I am currently teaching a career development course to a group of masters level counselors in training (current date February 2022). In preparation for the course, I read texts on various approaches to career development. They are diverse, thoughtful, and energizing to me. I love learning about them. One of the first approaches that was explored in the academic literature (I word it this way because people have been guiding others in their life and lifework journey for thousands of years) relates to person-environment fit.
What is person-environment fit in career development?
Founders of this career development approach explain that people function best in careers (environments) that connect with their natural traits (person). Different others focus on different traits. Some approaches emphasize connecting values and abilities with careers (Work Adjustment Theory), interests with careers (Holland), and personality with careers (MBTI approach).
Other approaches are also developed that don’t fit into this paradigm of career development (narrative career counseling, relational career counseling, spirituality in career counseling). Most approaches apply elements of the original academic view of career as a person-environment fit, but I have another addition.
What if the paradigm was purpose-environment fit?
What if the individual’s sense of purpose is connected to the career environment? What if the environment (employer) also clearly led with their purposeful vision? Interconnecting the individual’s purpose with the purpose of the organization is a beautiful career union.
Work ceases to be a negative four letter word when purpose is the core work motivation. This form of work becomes a lifework. It becomes a legacy. It becomes a way of sharing part of one’s deepest offering to the world. Sure, part of work can still be about money and livelihood, but I believe we shortchange ourselves when finances are what lead in the career development process.
How do we shift towards supporting people in finding a purpose-environment fit?
Purpose is very personal. Individuals can spend time reflecting on their values, what truly energizes them in life and work, consider the suffering they want to alleviate in the world, explore how their inheritance (biological predisposition, family-of-origin influences, cultural influences, spiritual influences) impacts their life/work, and how they wish to live a whole and complete life (inner and outer). This is a big endeavor that takes time (perhaps a lifetime).
It is important for the individual to also consider how certain transition points in life can be viewed as a crossroads. Taking the turns in the road that move you towards purpose can sound easy, but it is often difficult to discern. Yet thinking about how all the crossroads in life ultimately come to an end as we die can shed some light on the life and career journey. I have talked to people who are dying. Death allowed them to quickly and clearly sift out what was most meaningful in their life. I don’t think clients have to be dying to recognize that life is short. What would change in your life if you lived with more of a presence with death? Perhaps knowing that life is fragile and time is short would lead clients to choose to use their time in purposeful ways. Because most people spend at least 40 hours of their waking life (at least in the United States and other western countries) at work, it would be sad to look back on life and not believe that all that work and time mattered.
For more information on each of these topics of how individuals explore their purpose, see my other blog posts on the foundations of purpose as well as my forthcoming posts on the themes of purpose! I also offer career counseling and coaching for those who feel they need individualized support in this endeavor.
How do we shift towards organizations leading with purpose?
Many might say that organizations already lead with purpose. That is what mission statements and vision statements are for, right? Oftentimes mission statements and vision statements are shortsighted. They focus on production and monetary growth. Other times they are fluffy statements that use nice words but they are disconnected from the actual lived experience in the organization.
For an organization to really lead with purpose, they need to see how the organization fits into the larger societal whole. How does the organization play an important role in helping society? No matter the organization, they all play a part. The grocery store brings food to the community. The garbage collector keeps the community clean. The physician helps community members physically heal. The civil engineer helps the community develop sustainable infrastructure. The restaurant server helps feed the community and provide social experiences. Therefore, how does the organization serve the community? What is the organization’s purpose as it relates to people?
Organizational leaders and workers need to take the time to wrestle with their purpose. Having authentic conversations on what purpose the organization truly plays (or could/should play in the future) is the first step. After a genuine discussion takes place, that conversation can inform the mission, vision, and strategic planning of the organization. Leading from this space shifts the focus from production to purpose, but I believe that as organizations live their purpose they better enable themselves to sustainably and ethically profit.
It is important to know the mission, vision, and purpose of organizations because it allows individuals to find organizations that connect with their personal sense of purpose. As mentioned above, forming a union between individual and organization purpose will likely lead to employees who are productive and loyal and lead to organizations that fulfill their highest visions and missions.
Conclusion
As you can see, my bias is towards purpose as a function of contributing to people in society. Purpose is about helping people, about contributing, about doing something that matters, about having a larger vision for what life could ideally look like then moving towards that end. I believe that society is best when people (and organizations) embody their purpose in their life and work. Finding the interconnection between one’s purpose and one’s work could be a big part of what the world needs of each one of us.
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