Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County today, 1/8/13:
Hello Everyone. Welcome into a New Year. As many of us are strategically thinking this time of year, I was privileged to be a part of 2 discussions and they both drew me back to the importance of purpose. One was a meeting with the Leadership Reno County Advisory Board. Lynette was presenting some details on the coming class and asked a gathering question, “What is the purpose of Leadership Reno County?” Our discussion around this question really helped give us focus, and, specifically, encouraged us to dream about what we’d like to accomplish in the future.
My second discussion area was in the church work. My leadership team was discussing the ins and outs of a particular decision and one of my leaders asked, “Well, what is the purpose of this?” The light bulb went off in our collective heads as we realized that all our time in discussion would have been better served if we would have started with that question, because the discussion would have been a moot point. A direction would have been clear if we agreed on purpose.
So, purpose matters. It serves a pragmatic purpose (as my examples show) but also keeps us on target and affects the decisions in the minutiae. Time and again in life I see how important this is to unite people around purpose and chart direction accordingly.
Let’s begin this new year, then, holding relentlessly to purpose and see if it doesn’t help foster progress in those issues we care about so deeply.