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The search for purpose at work
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THE SEARCH FOR PURPOSE AT WORK
June 3, 2021 | Podcast
By Naina Dhingra and Bill Schaninger
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Purpose is personal, but companies play a critical role in how we express it.
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Article (12 pages)
In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Naina Dhingra and Bill Schaninger talk
about their surprising discoveries about the role of work in giving people a
sense of purpose. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.
Audio
Diane Brady: Hello and welcome to The McKinsey Podcast. I’m Diane Brady. In this
episode, we’re talking about fascinating new research on individual purpose, the
impact that it has on companies, and the impact that your company has on your
own sense of purpose. Joining me are two colleagues—first, Naina Dhingra, a
partner in the New York office. Hi, Naina.
Naina Dhingra: Hi, Diane. Happy to be here.
Diane Brady: Great. And Bill Schaninger, a senior partner in McKinsey’s
Philadelphia office. Hi, Bill.
Bill Schaninger: Hi, Diane.
Diane Brady: So let’s start, Naina, with you. Purpose is a term that is tossed
around quite a bit. Define it in this context. What’s individual purpose?
Naina Dhingra: When we think about this idea of individual purpose, the way we
think about it is it’s an overarching sense of what matters in a person’s life.
I like to use the term “North Star”—this idea of having a sense of direction,
intention, and understanding that the contribution you’re making is going
somewhere. Now, that’s a technical definition but I think we all intuitively
know what it feels like to be on purpose. It’s when you feel energized and
inspired and alive.
And it turns out, actually, in some of our research about 85 percent of
people feel they have a purpose. But only about 65 percent of them believe they
can actually articulate that purpose—which we thought was really interesting.
Diane Brady: Bill, it feels almost like an existential problem, our sense of
purpose. Can you root it in the context of organizational health?
Bill Schaninger: You know, I think one of the things that’s been really
challenging during the pandemic was a bifurcation. There were people who were
frontline or customer-facing or critical workers, who had to go to work in a
time when livelihoods took a back seat to lives. It felt risky.
And that really brought front and center the idea of “my primary purpose at this
point is I have to work, and I’d like to make it home without getting sick.” But
for a significant other portion, people were removed from the workplace while
still having to do work.
We had this unbelievable smashing together of two worlds: the home world and the
work world. I think it’s really brought to the fore “Well, what exactly does
work mean to me? What do I have to get out of it? Is it merely a check that
facilitates the rest of my life or is it something more purposeful?”—using that
word quite explicitly.
Can we put a finer point on starting with the person and leaving behind the
arrogance that the organization thinks it dictates to people what their purpose
is? That is just nonsense. Individuals decide what their purpose is. It’s the
organization’s role and opportunity to figure out how to help people bring that
purpose to a finer point of what matters to them and to figure out whether or
not they can create a role or an experience within the organization that helps
meet that. So a big portion of this was, one, starting with the idea that the
person was in the prime role and, two, the organization was in a facilitative
role, not in front.
DEFINING ONE’S PURPOSE THROUGH WORK
Diane Brady: Naina, I’d love to unpack purpose a bit more because, to Bill’s
point, I often think about it at the corporate level. It is something that
usually speaks to higher values or a higher mission. On an individual level, can
you give me some examples of how people define their purpose?
Naina Dhingra: When we think about employees themselves and how they think about
their own sense of purpose, one of the things that we were surprised to find in
the research is that about 70 percent of people say they define their purpose
through work. And, actually, millennials, even more so, are likely to see their
work as their life calling. So what that means is that people are looking for
opportunities in the work they do day-to-day to be actually contributing to what
they believe their purpose is.
> One of the things that we were surprised to find in the research is that about
> 70 percent of people say they define their purpose through work. And,
> actually, millennials, even more so, are likely to see their work as their
> life calling.
>
> Naina Dhingra
Diane Brady: You know, I hear “life calling” and I can’t help but think that’s a
little bit sad. Bill, maybe I’m just biased here. Is work our life calling right
now because we don’t have a lot else to do but be on our Zoom calls and work? Is
this a good thing?
