Let me cut through the chase:our wildest dreams and purpose lay within the unconscious. Meaning that we have latent (deeper) drives, talents and patterns blocking access to what we really want and also how we can realize it. It’s perhaps a brutal truth, but a high percentage of our behaviour is unconscious and thats even the #1 reason why executive coaches are often hired: to help address the unconscious (and work through it).
When we work from purpose, we see with clarity our task in the world. We feel energized, motivated, we see how we can help with the bigger picture and the concrete tasks in the here and now. As a leader, we feel this that we are out of alignment between what we do in work and clarity about our purpose in the world. Less zest for work and live, inspiration and investment in your own growth. A bit like The Thrill is gone as in BB Kings song.
What people are not aware off is that having clarity on purpose is so powerful because:
- It’s one of the most potent sources for motivation and dealing with resilience and setbacks
- It’s one of the high leverage factors for change or personal transformation (See Pyramid of Bateson)
Our wildest purpose lays within the unconscious
Why do sometimes very rich people drive a Ferrari while they need love or a relationship? Sometimes what we need is hidden in the unconscious and what drives us are our habits and emotional patterns, such as success, being powerful, hedonism. Even for me as mature man, this is a hard truth to swallow. Thats why finding purpose for leaders can be challenging.
As a result, some very successful leaders operate then from their known area, basically because they’re habitual ways of thinking, acting and feeling keeping them in a loop. While their deeper will, desires are at best ignored. Also, the world is constant in change and evolvement, so when there is little clarity on deeper will and desire, the opportunity is lost to ‘carve out a purpose’ relating to the newest trends and options in the world. For men, there is an additional challenge: stubbornness. I’m a man and plea guilty of stubbornness.
How does stubbornness work?
Additionally Stubbornness plays a role. This has to do with our inability to see that there are different levels of expertise and being open and accepting help. For example, when it comes investing people understand that you can make 6% on your investment and Warren Buffet makes 20% per year. Therefore it might be wise to get additional expertise. When it comes to career development it’s sometimes less clear. It can be misleading that we might be very good at leading an organization or team and that could lead to the unconscious bias of we are also good at leading ourselves.
Therefore, ancient kings were aware of this bias and appointed a court jester – to counter their blind spots, of course with some humor. Similarly, after an extensive academic research on executive coaching one of the biggest elements for success was for the coach to let its intuition work for the client and mirror the unconscious.
Finding purpose for leaders? Read more about Executive Career Coaching
An Executive Career Coaching program for leaders and directors helping them rekindling purpose, and built the necessary leadership skills. Our proven signature program used extensively at amongst others at ABN Amro, Google, Scotch and Soda.
I’m psychically located in Amsterdam, and sometimes Tel Aviv and Barcelona and have also digital coaching clients.