Your motivation lies in your mission
More important than staying away from everything that drains your energy is looking for the story you want to write. What do you consider important in this life? What stone do you want to move? What touches you?
In other words, getting clear on your personal purpose. The reason why you do something. Where your talents and passion come together while at the same time making the world a better place. If that aligns with your organization’s mission, it simply feels right. Then you sit comfortably in your chair and in your own skin, and you can defend your decisions to your team and your board of directors. Then you feel stronger, and that confidence radiates to the people around you.
The story you feel you want to write, the things that fire you up, are often intertwined with your own story. And if your driving force is too far removed from what you fill your days with, then it may be time to do something else. Preferably something that more closely aligns with the worldview you want to move toward.
“What touches you? When your personal purpose aligns with your organization’s mission, it simply feels right.”
Having to versus choosing: the eternal balance
Even if you feel a strong personal mission in your job, that does not mean you should only think about your job.
Working harder or longer does not necessarily mean you get more done. In fact, work often seems to expand when you have more time available. Setting boundaries around your working time ensures that you deal with your actions more consciously. It helps you focus, recharge your energy, and makes sure you work more efficiently. What brings joy to your life - besides your job? Spending time with loved ones? And/or doing something for yourself? You learn sculpture and it opens up new worlds. Or you spend your Sundays on your racing bike. What it is does not matter, but find out what does you good and then actually do it. We all get swept up in the daily challenges of the job. Making time for your life outside work is the right and necessary antidote to that.
My suggestion: make a list of everything you tell yourself you have to do. For each item on your list, replace your “I have to...” with “I choose to...” and notice what it does to you. Why do you choose this? Why not? If you make conscious choices and act accordingly, life does not feel as if it is simply happening to you. Choosing does not always mean losing.
“Make a list of everything you tell yourself you have to do. For each item on your list, replace your ‘I have to’ with ‘I choose to’ and notice what it does to you.
Check in with your team
Knowing what fires you up and choosing more consciously is the beginning, but without a team you are back to square one. When your team is running well, you can take on the world as a leader! Coffee-machine chats help, but it can certainly be more organized. My advice for a well-oiled team that keeps its eyes on the ball — and therefore helps you keep going.
The rule of thumb: if building that mission becomes clouded by things that occupy you personally, then you need to talk about it. Of course, you do not have to share everything with everyone. But if personal worries affect your work, it is best to do so.
Talk about energy. That may sound a bit fluffy, but hear me out. We schedule meetings about every phase of a project, perhaps even meta-meetings about planning the planning. That’s fine. But what we rarely talk about is how the energy level is doing. What is occupying us that may be draining our energy. Not individually — you probably know that Sam is busy with those twins right now and that it is eating into their bandwidth — but at team level.
"When your team is running well, you can take on the world as a leader."
My suggestion: every now and then, schedule a meeting with your team to talk about everything that falls through the cracks. Resilience, balance, division of roles. Two days of team building a year is nice and certainly useful, but checking in from time to time is better. Once that foundation is there, it also becomes much easier afterwards to have a conversation that may be uncomfortable but has a constructive outcome.
You will be amazed at how much wisdom comes out of such an authentic conversation, or how beautifully people help carry or empower one another. And how the team then takes care of the team. Or sometimes even of you :-).
Appreciate where you are
As human beings, we often tend to focus on what is not there yet, what is not yet good enough. There is nothing wrong with a critical mindset; that is how we keep developing ourselves and our organization. But it can also lead to a lingering dissatisfaction that unconsciously eats away at your motivation. Because yes, everything can always be better. And although this is true, the opposite can also be true: what is there, what you as a leader and as a team have achieved, where you stand, is impressive. Take a look at the road you have traveled. Even though there is still work to be done, it is worth appreciating the results that have already been achieved.
My tip: regularly take a moment to reflect on what you have achieved as a leader, as a team, as an organization. Breathe in and out deeply and lean back for a moment. And consciously appreciate where you are. This brings calm and motivation.
