creative solutions.

President Roosevelt’s brain trust helped him to enact 19 laws to meet America’s challenges in just the first 100 days of him being in office. He freely admitted this was due to having an intellectual powerhouse to bring ideas and perspective that he could not bring to the table alone.

  • Powerful Support

It gets lonely when you carry big responsibilities. You balance many demands and set the standard for your organization.

Carrying all this alone can cause isolation and stress, as you feel you must face and meet these challenges by yourself. In fact, a recent survey shows that 60% of all leaders express feelings of isolation and they report that this hinders their performance.

Unburdening and processing with family, friends, or direct reports often creates greater stress on these relationships and can’t provide the right kind of support the leader needs to meet life and work effectively.

It is important for you as leader to have a safe and powerful support system that is trustworthy, confidential, and one that can receive and help process the complexity of your challenges.

  • Challenge

If you want to continue to grow so that you lead both your life and work solidly into the future, you need input.

What are you not seeing that you need to examine?

How is not leading at a higher level affecting your life and work?

With great responsibilities, you can operate from “stress mode” as you address the immediate and urgent. This can develop tunnel vision, and you will lean on familiar approaches that cannot meet more complex problems. This dynamic will keep you from being able to solve these, and to meet the important goals that will truly make a difference for you and the others around you.

A brain trust will challenge you where you might be playing small with limited thinking or approaches. It will provide that safe space for you to confront where you are holding yourself back and decide how you want to move forward.

  • Accountability

Change is hard; growth is hard. Without an accountability mechanism, the biggest goals and commitments are seldom met successfully.

As you process and make the decisions you need in order to move forward in both your life and work, a brain trust will keep you accountable to yourself and your commitments. And because a brain trust’s only agenda is your agenda, you can count on your brain trust as an unbiased and supportive group that has your best interests in mind.

This will help you to stay on track and to focus where you need in order to meet goals.

  • Community

How edifying and uplifting is your community?

If you are like most, you have little time to enjoy the nurturing benefits of connection and community. In fact, your responsibilities and pace as leader can limit your ability to form meaningful community and to enjoy the gifts and benefits of bonds and belonging.

Sadly, if you are like most leaders, your community feels fragmented and might be made up of some or all of these:

  • Frantic seasonal socializing to reconnect with old friends during holidays
  • Networking and brainstorming with peers
  • Industry or business-specific meetings with colleagues
  • Connections with families of your children and grandchildren during sports season
  • A weekly (if even that!) church experience

An intentionally-focused community that encourages intellectual improvement, supports personal and professional growth, and genuinely cares about you is an invaluable and rejuvenating asset to the leader. What’s more, being able to connect with this kind of community in time of crisis or celebration is priceless.

“When we live our lives in isolation, what we have is unavailable, and what we lack is unprocurable,” wrote Basil.

It is time to admit that going it alone doesn’t work anymore.

As you seek to meet the challenges of the future more effectively, having a solid brain trust is a not a “nice to have,” but a necessary component to your life and work.

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make – Part 2

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3 Essential Shifts Every Leader Must Make Part 2: 360° Leadership Development
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Are you prepared to lead into the future?

Most leaders are not.

They experience increasing pressure as they attempt to cover all the bases and feel unsettled about what might be coming next.

If that is you, please stay with me on this, because the volatility and complexity of change in the business world is only growing.

If you want to make sure you are prepared to lead into the future, you must make three shifts right now to navigate effectively through change, and if you don’t take quick action on these, your leadership will soon be reaching its expiration date.

In a previous article, we talked about the first of three necessary shifts to do so: sharpening your emotional intelligence to increase your relational skills. If you missed this, catch up here.

Now, on to the second of the three necessary shifts you need to make: 360° leadership development.

There is a great buzz about the fact that to really grow in your leadership, you must work on both horizontal and vertical development to meet a complex world. And this is true.

Horizontal development refers to increasing in knowledge, skills and competencies. We can measure this through leadership assessments, 360° feedback processes, and similar means. Companies invest in tremendous amounts of money to assess, measure, and hold people accountable to these, and this is necessary.

But in the last few years, we recognized that was no longer enough. We discovered that leaders who possessed the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to conduct business, were now experiencing an inability to meet the changing demands.

The world was changing – and their leadership was not.

Albert Einstein once said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

To expand on this truth, it has become clear that, “We can’t lead an organization of the future effectively by using the same kind of approaches we have used to lead the organization of today.” – Patti Cotton

To meet this problem, the leadership development world recognized the need for vertical development. Vertical development refers to the growth in a person’s thinking capability. It’s about how you think – how complex, strategic, interdependent, and systemic you are able to sift through challenges and make decisions. For more on this, read the white paper “Vertical Leadership Development-Part I” by Nick Petrie, Center for Creative Leadership.

“At last!” said the leadership development world. “We have now covered how to be more agile and complete in approaching change. We can rest easy!” Top executive coaches focused on the mindset shifts necessary to cultivate this, and we saw a lot of progress.

But a giant puzzle piece was missing and tragically continued to reveal itself in significant areas of the business world.

Here’s a small and partial list of contemporary business leaders who have run companies worth billions. They possess both horizontal and vertical development and, for quite a while, have been considered thought leaders ahead of the pack.

  • Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO, Theranos
  • Martin Winterkorn, former president of Volkswagen
  • Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals
  • Hisao Tinaka, former president of Toshiba

These people had the knowledge and competencies to run the organization. They developed the mindset shifts needed to develop their thinking capabilities so that they could meet change and future challenges. They were capable, high-performing, and they produced incredible results.

But the glaring piece that was missing in all cases – and the reason for their downfall – was that they were missing the third part of the 360° leadership equation: Character.

Character is a matter of trust.

And without trust, you won’t get far – at least, not for the long game.

If you are in this to win, you must not neglect your leadership character.

The people in the above list all showed a flawed or compromised character. The result has been that they have suffered personal leadership downfall, in some cases they are or have been under investigation with threatening jail time, and their respective organizations were either heavily fined, sold, or folded.

Now I am not suggesting that you should compare yourself to these people in any way – I’ve selected these people to make a point. However, I am proposing that you check to make sure that your own character is well-sharpened to support your leadership.

Can you deliver on the following traits consistently? Are they truly a part of you and the way you lead?

Five Key Leadership Character Traits:

  1. Integrity – Are you consistent and congruent in relating to others so that they know what they can expect from you, know that they can count on you?
  2. Respect – Do you respect yourself and others equally in your decisions and actions?
  3. Intent – Do you hold others in positive regard and with positive intent, so that your pre-assumptions and biases don’t curtail best thinking?
  4. Transparency – Are you authentic in your communications? Forthright in the way you confront conflict and resolve it? Candid in critical conversations so that you are tough on issues and tender on people?
  5. Connection – Do you genuinely desire to connect well with others – and are you able to do this successfully?

Without one of these, your leadership is headed toward its expiration date. Because character is the missing piece to the complete leadership picture; the 360° leadership equation.

In the short term, you and others may not notice the effects of a compromised or weak character. But in the long run, missing this will bring down not only your ability to lead, but is quite capable of bringing an entire organization to its knees, as we have seen.

What specific trait within your character needs attention? And if you don’t know, who among your trusted colleagues can help identify this? I look forward to your feedback.

Next week, we will explore the third of three shifts you need to make: Brain Trust.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.