Passion Attracts. Purpose Sustains.

Thanks to Randy Fath via Unsplash

I’m in Cambodia this week, visiting my son, who is working as a Peace Corps volunteer, and meeting some of his friends who are also teaching English in local schools to help young Cambodians have more options for future employment.

Like many who dedicate themselves to mission- and purpose-driven goals, these good people started powered by idealism and passion and are now confronting some sobering realities.

Among them:

·  The problem they’re here to address is bigger than them,

·  It’s more complex than they expected, and

·  It’s bound to take more time to solve than they have to give.

It’s a similar set of dynamics facing leaders at COP28—although, of course, in the climate talks in Dubai, there are much bigger stakes, much greater complexity, and much less time to make urgently needed changes. 

The truth is any changemaker with a worthy mission likely knows the feeling of being a David-sized human fighting Goliath-sized challenges.

However, the fact that this is a familiar experience does not negate the importance of creating ways to manage it effectively.

Left untended, a sense of problems being bigger than us can lead to hopelessness, cynicism, or despair. And those states can undermine what these times require: great effort, problem-solving, and collaboration.

How to Manage Doubts About Our Capacity to Create Change

So, what can leaders or other good people do to deal with doubts about our capacity for influence in these crisis-laden times?

One useful answer is to remember that passion draws us to mission-driven goals, but purpose is what helps us keep going. And history lends a helpful perspective on the power of purpose.

The novelist Zadie Smith spoke to this recently when she observed that we humans tend to be narcissistic about the age we live in. We think this moment in time is singularly worse or better or in some other way distinct from all times that came before.

And, of course, we do face significant, unprecedented, and urgent challenges. But it is also true that people have faced significant, unprecedented, and pressing issues before us.

Consider Abraham Lincoln leading the nation through a Civil War. The stakes were high, as was the level of anxiety.

But among the many strokes of brilliance that Lincoln brought to bear was his ability to give voice to a greater sense of purpose, as Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn discusses in her 2016 book Forged in Crisis. It created a bridge between the past, present, and future—and allowed everyone to see what was at stake for them.

There is an important lesson in this for us at the close of 2023. As Koehn writes: “The more turbulent the world becomes in the early twenty-first century, the more vital it is for leaders to re-interpret and frame this volatility in relation to a worthy purpose.”

Having a worthy purpose, of course, does not guarantee we will achieve it. But it does mean we have a reason to show up and get to work every day. And if fortune is also with us, it may help us set an example for future generations to learn from.  

In short, moving from passion to purpose is like stepping from the idea of a journey to the experience of one. 

A Resource to Help Your Team Get Aligned around Purpose

Ultimately, making decisions from a mission-driven perspective is one of the greatest acts of courage a leader, team, or whole organization can take. By declaring that you care deeply about something and are making it your prime directive, you demonstrate a public act of courage built around purpose and mission.

Here is a link to my downloadable Mission Matters Conversation Framework.

You might use this to guide a discussion in your next team meeting. If you would like help taking the discussion further, please reach out.

Thanks for reading. Stay Mission-Driven!

Warmly,
Lisa