Passion, Purpose, Potential or Profits - What Motivates You?

This came as an inspiration as I spent the last few weeks catching up with various folks be it from my previous companies or conferences and even the recent SMU Mentoring Event I had the honour of attending as a guest speaker.

It struck me that regardless of the stage of their career they are at, many people are still seemingly either searching for that ultimate professional end-goal or just going through the motions of what they are doing for work with a view of what they ultimately want to achieve for their personal end-goal.

It also occurred to me that many people are still unsure of what really motivates them to take on certain roles or join certain companies beyond say “being able to meet their pay expectations”, “being stable and unlikely to cut jobs”, “being well known in the industry, region or country”, “being able to fully utilize their skills and learn something new”, and recently, “having flexible or hybrid working arrangements”, just to name a few that I have heard.

During the course of my career, as I often made conscious decisions to join certain companies and leave others, I also struggle sometimes between what I really want versus what I could get at that point of time. Not everyone has the luxury of time and choice and during the earlier parts of my life, that was definitely the case. Time and choice plays a dependent role in whether you are able to take time to choose and if circumstances allow you to.

Ultimately, as I moved into my 40s, I started thinking a lot more about this as I used my 20s as an exploratory stage of learn, learn and learn. 30s for me was a stage to harness my past learnings, expand on what I have garnered previously and apply that experience while still learning.

What hasn’t changed for me though is what really drives me professionally and to join certain companies, then stay on with them and later leave them. It has always been first and foremost - the ability to apply my Passion for 1) helping people to solve their problems and 2) the field of marketing and communications, the Purpose of the company that ties back to my personal values, which are 1) enabling people and other living beings to live quality lives, thrive and sustain and achieve my Potential based on the stage of my career with them. Profits, which you can say are monetary benefits I always believe will come as part of the reward if I am good at what I am doing for a purposeful company.

Thus sharing below what I interpret in terms of passion, purpose, potential and profits in terms of what motivates you ultimately in choosing your career journey:

• Passion - some people choose roles and companies that enable and empower them to fully utilize their passion in what they are skilled to do, maximizing their skillsets and love for their craft. This typically is rare it seems as most people are not sure if what they have been trained academically and later professionally to do is really what they are passionate about. This causes quarterlife or midlife crisis sometimes and they can change their career paths once they have uncovered that passion. This also sometimes mean that certain people will prioritize being able to continue to apply those skills beyond what the company’s ultimate purpose stands for, be it good or bad.

• Purpose - some people choose roles and companies that tie back to their personal values that translates to a purpose that they can identify and relate with. It doesn’t always have to be the holy grail status of being up there with Nobel peace prize types of purpose so long as it is something that speaks to them. It can be as simple as providing happiness to people or animals and supporting their personal values to live a happy life no matter what they do. For such folks, often they do get disillusioned after spending some time in their companies and realizing that their perceived purpose is not quite true to what they had signed up for. Thus people who highly value that will also choose to leave despite being still able to apply their passion or make profits.

• Potential - this can be considered as your aptitude, ambition and attitude. Some people know they have the potential to achieve certain career heights be it expansion of their portfolio, moving up the ranks or achieving certain career milestones and be recognized for it. Most of who could, would actually want to as well, especially if it is something they are passionate about. However, the opportunities to reach one’s potential in the companies they are with might not always be possible or available. It is sometimes a tricky one as it depends on a lot of factors beyond your actual potential, including availability of opportunities, availability and access to the right career mentors and supporters to help you achieve your potential. People who highly value being able to fulfil their potential would choose to leave certain companies once they have ran out of pathways to either move up or laterally, depending on their ambitions

• Profits - other people choose roles and companies that pay the best or enable them to fulfill their earning potential. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this as such folks might also see the ability to earn being a type of fulfilment and achievement for them even if they are not truly passionate about what they do. They will instead use what they have earned to support their personal passions outside of the companies. They might also place less emphasis on the values and intended purpose of the company. They are thus less impacted by the company’s values as long as it doesn’t directly impact their ability to continue to make money or fulfil their earning potential. For such folks, they will choose to leave if the company is showing signs of financial instability, unless it benefits them to hold on and wait for some sort of payout.

As I am closing the most recent chapter in my professional journey working for someone else by end April, I am glad that I have been able to fully maximize my time during this winding down period to reflect, learn, write, network, advise, travel, enjoy life and create something new and close to my heart. This new venture allows me to fully maximize both my passion, purpose and potential, staying true to my values. I am thankful that I am at the stage of my life where I do have time and choice.

For those who are still searching for their north star and exploring different paths, I hope you can do the following, come what may:

• explore as many pathways as possible especially if you have both time and choice

• don’t hesitate to create your own path(s) and journey(s)

• try to make the best of your journey even if the path turns out rocky

• if the path reaches a dead-end, you can always create your own or turn back and start on a new one
  

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting

Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.

Leading Others, Managing Self

Having spent the last two decades both being managed under various types of leaders and managing others, I can safely say I have a pretty clear idea of the type of leadership that works for me. Alongside that, I also have a good idea of the type of leader I aspire to be.

I believe that leadership is something that is attributed by others and not something that you bestowed upon yourself. Management on the other hand is given as a result of your title and official responsibility but leadership is earned and not given.

I have met several outstanding managers who are inspiring leaders that command respect no matter where they go and what they do. 

