5 minute read
TURNING PURPOSE INTO PROFIT
Scott Langley shares how the Japanese concept of ikigai can and should be applied to our approach to business.
We have been lied to.
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Perhaps you were lied to with the best of intentions. Maybe you were lied to by people who loved you deeply. Chances are, they were trying to keep you safe and protect you from a life of scarcity or even poverty. But it was still a lie, nonetheless.
In essence, we are sold the lie growing up, in one form or another, that we need to find some way of making money and that this is the most important thing.
Find a job that pays the bills. The end.
I believed this lie for many years. And as an idea, it certainly has a lot of merits, especially in times like this. Nobody would look down on someone who takes a job to provide for their family. But apart from the financial compensation, I wonder what effect that this ‘job that pays the bills’ will have on the person’s overall state of being after two or three decades when it is not aligned with who they are.
What does a job like that do to a person’s mental health when it is not aligned to their values and solving problems they see in the world? Or worse, when that job plays a role in causing some of the world’s most significant issues? What does it do to their motivation, attitude and team spirit when it’s not in sync with their passions, gifts and talents?
PUTTING NUMBERS TO IT
A study of 50 years of Gallup Poll data on the topic of leadership, which included more than 20 000 in-depth interviews with senior leaders, 10 000 employees and more than one million work teams, showed some disturbing data.
“In the workplace, when an organisation’s leadership fails to focus on individuals’ strengths, the odds of an employee being
engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organisation’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%).”
What does this mean for a company whose employees are not engaged competing against one with an engaged workforce? Gallup's 2020 employee engagement meta-analysis report noted that the relationship between employee engagement and performance is substantial across 11 key business outcomes. The report showed companies with engaged employees enjoyed: • 23% higher profitability • 40-43% higher turnover • 18% higher productivity (sales) • 14% higher productivity (production records and evaluations) • 81% less absenteeism • 28% less shrinkage (theft) • 41% higher performance in quality • 66% higher staff well-being (net thriving employees). I would agree that making money is essential. But I would argue that it is not the most important thing. I would have you consider that there is a better way.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
This year I discovered an approach that has changed my life forever.
The idea is a Japanese concept called ikigai, which roughly translates to ‘reason for being’. Perhaps what Westerners would call ‘purpose’, or meaning in life.
Some people feel a deep frustration, rooted in the conflict of their passions, with what consumes most of their waking hours. Others are plagued by their awareness of need in the world and their ability to meet it somehow but cannot find a way to fund this enterprise. People like me live the majority of their lives without clarity or certainty about their passions, and need a guided experience to help discover and confirm these for themselves. These frustrations generally stem from unawareness or misunderstanding of this concept of ikigai, which is best understood through its framework.
First, consider these aspects of who you are as four overlapping circles on a Venn diagram: 1. Your delight – what you love 2. Your talents – what you’re good at 3. Your skills – what you can be paid for 4. Your cause – what the world needs. Second, understand that where these circles start to overlap, they reveal more about who we are. Where what you love (your delight) and what you’re good at (your talents) meet is your passion. In areas where your talents overlap with your skills, show areas where professions are possibly available to you; and how you can address a need in the world with your skill set reveals your vocation. The overlapping area between your cause and your delight reveals a mission you could readily take on.
Third, consider the areas where three of your circles intersect. These areas will offer greater meaning in your life but ultimately will not lead to fulfilment or ‘reason for being’, as it still lacks balance in the interconnectedness of our four domains.
Where your passion meets your mission, you will find pleasure and fullness but no financial compensation. Where your passion and profession meet, you will find initial satisfaction, which ultimately gives way to a feeling of uselessness as your cause goes unaddressed.
Where your vocation meets your mission, there is a sense of duty mixed with uncertainty, knowing that your true talent or gift is not engaged in this endeavour.
Most in the West opt for the overlap of our profession and our vocation, leading us to be comfortable but eventually leaving us empty and devoid of meaning in life. Your ikigai is found in the balance of all four of these domains.
LIFE-CHANGING THINKING
When I understood this concept, everything changed. I realised that my ikigai was the key to my purpose, mission in the world, happiness and profit.
I realise that I am privileged to run my own business, and I can steer it in the direction I choose and when you have discovered your ikigai, you will also be able to turn your purpose into profit and find real meaning in your life.
I saw that my business, Kaizen Alpha Marketing, is the expression of my ikigai and is being used to meet a need in the world. Not only that, but I am filling this need by doing what I love, using my unique gifts, talents and abilities – and all the while getting paid to do it!
Your ikigai is your superpower; it is your X-factor. When you use it in a way that solves problems for the people you love serving, your life will never be the same.
And you will never again believe the lie that jobs are only for paying the bills.
Scott Langley is the managing director of Kaizen Alpha and a regular contributor to Meetings magazine. You can read more about him here.
