In my quest for a goalless life, I have taken the opportunity to recalibrate the purpose of my work and check-in with what I am in service of.
I asked myself the following questions:
- What are the 3 most important challenges that your life presents?
- What are the 3 most important strengths or qualities that you bring to this work?
- What areas of interest, aspirations or underdeveloped talent do you want to put more focus on in the future?
- What about your current work and personal life frustrates you the most?
- What are your most vital sources of energy, what do you love?
- What would your future wise self want from you at this moment?
- What footprint would you want to leave behind for the people who live on after you?
- What do you want to be remembered for?
- In your present self, what do you need to pay attention to in this moment?
My sense is that consciousness is reawakening - something big is happening in business. In the past, organizations had a collective bias of profit and ego that got in the way of sound judgment and decision-making. It was as though employees were expected to leave their humanity at home. In the future, positive customer outcomes, giving back to the societies that we serve, a clear link to purpose, and authentic leadership will become the norm, but few organisations are responding quickly enough and embedding culture change deep enough. Those that are, namely in the FMCG sector, can be seen swiftly rising to the top of the employers of choice for Millennials.
And so Marmalade Fish was born to work with organizations across the globe to accelerate and embed change. My purpose is to fundamentally alter the way that employees engage with organisations, to make work better and allow individuals to be at their best, more of the time. I recently left the corporate system to embark on this new phase of my journey. I feel empowered. The thoughts sitting behind that can be summarised in an excerpt from the film the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:
There is no such thing as an ending, just a place where you leave the story. And it's your story now...You have no idea now what you will become. Don't try and control it. Let go; that's when the fun starts. Because as I once heard someone say, there is no present like the time.