Finding your Why

As a leader in any organization, you are frequently looking at the what and the how, but how often do you look at the why? Even more important to consider: how often do you communicate the why to your team?

Due to the rapidly increasing pace we all seem to be pulled into at our respective places of employment, we rarely have the opportunity to come up for air, so we are often laser focused on efficiencies of practice, creating standardized workflows, and “the next big thing” which is often some improvement in efficiencies or standards with an attempt to lower cost and increase returns. With this approach, we are often focused solely on the what and the how when we communicate to our teams what we need from them to meet our newly developed goals. In our own efforts to be efficient we often skip one of the most important components of change management: the WHY.

The primary reason horses have these amazing bursts of energy that seem to last forever is because they CONSERVE their energy like a loaded spring ready to fire. If there’s no need to run, then why bother? They are highly efficient – only using the energy necessary to get the job done, and then it’s back to conservation. Sometimes the energy necessary is excessive and prolonged to find vital resources, and other times it’s simply a short burst to avoid conflict. Either way, they are highly efficient in how they manage their energy stores. Before they make a decision to utilize their energy, they have a moment of considering the why. Am I in danger? Am I hungry? Thirsty? If the answer is yes…that’s a pretty good why to get moving! If the answer is no…they’re not going anywhere because….why bother!? It would be a waste of energy. (They also don’t multi-task if you’ll notice, they are fully present in the moment…a discussion for another time).

All of this brings me to the topic of this article: your WHY.

The quickest way to motivate your team…and yourself…is to answer the why. When you ask your team to start a new project, adding to their existing workload, do you only provide what, how and when? How often to you also provide the why?It’s easy to get into “shiny object syndrome” and just start every project that seems like a good idea at the time. In this mode, everything takes priority and nothing is a priority at the same time. We aren’t efficient, the team isn’t efficient, morale goes down, and pretty soon even the work that was being completed successfully prior to the new project will begin to suffer as “change fatigue” kicks in.

Why are we doing this in the first place?

Why is it more important than what we’ve been doing?

Why should we focus here instead of there?

Why is this a problem that needs a solution?

Above all else, you should know your big WHY. What is your connection to purpose? Why are you even at this job?!

Do you believe in the mission? Do you share the values of the organization? Do you see the vision they have created? Are you sharing all of this with your team??? Have you given them YOUR why??

If you feel burnt out, at a dead-end job, or nowhere NEAR your passion, then you need to take a hard look at your path and start to shift your focus. Where are you spending your energy? Is it the best use of your energy and time? What are you passionate about? If you are no longer connected to your why, your team will feel that and will lose motivation as well. They need a leader who knows where they are going and WHY they are going there. They need to know their work has value and is contributing to the big WHY of the organization.

If you’re doing work just for work’s sake, and if you are asking your team to do the same - you aren’t doing anyone any favors, least of all your organization. The why of everything you do should be easy to identify and explain as well as how it ties back to the mission, vision and values of the organization.

Sharing the why with your team can be as simple as: “I need this by Friday….(why)…. so I can present it to the shareholders in hopes of getting additional funding for our project.” Or the bigger why: “We show up every day to provide the best environment for our patients. We want them to feel safe, seen, and supported. The work we do here changes lives.”

Most importantly however is that you sit with yourself and go within, reflecting on your why. Without it, you cannot show up and be fully present and successful as a leader.

What is your why?