Bill Schaninger: Well, yeah, I’ll tell you, as someone who’s been trapped in a
home that was supposed to be a weekend retreat, I’ve basically not left here in
14 months. I can see how we’d land at that idea. Let me take a slightly
different take on it. I think what the millennials are saying to us is “Anything
I do, I’m going to do with gusto. Time is zero sum. There are only so many hours
in the day. If I’m going to do something, it has to work for me. And part of it
having to work for me is that it has to work for others.”
I think there’s something admirable about that. I’m 51, so I’m a product of the
’80s and, you know, Gordon Gekko,1A character in the 1987 film Wall Street,
directed by Oliver Stone. who was presented to us as a nemesis and ended up
becoming a folk hero.
Diane Brady: “Greed is good.”
Bill Schaninger: Right, exactly—the Michael J. Fox version of Alex P.
Keaton,2Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, was a character in the TV
series Family Ties, which ran from 1982 to 1989. right? The archetypal
Republican mantra from the ’80s into the ’90s; it just was a different
worldview. I think it’s really nice that we have people saying, “Hey, I don’t
want to be associated with people who are scumbags or do things that hurt the
world. I want to be associated with people who are a force for good.”
I love that. And that doesn’t mean it’s naive. It may be uncalibrated. It may be
unspecific.
> I think it’s really nice that we have people saying, “Hey, I don’t want to be
> associated with people who are scumbags or do things that hurt the world. I
> want to be associated with people who are a force for good.
>
> Bill Schaninger
Certainly, some of the stuff that we found when we were engaging with our newest
joiners or our youngest members was, as Naina was saying, the difficulty to put
a fine point on what the end state is. So they could say that they know “it” has
to be better and “it” has to help others. But they had a difficult time
explaining explicitly what “it” is. As people mature—and I don’t mean age but
rather just mature in their experiences—as soon as there is another viable claim
on their time, attention, and energy, then work can diminish a bit in its
importance.
But it also gets way clearer the role that work has to play. Work may have an
economic contribution, in terms of carrying and providing for the people you
love. But you likely also start getting way more specific in terms of where
you’d like to put in your time and your effort. That could be education. It
could be making people safer. It could be making better roles or jobs for
communities. The whole point is, as you get a little further down the line and
you start to have other people who need you in terms of your providing care for
them, then work goes from diffuse to quite specific pretty quickly.
HOW PARENTING AFFECTS PURPOSE
Diane Brady: Naina, one of the things that fascinated me in looking at this
study was the fact that parents, for example, place a higher premium on purpose.
Can you talk a little bit about the slicing and dicing of the demographics
around this?
Naina Dhingra: I say this as a millennial with gusto: part of the reason for the
research was the debate that Bill and I were having around the role of purpose
in one’s life and the role of work in purpose—and whether or not these were two
distinct concepts or concepts that were actually quite overlapping, particularly
from the perspective of a millennial. The findings about parents we found really
interesting, particularly the fact that parents were more than twice as likely
to say that they relied on work for purpose. Time is always so scarce. Given the
trade-offs that parents are making between work and home, parents are keen to
make work time as meaningful as possible. The time that you’re spending away
from family really, really needs to matter.
In a number of focus groups, parents would say that having a child actually made
and helped crystallize their purpose and the impact on the world that they want
to have and why it matters. And so, if anything, it’s helped parents actually
look at work and what they want out of work—to ask for and seek more meaning in
their work. One of the things we are looking at when we look at this choice
parents make, often when they consider leaving the firm, is how are we ensuring
that people are getting more meaning so that they feel the trade-off is worth it
and that they have the ability to fulfill their purpose at work.
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LOOKING FOR PURPOSE OUTSIDE OF WORK
Diane Brady: You mentioned that you and Bill had been debating prior to doing
this study. I’m curious to know where you differed and whether this survey
reinforced your beliefs or surprised you in some way. Bill, I’m going to go to
you on that one.
Bill Schaninger: Well, I think the earliest debate was when I was saying we’re
living in something of a gilded cage. It’s really a position of privilege. We
work for a preeminent institution. Many of us have extensive academic
backgrounds. Basically, these are folks on the far end of a spectrum who work in
knowledge roles, so we’re lucky. My push was that there are people who don’t
look for purpose through work—that’s not how they view it. It’s a paycheck. And
that check is there because they need the transactional exchange, the economic
exchange to pay for their obligations, their responsibilities, to take care of
other things. There are people who really just want to be skateboarders or
really just want to be skiers or sailors. And whatever they do with their gifts,
work funds that.
