Taking Care of Today to Take Care of Tomorrow

In our recent poll, 69% of people felt that Purpose was a more important element than Presence in an organisation’s performance.

To those of you that took part, thanks so much.

Purpose has become a bit of a buzzword over the last 10 years or so, popularised by Simon Sinek’s exceptional work on finding our “WHY” and collectively serving a “Just Cause.” It’s been popularised for good reason.

No doubt, purpose is essential.

At FROM:TODAY, we define purpose as the extent to which an organisation has shared, big picture meaning and direction.

And indeed, it’s hard to maintain the highest standards, continuing to push, challenge and grow when there isn’t enough clarity as to what it’s all for – when fundamentally, people just don’t quite care enough. It can all start to feel a little too much like hard work – “But why though? What for?”

However, without high quality presence, how can we ensure the quality of what we do along the way?- whatever the bigger picture purpose. Poor quality human beings will inevitably lead to poor quality humans doing. If we aren’t able to dedicate all of our attention to what’s actually happening here and now – the quality will suffer. Even if we’re planning for the future, or discussing that big picture purpose, what will the quality of that planning or discussion be like if people aren’t giving it their full attention?

This is my take:

Clarity of purpose satisfies a key human need for meaning, giving an organisation that drive, motivation and a sense of direction.

Presence ensures the quality of how we do along the way – whatever direction we’re going.

Another way of looking it could be:

Purpose is the track laid out ahead.

Presence is the train that allows you to travel down the track.

Suffice to say, my vote was with the other 31% – “Both equally important.”

The ying and yang of presence and purpose in your organisation:

Both individually and collectively, we need both.

And we need to get the balance right.

Looking at it from an organisational point of view, Kim Scott, former CEO of Google Ventures brilliantly makes a distinction between the Rockstars and Superstars of companies.

The Rockstars:

According to her, the “Rockstars” are the “rocks” of your team. They are reliable, enjoy their work, perform well and aren’t interested in promotion or more responsibility. It’s wrong and judgemental to perceive them as lacking in ambition or drive. They’re crucial for stability. They’re crucial for maintaining excellence and taking care of what is rather than always looking to what next. They help to ground your business.

They take care of a business’s performance in the present.

They take care of the smooth running of the train.

The Superstars:

“Superstars” have a steeper career trajectory as they are driven by new challenges, growth and pushing the boundaries. Their voices are probably more easily heard and felt within businesses. Superstars are needed.

They’re crucial for ensuring a business has continued purpose and direction.

They’re crucial for laying the tracks.

But it’s not practical to have a business full of them. Otherwise, who’s taking care of the now?

Who’s ensuring the train doesn’t break down?

The upshot – Pay attention to your rockstars

It’s probably the “Rockstars” that are most in danger of being overlooked, undervalued and overworked. We’ve recently seen the trend of “quiet quitting” where lots of people are effectively checking out, going through the motions and picking up a paycheck as their contribution is not valued.

It’s easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.

How do you better reward the people that take care of your right now?

Take your eye off the ball and the train could easily come off the rails.

Presence and high performance:

So, we need to give greater weight to high quality presence in business, being intentional about creating spaces where it can thrive.

I mentioned in my previous post on Creativity that Presence is a hard sell in business because it doesn’t feel like it does much. “What, just being?” All feels a bit inactive.

A lack of presence might not initially seem like much of a red flag when it comes to performance. After all, business is all about high quality action. We measure success on productivity and output.

But you can’t have an agile, adaptive culture without presence. As I mention above – people simply giving their full attention to what they are doing right now.

Presence will help develop cultures that constantly evolve and flow – much like a river – often guarding against the need for the more tumultuous, revolutionary changes. These are harder to manage and the result of staying still for too long.

Let’s place your organisation under the microscope:

How much space are people given to reflect individually and collectively on their performance? How much space are people given for lateral thinking and rethinking? Does your BAU often result in bouts of burnout, costly mistakes and a drop off in overall quality?

Presence and awareness keep you off of the conveyor belt of mindless doing.

Instead, mindful doing keeps a business alive, relevant and continuously responsive to the constantly changing demands of the world around us.

So, going back to the initial poll question on presence or purpose, this is not a case of either or, but rather a “yes AND” development.

Organisations the world over need to pay more attention to what’s happening right now, creating the support and structures for their people to be more present. Only by cultivating this presence can we truly ensure the quality of our actions as well as our readiness to tackle whatever comes next.

If you feel your organisation could do better on this front, here’s our guidance:

1. Start with you and mark out regular intervals each day to practise being present. If you can’t practise presence in low stakes conditions, how will you manage it under pressure when the stakes are sky high?

2. Staying with you, be intentional about allowing space for reflection and self management each day.

3. As you notice the impact on a personal level, think about how you can create these pockets of presence and reflection for your people.

4. Have you considered building a mentorship programme within your organisation, or investing in coaching opportunities for your people. Both are intentional measures to create space for individual and collective self reflection, away from the busy doing.

5. What opportunities does your organisation offer to help people get out of their heads and de-stress? Are there any creative wellbeing initiatives that might just help here?