It’s an awe-inspiring phenomenon, and a display of Mother Nature at her finest. Baby sea turtles hatch from their eggs and will instinctually head towards the brightest horizon—the ocean.
It’s a dangerous journey the little critters. If they don’t move fast enough, they might become prey for birds or other creatures. Or, they may simply get baked by the sun and die from dehydration.
Where do these instincts come from? How do they truly know they’re making the right decision? And, what can we, as recruiters, hiring managers, and C-Level Executives, learn from nature? How do we know our own gut instincts are right?
The Y Scouts Experiment
In business, we often head towards the brightest horizon just like a baby sea turtle. When we recruit people for our organizations, we analyze credentials, past experience, achievements, and other data. When we search for our next career move in the corporate space, we analyze company history, opportunity, compensation, job title, and culture. All of these data points seem like the sensible approach to making wise business decisions.
…but what if our hunches, those nagging gut feelings, tell us something different? That’s what happened to my myself and my business partners when we founded Y Scouts—a Purpose-Based Executive Search firm.
We had all spent most of our careers in the recruitment and job placement industry. We all were quite proud of our previous career accomplishments. But, we also had this strange gut feeling that was leading us in a different direction. We had a feeling that there was something missing from the current way companies recruited people. We had a gut feeling that there was something missing from the way executives were searching for new careers. And, because all of us had personally hit points in our own careers that left us asking some big questions like, “What is my purpose?” we wondered if there were a lot more people out there just like us.
“What if we got to know people instead of their resumes?” we asked.
“What if we asked people to tell us what they want to do with their lives, instead of asking them if they meet the criteria for a specific job description?”
“What if we asked companies to tell us their purpose, and the kind of people they’d be interested in hiring instead of asking them which positions they needed to fill?”
“What if we started an Executive Search Firm, without ever posting a job?”
We had a hunch. That’s all we really had. Sure, we had some science from workplace studies that showed how disengaged people were at work. Yes, we had some data that showed nearly half of us, if we could, would start over on a completely new career path. Of course, we all have decades of experience in the industry that we could use as a foundation. But, we didn’t have any hard science that showed “purpose” as the solution.
We did, however, have some big mouths and inquisitive personalities. We began asking executives questions: “What did you want to be when you grew up? Why do you work? What are you truly passionate about? What makes you really care about a company, or a project? What gets you excited?” And, “What were you meant to do?”
The responses we received were so overwhelming and honest that we created an experiment. “What would happen if we created a system (both online and in-person) that asked people and companies to go through a Purpose Discovery Process with us?”
We launched our experiment. We sat back. We watched. And, what we learned from our experiment is profound: Our hunch is our purpose. And, so is yours.
Each and every day, new executives are flooding our Purpose Discovery Process and actually reaching out to us and thanking us for allowing them to share their purpose. Companies are calling us and asking us how they can build better practices and cultures based on purpose.
Call it instinct. Call it a hunch. Call a nagging suspicion that you or your organization is just lacking something. Call it fluffy. Call it touchy-feely. Call it anything you want. We call it Purpose. It’s that thing that winds you up inside. It’s the thing you know you should be doing every day at work. And, it’s that thing, no matter how many times you tell yourself that it’s unrealistic and you should just forget about it, that won’t go away.
What’s your purpose? Here’s a quick exercise that can help lead you to discovery.
Step 1: Grab a sheet of 8.5 by 11 printer paper. There’s no need get complicated. We all have printer paper.
Step 2: In one sentence or phrase, write down the one reason you would work if you were not getting paid. Keep it short. Take your time. Get specific. And, boil it down to something that really relates to you. “To make the world a better place,” is too generic. We all want that. A teacher might say, “To make one a child, each day, realize their dreams are within reach.” A marketing executive say, “To help women feel confident.” And, a CEO might say something that isn’t related to their current position at all, “To inspire youth to lead.”
Step 3: Hold up your sign and get your picture taken. I know this sounds corny. But, the moment you’re ready to have someone else take your picture with your purpose, is the moment that the nagging suspicion becomes something real and something actionable—it’s a filter for every decision you’ll make. Again, I know many of you will skip this step. I would have skipped it. But, then I did it. And, my life has changed since that day.
The science on human instinct isn’t clear-cut. We don’t know where hunches come from. We can’t explain gut feelings. And, we may never be able to understand the depths of why we all instinctually feel a sense of purpose (to live a certain way, do something amazing, or be part of something that inspires us). But, whether or not we have the science to prove purpose exists may not be the most important hurdle we face. The biggest hurdle might just be blindly accepting that we have a purpose—and then learning to trust that it is our brightest horizon. Go towards it.
Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.
The post The Science of a Hunch: What Is Your Purpose? appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.