Common Purpose & Common Sense – The People Factor

Insight: The purpose most people hold in common is to grow and develop as individuals and as professionals in pursuit of their endeavors. That means they want to fit in, get along with, and work with others harmoniously to achieve individual goals and objectives. They want to contribute, to be recognized for their contribution, and be rewarded for it. Frequently they engage third-party sources to help guide them to succeed. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Ron Ashkenas, an author and an executive coach, indicated: “there are upwards of 50,000 coaches generating more than $2 billion in revenue”. That is a lot of coaches, so there must be a lot of people seeking help.

Situation: This universe of advisors who offer such services is huge. The role of consultant, coach, and mentor are distinguished one from the other by the nature of their activities. Typically, the “consultant” diagnoses problems and provides help in generating solutions. The “coach” helps identify strengths and weaknesses, and helps develop action plans with set outcomes. The “mentor” is an expert who provides advice and guidance based on knowledge and experience. There is a complementary approach to empowering yourself and others to achieve goals and objectives which are likely to lead to positive outcomes – use your common sense.

We live in a world of fast-paced change. The challenge for young adults who are students seeking internships or just entering the workplace, as well as for those already in the workplace including leaders and followers, is to cope with uncertainty and navigate around the unknown. The future is unpredictable and the paradigm changes driven by globalization, technology, demographics, and the recent emergence of the pandemic, are real. They place a greater emphasis on the realization that most things accomplished for the common good have been achieved through people and with people working together towards realizing individual potential and collective potential. Since that is the situation, common sense suggests the formation of a buddy system – team up.

The goal is how to turn potential into success. A productive approach is to embrace the realities of common purpose and the sensibilities of common sense. It is likely that most of those 50,000 coaches draw on these realities and sensibilities in one way or the other.

Common sense and research informs us that in building relationships, it is better to understand then to be understood. That means that we have to be open to get to know our classmates, teammates, coworkers, and neighbors as people rather than as just members of a specific class. Knowing and understanding how people think, feel and act, including ourselves, is essential to effective engagement and collaboration so necessary to meet our responsibilities as both leaders and followers as well as to be productive members of a team as both leaders and followers.

The Solution: Whenever anyone initiates an activity which impacts not only their own life but also the lives of others, they take on the responsibility for performance. Performance is always accompanied with an expectation of an outcome to be achieved as a result of that performance. The truth is that whatever help the coach tenders, it is well to remember a perspective that is gleaned from Harvard Business Review’s 10 Best Reads: ”Performance and fulfillment doesn’t come from clearing hurtles others set for you; they come from clearing hurdles that you set for yourself."

In order to meet the challenge to be the best of oneself, individually and professionally, both as a leader and/or follower, it is essential to understand the role of self-awareness, responsibility and leadership awareness, team awareness and competency awareness which is marked by thinking smart and acting smart. The program, Talent Based Management, has responded to the call of common purpose and common sense through the design of a unique system for creating awareness about innate talents and the management of them. The end game is to become aware of talents, yours and others, as well as related skills and strengths – using them to generate positive outcomes as both an individual and as a team member – all towards achieving individual and collective goals and objectives. Those that embrace Talent Based Management will accelerate their upward trajectory for high performance and experience how to generate positive outcomes.

If you want to learn more about Talent Awareness, Team Building Skills and being Enterprising, please visit the website: www.talentbasedmanagement.com or send us an email: [email protected].

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