Ideate
Purpose is actually a huge strand of philosophy. For Aristotle, one of the OG philosophers, he argued (in summary) that the purpose of life wasn’t to be happy. Instead the purpose is to practice virtuous acts and that in committing to this practice instead of acting on impulse or self interest; it would produce happiness and positive outcomes.
While Aristotle might not be right on everything, as a business owner, his musings on purpose and the act of focussing on the process and the “how” we do things definitely resonates.
How can we, as business owners, ensure that our business practices purpose? Focussing on the way we do things and making sure we are doing things for the right reasons?
Iterate
Thinking about purpose has been a big part of my iterative process for a long time. Purpose drives us and takes us to places where no one else has been. For this post, I wanted to share some lessons I have learned (the hard way) and to challenge you to look at what your purpose is in your business.
Perfectionism - The death of productivity is the idea that perfect is even attainable. Perfectionism strips us of purpose, only focussing on the minutia instead of the bigger picture and purpose of our work. Instead of wanting each task finished to the highest standard known to mankind, instead implement a series of progress checkpoints. Progress instead of perfection, moves us along and gives room for feedback, evaluation and pivoting to new ideas.
Autonomy - Giving your clients, team and yourself as much autonomy as possible will always deliver better results. Autonomy allows us to take responsibility and pride in our work. In the design world, autonomy to be creative without restriction is vital to design that oozes creativity and fits client briefs. Giving autonomy gives us purpose and drive.
Culture and team - Is your team like a big family? I hope not! We’re not a family, we’re a collective. All working together to achieve the same goal and contributing to the hive mind of the team, like bees. We support each other, we also challenge one another. Instilling the confidence in your team to say no, to disagree and to discuss is so important to individuals finding purpose in their work.
Implement
🧠Get your second in command to write out all the decisions they’ve made that week, and then review together.
🧠Write down the areas where are you acting on impulse instead of consciously choosing differently?
🧠 Where can you give more autonomy to yourself and your team? Write down your ideas and act on them!
Hi Helena I’m enjoining your Substack and love the idea of checking in on what / how decisions have been made as a means to track purpose and intentionality 😀