How do we connect more leaders to their next act in purpose and impact?
You can tell what’s informing a society by what the tallest building is. When you approach a medieval town, the cathedral is the tallest thing in the place. When you approach an 18th century town, the political palace is the tallest thing in the place. And when you approach a modern city, the tallest places are the office buildings, the centers of economic life.
~Joseph Campbell & Power of Myth With Bill Moyers (Sacrifices and Bliss)
Look around.
The tallest buildings are the steel and glass towers erected as modern day cathedrals in reverence to business and human enterprise. And so, if it is business, brands, and corporations that are today, as Campbell puts it, most powerfully informing our society, then it seems it should be a high priority to fill those towers with conscious leaders intent on using those scaled platforms for human good.
In enso’s own journey toward joining business with positive impact, we have observed an evolution in business purpose motivation as described in more detail in this post by my partner in enso, Sebastian Buck:
First it was the activists that demanded change from business. Next it was the consumer that mandated it before purchase consideration. But now we are tipping over a fulcrum point from outer pressure as instigator, to inside emergence as agent. Now we are arriving at what will be truly the most potent and prolific era— when leaders in the businesses themselves see their personal purpose as using the scaled platforms of business to change the world for the better. This is when the true sea change of impact occurs in the world.
So how do we bring more high achieving and capable leaders from the current status quo of business to the impact frontier of business?
Well, again, perhaps the most powerful way will be by having it come from the inside. What we find is that most leaders have this kind of dream inside of them— the dream to be more of service, the dream to be making more positive impact — and given the ambition that comes with who they are, typically it’s more positive impact at great scale they seek. Fantastic. The only challenge being the ages-old conditioning and blocks inside of them that mistakenly prohibit them really stepping into this possibility.
Speaking for myself, it wasn’t until I encountered just such a limiting belief in my own consciousness that making the leap opened up for me. My limiting belief was that for practical reasons, what I did for a living had to be different than what I did for service. When I saw that this was only a belief — just a story I had adopted from the conditioning of my culture — and let it go, then suddenly a multitude of new scenarios emerged. Those evolved into this amazing company thirty five people strong called enso that joins all of culture’s stakeholders in shared missions for change.
So what could we say to these amazing leaders still on the fence? Perhaps something like this:
“You came into this world.
You fully engaged.
Accomplishment by accomplishment, you arrived at the place you always imagined you’d arrive at, only to perhaps find something is missing. Perhaps it is meaning. Perhaps it is positive impact. At that point you may ask yourself, “Well, if this is what I know, if this is who I am — is something beyond this practical, or even available to me?”
This is the most natural question in the world, and yet it begets other questions even more important to explore. What if…?
…none of those thoughts are true?
…they are just beliefs that you chose to take on as truth?
…letting them go is the only thing between you and any possibility you can envision for yourself?
…you can take all that you are and have achieved, and through a new lens of meaning, apply it to an encore vocation that brings livelihood together with greater purpose?
…this new lens of meaning can turn what you are doing now into an endeavor of purpose and positive impact?
…these extraordinary possibilities are available to you?”
And so, if you know leaders who are ripe for such a change, perhaps share something like this with them. And if that ripe leader is you, perhaps it’s something to share with yourself a few times.
In further service to activating this new era of purpose-driven business through purpose-driven leadership, what if there was a yearly boot camp of sorts where leaders could come, rid themselves of all their limiting beliefs, set up their new purpose-driven vision, and create a team of collaborators to support them on the journey?
With those intentions, just such a intensive and experiential boot camp has been designed called SOUL PURPOSE 2017.
Come in a mercenary and emerge out a missionary.
There are so many steel and glass towers of business to turn into modern day cathedrals for change.
We just need more unshackled visionaries like you to fill them.
