On a team call this week, our co-founder and CEO stopped us in the middle of discussing myriad tactical decisions and said, “I’ve been thinking about the higher purpose”. See, the thing about our boss is that she’s always ten steps ahead, always seeing a much bigger picture, and always doing everything she can to bring us along with her. She says, without actually saying, “Come up here with me. See what I see. There’s a higher purpose.”
Then an hour ago, I scrolled through Twitter to see an article from the Harvard Business Review about helping your team find purpose. My first thought was not, “Is my phone listening to me?” (that was second), but instead I thought the universe was trying to tell me something and I needed to listen. See, the thing about me is that I love messages from the universe, and I love breaking them down into real, actionable directives. I’m both an idealist and a realist (typical Libra, I know). I spend half of my time romanticizing, daydreaming, brainstorming, etc., and I spend the other half talking myself out of my unrealistic musings. So… what does this have to do with work?
I have found person-organization fit, and that means the stresses and blank spaces associated with poor fit are gone. I have room to care about the higher purpose.
Thanks to the MatchFIT assessment, I have a framework to describe the kind of workplace I fit with. I highly value a company culture that is Innovative and Creative and Exacting and Procedural – both idealistic and realistic. I work best in an environment where there is room to daydream and brainstorm ideas and then apply processes and procedures to shape those ideas into realistic projects. This is exactly how we approach work at MatchFIT and our sister company, Horizon Point Consulting. I have found person-organization fit, and that means the stresses and blank spaces associated with poor fit are gone. I have room to care about the higher purpose, which actually demonstrates the higher purpose for MatchFIT. More on that in a minute.
My favorite line from the HBR article is “…you do not invent a higher purpose; it already exists.” This is what our boss knows. Our work has a higher purpose than economic gain. The article elaborates:
A higher purpose is not about economic exchanges. It reflects something more aspirational. It explains how the people involved with an organization are making a difference, gives them a sense of meaning, and draws their support.
At MatchFIT, we believe that a sense of meaning and person-organization fit are critical to long-term job satisfaction and employee engagement, and we want employees and employers to find the right fit so they too have room to care about a higher purpose.
When we understand the higher purpose for our work, and it’s reflected in our company culture through demonstrated values and interactions with each other and with customers, it feels like seeing a clear blue sky.
Our higher purpose is helping others see a clear blue sky.
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