Is Your Career ‘on Purpose’? Four Questions to Ask Yourself Today

Second in this seven-part series where I share how I’ve experienced Glint's People Success Elements in my life, today's article is about one of the six elements, PURPOSE. Our research shows that people strive to live a life of meaning and self-actualization – one that gives them a sense that who they are matters and what they do makes a difference. We found across 1,000 customers that employees who feel a sense of purpose are 120% more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work.

The Great Resignation would have us think that everyone is quitting, simply checking out, but reality is people are looking for ways to create a better way of living. It’s not about stopping. It’s about starting. People are more aware than ever of the value of their time and how they wish to spend their energy on what’s most important in their lives, not just at work. They have reevaluated their occupation and career goals in the context of the life they wish to lead.

Finding your PURPOSE is captured elegantly by the Japanese concept of?Ikigai, or?"the reason for being."?The idea of?Ikigai?is that one’s sense of purpose lies at the intersection of the answer to four questions:

• What do I love?
• What am I good at?
• What can I get paid for?
• What does the world need?

My story. As with most high schoolers, I had no clue about my “purpose in life”, but was certainly open to all possibilities.

One day I came home with my career guidance report and proudly showed it to my parents. “Look dad, it says I should be in entrepreneurial management!” A few days later, somehow that report had vanished from our house, and all I heard from my father was I was going to study engineering like he and his brother had because "you'll have a job for life.”

So that’s what I did, and my first years after graduating from SJSU School of Engineering were spent at Intel as an industrial engineer improving the efficiency of wafer test processes. It was good work but not very entrepreneurial. Yet something was missing.

I was living my father’s PURPOSE for me

…not my own.

After modest success as an engineer, I was promoted to an operations shift manager to run an Intel research test facility line.?A difficult transition from individual contributor to leader, taught me a new set of “people” skills.?The 'entrepreneur' in me started surfacing, and I began using some fairly experimental (at that time) process facilitation and team-building approaches with my night shift staff (who were basically "out of sight" from upper management) …and I began seeing amazing results.?People came alive, absenteeism went done, quality went up...and my team was happier!

This was an epiphany moment in my career. I knew then that I should really be working to improve people and organizations, not just processes and operations. So I doubled-down on learning how to be a better leader.

Sometimes the path to your true PURPOSE finds you

...and in unexpected places.

In 1992 Intel sent me to a management development retreat where I discovered the teachers had all studied this thing called “Organization Development.” The training leader Naomi Chavez Peters became a role model for me to follow.

And OMG, these were such fun and happy people! They didn’t have to wear a beeper 24 X 7 to be called in the middle of the night for a “lines-down” situation on the graveyard shift. And they got to fly all over the world weeks at a time to teach Intel’s new managers how to be awesome. But most importantly, their work was a cornerstone to building leadership and a great culture. Their sense of PURPOSE hit me like lightning. Where do I sign up?!

Several months later, as luck would have it, an Organization Development (OD) job opened up for internal transfer so I eagerly applied.?Intel's OD Director at the time Peg Wynn broke the news to me that I was "not quite ready to be an OD consultant." ??In some of the best career advice I've ever received, she encouraged me to do three things to become qualified for entry into the field of OD: Get a master's degree in OD (everyone in the field had a masters or PhD), move out of operations into a corporate Human Resources role, and most importantly, treat every job assignment from here on out as if it were an organization development project.?

I took this advice to heart. My sense of PURPOSE was now internalized, and with an unwavering focus, one month later I transferred to Intel's HR recruiting (much to the dismay of almost everyone in my life).

My engineering pals told me, “Human Resources??!?Dude, you just killed your career!”.?

On the contrary, HR was a great fit for me, and for the next three years I flourished, helping to streamline the staffing process company-wide, and become a top recruiter for jobs in manufacturing, operations and legal.?I was awarded some of Intel’s highest honors, and was put on a fast track for promotion. During this time, I also pursued my Master's in Organization Development at University of San Francisco night school and graduated in 1996.

You see, I had found my PURPOSE when I discovered the impact that organizational development can have on company culture and how great leadership practices can improve the quality of work life for employees. This PURPOSE has always had real meaning for me.

While companies and projects have varied over my career, my mission to bring more humanity to the world of work, and help people have more meaningful experiences has always been what gets me jumping out of bed in the morning.

When you are leading with PURPOSE, you feel it in your body and soul.

Yes, this work is my Ikigai -- It's what I love, what I’m good at, what I get paid for, and most importantly, something the world needs, especially right now.

I encourage you to examine your own Ikigai and find your PURPOSE in the sweet spot.

Next in the series, I share an absolutely crazy journey I've taken (and am still on!) as I share some high (and low!) lights of my GROWTH path.

Craig Ramsay is a Principal People Scientist at Microsoft supporting Viva product development with a mission to help people be happier and more successful at work. As lead foundations researcher he oversees the design of Glint’s employee experience measurement architecture and supporting assets.

Craig has over 20 years of organizational development experience holding leadership positions at Sirota (acquired by Mercer), Intuit, and Symantec where he provided executive consultation to improve employee engagement. He currently serves on the board of HR Strategy Forum, a consortium for California-based HR leaders.