Diane Brady: They’re called my children.
Bill Schaninger: Yeah, exactly. So I was challenging Naina to say that we should
get our heads around the idea that organizational purpose just doesn’t matter
that much. For some people, it’s just a check. And we were going back and forth
on that. At a minimum, this allowed us to come to the idea that personal
purpose, individual purpose, is prime.
There’s an amount that people give to work or vocation. Inside that is the space
where the organization gets to play, and organizations have to try to maximize
that. Through the things they do, they might actually expand the bit given to
work or vocation, but they should never assume that bit’s all of it. And then
the data, when it came in, gave us a really interesting understanding of how
that outside circle—the whole point around individual purpose—just how variable
that is.
Maybe one of the biggest insights is that you know how a company can help an
employee most? Help them figure out what their purpose actually is. Maybe if
there was one blinding insight, it was that: how hard a time many—particularly
newer—employees have in describing purpose with any kind of specificity.
THE BUSINESS CASE FOR HELPING EMPLOYEES FIND PURPOSE
Diane Brady: Well, it is hard. It does feel, Naina, like a personal
responsibility. I think of these self-help books about finding your purpose, and
it’s all about how you frame your role in the workplace. What’s the
responsibility of my employer in giving me purpose?
Naina Dhingra: Well, first I think we need the company to actually understand
that there is a business case for this. That was actually one of the other
things that Bill and I were debating. Bill was like, “I’m a CEO. Why do I care
about this stuff? Sounds a bit fluffy—send people into the woods to think about
the meaning of life. Why are we going to convince a CEO that they should care
about this?”
One of the really interesting pieces that we found in the research is that
nearly seven out of ten employees are reflecting on their purpose because of
COVID-19. Those employees who say that they live their purpose at work are six
and a half times more likely to report higher resilience. They’re four times
more likely to report better health, six times more likely to want to stay at
the company, and one and a half times more likely to go above and beyond to make
their company successful.
> Nearly seven out of ten employees are reflecting on their purpose because of
> COVID-19. Those employees who say that they live their purpose at work are six
> and a half times more likely to report higher resilience.
>
> Naina Dhingra
So the business case here is that when you help your employees find and live
their purpose at work, they’ll do better and are more likely to want to stay, as
well as more likely to want to go above and beyond. In fact, we found that as a
result of COVID-19, half of American employees are reconsidering the work that
they want to do.
Diane Brady: Bill, I’m going to ask you about this. Let’s say I am a CEO. I care
about my people. So how do I give them a sense of purpose? Is it how I define
the job description? I’ve given them all these benefits. I’ve tried to be
compassionate. But here’s a survey saying I’m not doing a good job.
Bill Schaninger: What they do, though, is they create an opportunity for that
person to live their purpose through the portion of their waking hours that’s
allocated to work. I’m not trying to play word games or draw a fine line there.
I just think agency matters.
Individuals have purpose. Organizations don’t give that to a person. The
organization as an entity, as a group of people collectively trying to do
something, may have a stated, shared purpose. And you’d like to believe that
alignment matters there. In fact, a good portion of the research we continue to
do is about moving from the attractiveness of individuals seeing the stated
purpose of the organization to getting a sense of whether or not that’s real,
seeing how they could fit in, and then whether or not they can realize that in
their daily activities—and whether or not that firms up a sense of belonging.
So organizations can be a conduit. They can make their purpose visible. They can
clearly show a link between what they’re asking a person to do and the stated
purpose. But the individual alone has agency in deciding what their purpose is
and whether or not it aligns with the company’s.
Diane Brady: One thing I want to make sure that I’m not mistaking, because I
think often we do, is the difference between passion and purpose. Naina, having
a passion for what we do seems to be a bit overrated. Is it quite different from
feeling a sense of purpose in what we do?
Naina Dhingra: That’s an interesting question because this is why, at the start,
we were talking about the definition of purpose, since one can have a purpose
and have the ability to articulate it. But then there’s also that sense of
actually being on purpose. And that sense of truly being on purpose, I would
say, often does come when somebody has a real passion for work. When you ask
somebody if they feel like they’re doing something in line with their purpose,
they might say, “Yeah, it’s because I’m doing something I’m passionate about.”