On deeper reflection, I have narrowed down to the following admirable traits that serve as a personal guide to me:

• Knowing what you want and how to get it

Good leaders are decisive, confident in their decisions and not easily influenced and swayed without good and sound reasoning. They don’t let their emotions get the better of them, especially in times of extreme stress and pressure. Eagle-eyed in their target and end goal, they know the path to victory and though the course might change along the way, the end goal is crystal clear once their minds are made up.

Instead, they inspire others and ignite excitement in them to follow their vision and work jointly in their own ways to achieve success.

• Good decisions are not always popular

If they are in only to be popular, they will never be a convincing leader that does the right thing. Leadership is not meant to be a popularity contest. The best leaders often make the most difficult and unpopular decisions if these are deemed to be for the greater good in the long run.

They are not afraid to face up to the judgment of the people especially those who don’t see the benefit of it from the onset. They know they cannot please everyone and their purpose is not to please everyone but to do what is right.

• Empowerment, trust and impartiality

Everyone has a place and a role to fulfil within the organization in accordance to their expertise and talent. Good leaders know and appreciate that. They know they are not supposed to know everything and be able to do everything themselves. Instead, they empower and trust the people working with them to do exactly that and giving advice where needed along the way.

Importantly, they don’t let the politics get in the way of empowering and disempowering people to take on certain responsibilities for the common goal they set out to achieve. Micromanagement and favouritism have no place in good leadership.

• Admitting to your own fallacies

We are not meant to be saints and good leaders know that. They don’t let their egos get in the way of admitting to their mistakes when certain wrong decisions have been made. Instead, they bite the bullet like everyone else, are not afraid to apologize and own up to it instead of throwing their employees under the bus.

Good leaders know as well that when mistakes are made, there is no time for finger pointing. They don’t get lost in their mistakes and wallow in them for too long. Instead, they quickly pivot to the right course of action, taking recommendations as well where needed from the people they have empowered. 

• Having your life together

It’s not about having the perfect life, if there is such a thing but keeping how you manage it in check. Everyone has their own issues to sort through but what’s more important is how you deal with your personal versus professional life.

Good leaders are not emotional rollercoasters and by that it doesn’t mean to be a cold and heartless person. Instead, it is to be able to compartmentalize and segregate the issues and whatever emotions you’re facing at the home front and the work front.

An easy way to do a sound check on yourself is when you observe people walking on tip toes around you and do ‘weather checks’ before they speak to you.

• Being connected and seeing the bigger picture

Interpersonal connection doesn’t come naturally to most people. This has to do with the level of connectivity you have with the team on the ground and understanding their challenges and issues faced.

It’s only then that you can see the bigger picture of how it works and how your team can put their skills and talent to good use collectively. It involves looking beyond their background, what they have done on the surface and actually understanding them as a person, how they work and mentoring them to be better.

Good leaders should not find themselves so far removed from the ground that they no longer see the complete picture but a blurry mirage that will soon be out of their grasp of reality.

Personally good leaders and managers should not be mutually exclusive but the former is a lot harder to achieve. There is no golden rulebook or educational pathway to being a good leader. 

Some people do have certain personality traits that put them in a more favourable position then others but all in all, it comes as part of our experience on the field and willingness to learn, adapt and improve.

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting 

Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.

The Sandwiched Leadership

The majority of us who have been working for at least two decades and grown into people management roles can probably identify with what I’m about to say.

Not all of us are able to move into the C-Suite level at this point, meaning the bulk of us would be sitting somewhere in mid to upper mid management with direct and indirect reports.

Concurrently, we would also have both direct and indirect managers hovering above us and around us.

This makes us a sandwiched leadership as we constantly need to think about upwards and downwards management and best ways to manage both without tipping that intricate balance.

Team management is not something for everyone nor does having the title automatically makes you a ‘real’ manager.

Having been in roles where I have inherited teams and grown teams from scratch, each has its own unique challenges but also satisfaction when the team flourishes over time.

Team management is also not about micromanaging or throwing them into the pits and leaving them to their own demise. Again, it’s a fine line as it depends as well between individuals. One man’s meat is another man’s poison as we say.

It’s also not about talking down or talking up for that matter but about paving the way to enable your team’s success while managing your bosses’ expectations and enabling their own success.

We are not expected to know everything and be a specialist in every single area that we’re managing but rather, we need to have the strategic view, forward looking vision and appreciation of the ground up challenges and pitfalls to be addressed.

The majority of our time is spent anticipating issues and identifying ways to prevent or address them. We also need to balance the dynamics of the team’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, chemistry and expectations towards each other. The last part is simply shielding them from the upper management’s own expectations, pressures and politics so they can function seamlessly.

It’s not a walk in the park and one thing at least to me for sure is that one can never effectively lead a team to succeed without genuinely caring for them as people.

With that said, I think the sandwiched managers have it the hardest and it’s also not surprising that many have given up, especially when they don’t get the appreciation or support needed from their managers as well as their own teams.

Some simply decided to go back to being individual contributors while others might decide to just venture out to smaller companies where they can be the top management instead with a more manageable leadership structure.

There’s no right or wrong but companies who truly cherish talent and their people should pay more attention to the sandwiched managers before it’s too late.

In my upcoming post(s), I’ll highlight a few key challenges facing sandwiched managers, the impact they have on business continuity and culture, as well as how companies can better support them.

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting 

Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.