Making Purposeful Growth PERMA-nent
Welcome to Seeds 4 Growth issue #18!
In each issue, I will use the “Higher Power of 4’s” to provide 4 “seeds” within a particular topic designed to inspire individuals, teams, and organizations to find purpose in fulfilling their true growth potential. And by doing so, grow leaders into living legacy builders who can make a positive, lasting impact in the world.
Within my #1 Best-Selling book, The Purposeful Growth Revolution: 4 Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder (Now available as an Audiobook on Amazon!), I outline a holistic model for purposeful growth that features a LEAF as a natural symbol of growth as well as an acronym (Leadership, Engagement, Accountability, and Fulfillment) to help grow you 4-ward at work. As found in nature as well as in life, we go through various seasons of growth, transformation, harvest and regeneration.
Like the care and feeding of a plant or tree is essential to fulfilling its true growth potential, how can leaders cultivate a sense of purpose that fuels not just their commitment to their team members, but also their physical and emotional well-being?
Part of the answer lies in positive psychology, a discipline that focuses on what causes human beings to flourish. Dr. Martin Seligman, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, cites five elements to human thriving: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.
Called the PERMA theory of well-being, the elements are defined accordingly; however, I’ve added my own thoughts to help provide an additional perspective based upon my career and lived experiences:
Our positive emotions are foundational in creating a “victor” vs. “victim” mindset. The difference between the two is a matter of perspective. The “victim” is one who feel things happen to them; whereas the “victor” is one who feel things happen for them. Notice I emphasized the word, feel in both cases? While mindfulness indeed captures the essence of our thoughts – both positive and negative – that take place in our brain, it is the power of a feeling we give to them that matters most.
For example, if I feel a deep sense of gratitude for both the who (people) and what (blessings) I have in my life, it has a profound impact on my mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.
The legendary Zig Ziglar was fond of saying, “Your attitude is your altitude.” While I love me some Zig Ziglar, and we all understand the power of a positive, can-do attitude, I feel this phrase would be more helpful by exchanging “attitude” with one important word—gratitude.
According to several research studies, many positive behaviors and related outcomes come from adopting an attitude of gratitude:
Studies confirm we develop and grow faster, stronger, better—and with a much deeper sense of joy and fulfillment—when we are grateful for who and what we have in our lives.
In my book, I focus an entire section of the LEAF Growth Model on the importance of Engagement. Engaging someone on a deeper, more emotional level through the power of purpose can impact their Heart, Head, Hands and Habits that leads to Empowerment.
According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace Study, we are experiencing a new epidemic – lack of engagement. Or what the kids today are calling, “Quiet Quitting.” Only 25% of employees are reported to be Actively Engaged while another 25% are considered Actively Disengaged; leaving the middle 50% to potentially go either way. Yikes!????
A summary of reasons for disengagement that have increased the most from pre-pandemic levels are:
As leaders, we must invest in our team members by engaging their heart, head, hands and habits to provide a sense of empowerment – the ability to grow into their purpose. This will build trust that leads to higher levels of performance, an ownership stake in the outcome, and greater loyalty to both their team and the organization at-large.
Relationships are at the very core of building high performance teams. Leaders who invest in building relationships with their team members can earn trust – the foundation of any good relationship and team dynamic. This makes a leader someone willfully desires to follow as opposed to a manager who may just be obeyed due to title/position.
That said, those who desire to become “living” Legacy Builders are the type of leader others not only want to follow, but try to emulate when it is their turn to lead. This can create a transformational “ripple effect” with exponential and long-term benefits given the number of team members positively impacted.
Today, people don’t want to be managed and required, they want to be led and inspired!
To put the “Human” back in Human Resources, the tired, old “Command & Control” management style must be replaced with a more humanistic approach to leadership based upon LOVE:
What if we provided the resources for people to become more human, as opposed to treating humans as merely resources?
The power of purpose cannot be overstated. While it’s been there all along, the concept of purpose has been gaining a lot of traction recently. From spiritual teaching to scholarly research and changing demographic trends, there is solid evidence that connecting individuals to their higher purposes helps increase job satisfaction, productivity, longevity/loyalty, and outer directedness that benefits others.
领英推荐
Researchers at The Science of Purpose have discovered statistics supporting the power of purpose in our lives. The following represents a high-level summary of ways in which purpose influences work both individually and collectively as organizations.
