Who is driven by purpose?

Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, we have all heard the saying “there are lies, damn lies and statistic.” I had call to think about this over the last few days.

About a week ago I ran a quick poll on LinkedIn. The question was a simple one and I didn’t think there would be much cause for debate. I asked: “Which group of people do you think are most driven by purpose at work?”

The choices were Baby Boomers (aged 51+), Generation X (aged 36 - 50) and Millennials (18 - 35).

The results were pretty much in line with my thinking. Nearly half of you (49%) felt it would be the Millennials. Just over a third of respondents (36%) said it would be Generation X and the remaining 15% went for the Baby Boomers.

Nothing really surprising here. My logic was that the older workers among us (myself included) chose a job based on what was deemed to be a reputable career and one that would give you a good chance of making a reasonable living. I remember being told that finance, engineering, the medical profession, lawyers and the like were a good safe bet and would allow you to develop a career so should be seriously considered.

Finding your purpose for this generation was something of a rarity. If someone did have a job driven by passion we all looked at them admiringly and were impressed with their ability to sacrifice income and security for something they felt strongly about.

Next would come Generation X. Having seen how big business is destroying the planet and the unethical treatment of a global workforce to ensure shareholder value is delivered, this group would probably take more of an ethical stance and try to find work that had some greater goal than to improve the company’s position on the stock market.

Then finally would come the Millennials. Surely this group is very cynical about the way the world operates. They are behind the protest movements and want to make a real difference. Any potential employer would need to show them the grand plan, how they are subscribing to the triple P bottom line (people, planet and profit). If you want to bag the top talent from this group then you had better be able to show a strong purpose to what the organisation does and how their job would contribute.

So your results made perfect sense. Until I read a recent LinkedIn report on Purpose at Work.

According to their figures, the reverse is actually true. Only 20% of Millennials are highly driven by purpose. As for Generation X, 32% are purpose driven. Most surprising of all is the fact that nearly half of all Baby Boomers (48%) are driven strongly by purpose.

At first this just didn’t make any sense for all the reasons above. But maybe there is more at play than I first realised.

Enter Erik Erickson and his 8 stages of development. He was a German psychologist who developed a theory that we all face a specific psychological struggle at 8 different stages of our lives.

The two that seem to matter in the context of needing purpose at work are stages 6 and 7.

Stage 6 is what Erickson calls Young Adulthood. At this stage, intimacy and isolation are the focus of development. This stage begins at age 19 and lasts until age 40. During this time in your life, you are establishing and building upon relationships.

If you have meaningful relationships with friends and family, you experience intimacy with others. If you struggle with relationships, you may feel isolated and lonely.

Just think about this in terms of our work environment. Relationships are more important to us than the reason why we do things. This changes when we get to stage 7.

Stage 7 is called Middle Adulthood.?

The development in this stage is around generativity and stagnation or self-absorption. This stage begins at age 40 and lasts till age 65.

When you feel a sense of care and responsibility, it’s called generativity. You look out for those around you and feel the need to pass along what you’ve learned to younger generations. But if you don’t act as a mentor in some capacity, you may feel bitter and unhappy. This leads to restlessness and isolation from your friends, family, and society.

If Erickson’s theory is correct you can see why the Baby Boomers in the workplace are more concerned with purpose than their younger counterparts.

A lot of baby boomers need to feel that they have or are making a difference and that they will leave a legacy of some value after they retire.

And according to the LinkedIn report, those companies driven by purpose enjoy much higher growth.

58% of organisations with a clearly defined and understood purpose experienced a growth of over 10% compared to only 42% of those that did not prioritise purpose.

So purpose is important for our success and the different age groups of our employees see it in a different way.

What can we do about this? Firstly don’t underestimate the value of a purpose driven team. They can make a tremendous difference to company performance.

Secondly don’t assume (as I did) that it will be the youngsters who are more purpose driven. Those more mature members of the team may have the strongest interest in purpose than anyone else.

Thirdly bring purpose on to the agenda. Discuss it with the team. See what levels of purpose they feel right now and see if those under your charge fall in line with the statistics or do they buck the trend.

Averages are just that - an average. As a wise man once said “the problem with averages is that you can have your head in the oven and your feet in the refrigerator and on average you’re a comfortable temperature!”

Don’t make the same mistake I did (and most of the people who took the poll) in assuming we know best without having any data to back it up.

Maybe Disraeli was right about lies and statistics, but I’m pretty sure he was a man driven by a strong sense of purpose. Now I wonder what age group he fell into when he said that………..?