CompTIA BookBuzz, Chapter Six: Purpose

Submitted by guest blogger MJ Shoer

In the book Drive by Daniel Pink, the author includes a fantastic chapter on Purpose in Chapter 6.  I somewhat struggled with the differentiation of Motivation 2.0 and Motivation 3.0 up to this chapter, but Pink’s correlation of purpose to these really brought things into clarity for me.  Simply stated, Motivation 3.0 brings to the table to concept that today’s professional is looking for much more than a lucrative paycheck to feel valued as a person and an employee.  Even more pointed, and something near and dear to my heart, he talks about successful businesses as those where the employee refers to the company as our company rather than his/her or “the” company.  They also talk about working with their coworkers or managers rather than for.  This is something I learned early in my career and work on every day in my own business.  Whenever I hear someone refer to Jenaly as my company, I correct them and say it’s our company or that we work together first, even though they do technically work for me.  I think these are very important distinctions and really do help create a better and more rewarding organization for all concerned.

Pink starts this chapter talking about how quickly life may pass us by if we are not fulfilled by what we do.  He carries that out to talking about life expectancies in different parts of the world and what our expectations are and should be.  He uses this preface to talk about what he calls the Purpose Motive.  It all boils down to a fundamental philosophy that we all want to be working on or toward something that is bigger than just us.  It’s not about how much we can accomplish for ourselves in a vacuum, but how we can positively affect the world and those around us at the same time.  To truly do great work, we want that work to have a positive impact on the lives of others, our communities and our worlds.  That’s why many of us participate in numerous volunteer activities and Boards.  Might this also be why you have chosen to be a member of CompTIA?  To impact more than just your unique area of technology that you work in each day?  I know that for me, I hope to positively impact our industry in a way that will have positive impact for our clients and therefore our business and our team.  That’s what motivates me each day and according to Pink, it would seem I am being driven by Motivation 3.0.

Pink goes on to talk about goals, policies and words and how they relate to the generations, from the Boomers to the Gen-Y’s, also known as the millennials or echo boomers.  It all comes down to having a purpose larger than yourself.  The chapter is full of great examples and wonderful quotes and really reinforces the themes throughout the book.  There is a great part of this chapter where Pink talks about soon to be graduates of Harvard Business School and how they thought that they aspired to the goals of the successful graduates that came before them and went on to be major players on Wall Street, until they realized these same icons were principally responsible for what Pink describes as a financial crises of unprecedented scale.  Once they have this shocking realization, the graduates draft a manifesto of sorts, for what they aspire to and personal income is not the driving force.  They gather years later, for those that signed on, to see how they have fared in the business world and the most successful of them have truly aspired to a purpose larger than themselves.

Pink concludes the chapter talking about “The Good Life”, summed up by this wonderful quote by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; “One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.”  I hope you enjoy the book and I also hope to meet you at the BookBuzz lunch at Breakaway.  See you next week!