HOW DOES LIFE PURPOSE PROVIDE LEADERSHIP ENERGY?

• When you wake up in the morning how do you feel?
• What’s most important about your career and leadership journey to you?
• How does having a bigger purpose and WHY contribute to your and leadership journey?
• How would having a mission that allows you to discern what you say “yes” and “no” to be advantageous?
• What type of clients do you love to work with?
• How would having a life purpose contribute to your bottom-line?
• Where do you get your energy?
• What part of the earth are you here to change and serve?
• Are we wired to need a life purpose?
• Are you just too distracted and busy to reflect on these questions?

The questions are endless, and the answers will be as individualized as your fingerprint. There is a considerable amount of research around the benefits of articulating a clear vision and purpose. Your vision is often what others see and your purpose is your internal compass. I often refer to your Life Purpose as the center of your Career and Leadership Mastery (CALM) Power, where you replenish your energy to grow your stamina and resiliency to continue your leadership journey.

As leaders, energy allocation in our lives is vital. When I have clear intentions of where to put my energy as an expression of my life purpose, I gain more energy! Knowing where to serve and with whom I choose to spend energy allows me to experience and choose a more meaningful life that I designed.

At a recent event for young professional leaders, I urged them to “slow down to succeed”and to take time to create a space for self-reflection. I provided micro experiences on how to connect with their own positive powerful stories, a huge clue to their life and leadership purpose, "WHY", and authentic brand. After the experiential exercise and sharing what I call “Positive Focus Stories©”, the participants witnessed some practical ways to utilize these stories ranging from increasing self-awareness, developing accomplishment statements for resumes, social media profiling, and branding techniques.

More importantly, we talked about how our stories bring us positive energy to serve others. This exercise was designed to experience being present and deep listeners. At the end of this experience we became curious as a group:

“How did it feel telling and listening to the stories? What type of energy were you creating as partners? As a group?”

We agreed that stories are practical tools for leaders, but more importantly they “felt" that shift in energy as both the listener and speaker spoke.

Can we explain this energy shift?

A practical scientific concept of mirror neurons emerging from Neuroleadership, a field that combines the findings from neuroscience, leadership, and coaching with the brain in mind may provide some clues. This is a vast field that Professional Coaches will continue to watch, learn and apply.

The vast majority of us are wired to mirror our partners positive or negative energy. This is an innate biological phenomenon. Mirror neurons explain the rationale behind one person’s smile spreading smiles all over. Leadership at any level requires us to be in relationship and successfully establish rapport with others. Daniel Goleman refers to this rapport as ‘resonance’. This is something which emerges unconsciously because of our mirror neurons.

Mirroring allows the follower and leader to develop rapport, which directly contributes to the effectiveness of a leader. Imagine for a moment, the amount of relationships you encounter as a leader. If we show up with leadership energy that is negative, scattered, unclear and confusing, versus displaying a calm authentic leadership presence, what effect is this having on those we lead?

As leaders, we can read countless leadership theories, have an impressive resume, have amazing connections and confidence, yet I believe in today’s chaotic work environments, we need not only a combination of stellar skills and characteristics, but the ability and desire to be present and empathetic. This is the energy of Presence. That means being present for the moment, for others, for the mission, and for the task at hand. There’s a reason why the words “presence” and “present” have the same root.

What would it feel like to have a leader listen to you and to focus just on you? Professional Coaching falls short of its goals when the coach ignores the importance of creating, designing and modelling leadership presence for other leaders. How we show up as leaders is vital.

Presence sounds so elusive, but “we sense and feel it when we experience it.” It’s how your energy shows up, how you energy makes others feel, and how effectively you communicate both verbally and non-verbally. It's the "IT" factor that could be the unspoken edge toward your next career position, promotion, small business bank loan, or joint venture that is vital to your leadership journey.

Could knowing your life purpose welcome more of this type of energy and leadership presence?

The energy of purpose can only be revealed when we quiet our mind chatter, slow down, and connect with our inner voice and the present moment. This allows us to gain clarity of the past and move toward our visions.