Balancing with purpose!

Purpose = Passion + Impact + Application

This is our formula for Purpose. So let’s explore the role that your unique skills play in this equation.

Everyone has skills that they are valued for both as an individual and as part of a team, but even if we know what those skills are and how we use them, how do we build on them further and ingrain them in our day-to-day so they become our ‘good habits’?

Once we understand what our best skills are and the impact that we can have using them, we can be confident that by boosting those skills further, that will help us contribute, perform and achieve the impact that we want.

Added to this is the need to have a plan in place that maps out how you will develop your skills. That’s pretty obvious, but you also need the desire, the engagement and the energy with those specific skills to drive you to get on and develop them further. It might be a ‘requirement’ that you develop role related skills but if you don’t really want to develop them and/or you don’t have the aptitude either it will be all the more difficult.

This could also apply to the development of any skill outside of the workplace too. For example, you can’t expect to be the best you can be at playing a musical instrument, or painting, or playing a new sport if you don’t have the interest or the insight into what your inherent skills might be. Have you ever taken up a hobby that you fell out of love with, or actually just wasn’t that good at so you lost faith in your potential? Might it be true to say ultimately Less Passion = Less Skill? A lack of engagement and drive will also prevent skills being built upon to eventually become good habits. Who wants to spend hours practicing something they don’t like or aren’t inherently good at?

PurposeFused has been working with The GC Index for most of the last year and have now integrated their organimetric tool into our workshops and coaching programs. The insight that we (and our clients) have gained about ourselves has been invaluable in understanding what energizes and engages us, what contribution we therefore make in any given area and consequently the impact that we may have.

One of the most useful parts of the personalized GC Index report is the identification of our proclivities and how we might leverage our natural energy into identifying and developing the skills associated in our ‘favored areas’. If we do this and build upon our natural strengths, it stands to reason that we will offer a strong contribution and create the most meaningful impact. Equally, if we also understand where we do not prefer to contribute (but sometimes have to), we can use this insight to fill in the gaps and round-out making a contribution across many different scenarios and roles, although it might feel harder to develop skills in those areas.

So let’s think about those strengths you know you’ve got. What’s your plan to identify them, practice and refine them and ultimately make them habits so that your impact can be a) stronger and b) sustainable? What might you need to do?

Here’s some ideas;

First, identify the skills that you know you have, that you use regularly and that you’re known and valued for. Or indeed, list out what you (or other people) value in yourself.

Second, think about the opportunities that might be available to allow you to build on or practice these skills so that you can be the best you can be when using them. This might be a case of repetition but also seeking out when and how you might be able to use and practice your skills in a live environment.

Third, it’s important to think about what might prevent you from building your skills to the level that you have in mind i.e. the things that might hold you back from really being as good as you want to be. How do you plan to identify those hurdles and how do you plan to overcome them?

Fourth, what support might you need in order to help you develop our skills? Which people can help you? What things might you need help with to enable you to get to the level you want to? It might be that you also work at acquiring knowledge in order to activate your use of our skills and practice them.

Finally, so you can keep up the momentum developing skills and progressing in the direction that you want to go in, you need to hold yourself accountable for actually getting on and working at your skills so that they become good habits and they feel natural.

It’s probable you know what you’re good at and enjoy doing, now’s the time to let others benefit from your expertise!

If you’d like to learn more about how to lean into your strengths and build your skills to advance your purpose please get in touch!

Author: Neil Turnham, Founding Partner, PurposeFused