Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team

For individuals, our WHY is fully formed by our late teens. To uncover our WHY we must bring together our standout memories—our defining moments—and examine them to find the connections.

It’s easier to hire someone based on their résumé. It’s harder to hire someone for their cultural fit.

Every single one of us is entitled to feel fulfilled by the work we do, to wake up feeling inspired to go to work, to feel safe when we’re there and to return home with a sense that we contributed to something larger than ourselves.

With one or two shiny nuggets in hand, you’re ready to take a crack at your Why Statement. Try to make yours: • simple and clear • actionable • focused on the effect you’ll have on others, and • expressed in affirmative language that resonates with you.

At its core, the WHY is an origin story. By looking to our past and teasing out the most significant threads—the experiences we’ve had, the people we’ve been influenced by, the lives we’ve touched and the highs and lows we’ve faced—we can identify patterns.

The first blank represents the contribution you make to the lives of others. The second blank represents the impact of your contribution.

Eventually, you will put your Why Statement into this format: TO _______________________ SO THAT _______________________ .

You’ll come up with as many specific, impactful memories as you can—at least ten. Once you’ve got them all down, you’ll choose about five or six that made the biggest difference in your life and share them in as much detail as you can.

Every organization—and every person’s career—operates on three levels, as shown in the illustration on the next page: What we do, how we do it, and why we do it.