Individuals with a connection to their purpose experience:
Companies with a connection to their purpose experience:
Particularly now as we recover from the effects of COVID-19—and face dire prognostications on climate change, geo-political conflicts, and other life-threatening obstacles—the concept of purpose has risen much higher in our consciousness. There simply has to be more to life than just going through the daily motions of eating, sleeping, breathing, working, retiring, and dying, right?
According to a recent Deloitte research study, nearly 90% of both Millennials and Gen Zers desire purpose in their work. They don’t want to just clock in/clock out and get paid every other week, they want to feel like their work matters in ways that goes beyond merely the bottom line of their company; rather helping to make a difference in their community or the world at-large.
We all go through various seasons, and most of us are desperately searching for our specific purpose in the fleeting time we are given to dance here on earth. Even before the Great Resignation, trends were moving in this direction, but with the COVID-related reset, there’s an increasing movement to question what is expected of us and relate it to what really matters to us. In fact, probably the most profound questions we all share are, “Who am I?” and “What am I here for?”
Since the dawn of human consciousness, most of us have wrestled with the question, “What is the meaning of life?” But, for me, that comes across a bit too passive and generalized. I believe in repurposing this question to be more active and personalized—“What does life mean to you?”
Instead of starting with WHY, I believe we should all start with WHO – specifically, who we “serve” within 4 integrated realms (think 4-circle Venn diagram) – Personal, Relational, Professional & Spiritual. Once we have a clear of understanding of WHO we serve, it leads us to our WHY (Purpose/Motivations), our HOW (Unique Gifts/Talents) and WHAT (Plans/Actions).
When you discover and activate your purpose(s) in life, it will create a deeper sense of personal and professional fulfillment – beyond the often-fleeting emotions of fun, happiness and joy.
It’s a bit ironic that Accomplishment is listed last in the PERMA model given the way many of us grew up employing performance management techniques; all laser-focused on growing bottom line profitability. Many times, this came at the expense of our personal lives leading to broken relationships, ill health and burnout. Success was defined outwardly by brand status, title, money, power and perks.
While accomplishment and engagement are familiar terms in most workplaces—in part because they have long been connected to productivity and the bottom line—meaning, relationships, and positive emotions have been slower to take root.
In the PERMA model, each of these things is pursued for its own sake, not as a means to an end, and is independently defined and measured. Even though each element will vary in degree from person to person, thriving requires the presence of all five.
Today, we are growing more knowledgeable about the importance of accomplishing both Purpose AND Profit as a means of benefiting all stakeholders:
This stakeholder approach to building individuals, teams and organizations while helping to make the world a better place is the key to our collective future as not only a workforce, but a human race.
The Purposeful Growth Revolution is ON!
Are you IN?
Seeds 4 Growth
Given the PERMA Theory has five elements, I am going to provide a BONUS to my typical Seeds 4 Growth platform:
P ositive Emotion – In what ways do you practice gratitude, mindfulness, forgiveness, hope, and optimism to increase positive emotion about the past, present, and future?
E ngagement – Are you engaged with your heart, head, hands & habits in ways that lead to a freeing sense of empowerment?
R elationships – Are you building connection and sense of belonging by widening the capacity for love, joy, laughter, compassion, kindness, empathy, and cooperation?
M eaning – Do you feel a sense of belonging to and serving something bigger than yourself?
A ccomplishment – Are you pursuing achievement, competence, success, and mastery even when it doesn't immediately lead to improvements in your emotional state?
The new world of work is changing... on purpose.
Let’s put the “Human” back in Human Resources.
If you are interested in learning how you, your team, or your organization can find purpose in fulfilling your true growth potential, I would be delighted to work with you. Please visit my website at https://www.MarkAMears.com and take the free Purposeful Growth Self-Assessment.
What are you waiting for? Let’s get GROWING!
A Champion for Obliterating Burnout in Healthcare & HR | Transformational Keynote & TEDx Speaker | Author | Certified PQ Coach | Mental Fitness * Wellness Coach
9 个月Mark Mears, great article. I'm a HUGE proponent of nurturing mindset. Our mindset impacts our belief system which drives our behavior. If our mindset is not in alignment with what we desire in life, we'll never achieve what we want. With that said, we must follow a positive mindset with consistent action. Mindset alone will not produce results.
Entrepreneur // Advisor // Investor
9 个月Thank you for the book my friend! Received it two weeks ago and it’s next on my list to read ????