You know, one of the things I’m superpassionate about is working with people who
I get to apprentice and help grow. And I have passion for that and I feel alive
when I do it. That’s me fulfilling my purpose. And so I think there are a lot of
different words that we can use. But, ultimately, what we’re trying to do is say
that employers really have a role in helping people reflect on what that purpose
is. And part of that reflection is identifying those areas where people feel
alive, they feel passionate, they feel energized. And recognizing those areas
will help people reflect on what that sense of purpose is and how to find more
purpose in their day-to-day work.
ALIGNING ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL PURPOSE
Diane Brady: So does the organization’s purpose matter, Bill? That is the one
thing leaders can control. What difference does it make in aligning that with
the individual’s purpose?
Bill Schaninger: Well, look, the data here was surprisingly strong. This would
be one of those points where Naina could easily say to me, “I told you so.” When
someone is looking for the time they spend at work to have purpose and needs
alignment between the organization’s purpose and their own, it’s a multiple win
in terms of good outcomes, of employees wanting to stay and feeling like it’s a
good place to work and for their intention to stay and strive. And it has this
huge uplift when you have a great alignment between the organization’s purpose
and the individual’s purpose. What was interesting was the context where the
person wasn’t looking for the organization to provide it, but the organization
was doing a great job of helping people be on purpose.
I think the language that Naina was using there really matters. Being on purpose
maybe sounds a little bit like being on brand. It’s where you’re not creating
credibility problems. You’re not creating discontinuities between what you say
and what you do. Where you’re truly living credibly and honestly and
authentically. Even when a person didn’t initially say, “Oh, I need this from my
employer,” when the employer was doing it, there was still an uplift. So then
you had to say, “Well, what about the alternative?”
Well, that’s where it gets a little scary. If a person showed up believing the
organization stood for one thing and they really needed the organization’s
purpose to line up with their own, and then the organization violated this, it
was just that, a violation. It had significant downticks in the person’s
willingness to stay, their engagement, their involvement. You’d see a direct
link to performance. Also, for most people, that creates so much dissonance that
they usually leave.
Diane Brady: So hypocrisy is worse than having no stated purpose at all?
Bill Schaninger: Well, right. You could say, “Hey, this is transactional.”
There’s huge portions of the gig economy and other places where some companies
have basically tried to marginalize employees and say, “Oh look, they’re their
own contractors.” That’s economic exchange, not social exchange. I’m certain for
some people that’s OK, but you shouldn’t try to pass it off for what it isn’t.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PEOPLE & ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
PRACTICE?
WHY BUSINESSES SHOULD DEVELOP AN AUTHENTIC ORGANIZATIONAL PURPOSE
Diane Brady: There’s a lot of focus right now on wellness, Naina, and what we
can do for employees, with the recognition that certain groups—working mothers
and others—have really suffered during this pandemic and have opted out of work.
What are some of the levers that you can use in this situation, since we can’t
give people a sense of purpose other than giving them space to reflect? Is there
anything else that can be done to heighten the engagement and make it easier for
people to feel purpose in what they do?
Naina Dhingra: Well, let me build on what Bill was saying—this idea of what
companies can control and this idea that there’s actually an incredible unlock
that happens when an individual sense of purpose is lined up with the company’s
sense of purpose. We’ve found employees are five and a half times more likely to
say they’re fulfilling their purpose at work if that purpose is aligned with
their company’s.
> The individual alone has agency in deciding what their purpose is and whether
> or not it aligns with the company’s.
>
> Bill Schaninger
So where companies can start is understanding that you’re not getting anywhere
unless you have an authentic organizational purpose. This is a time in which
there is tremendous change going on in the world. Having an authentic
organizational purpose is about spending real time reflecting on the impact a
company has on the world. It’s not just about nice
corporate-social-responsibility contributions and making big statements. It’s
actually about engaging your employees on what that impact is. And what we found
is that employees who say their organizations spend real time reflecting on the
impact they make on the world are five times more likely to be excited to work
for the company.
These reflections and dialogues are one of the things that we’re most excited
about really helping our clients with, and helping ourselves at McKinsey as
well. There’s an opportunity to really pause and reflect on the individual’s
sense of purpose and how that links with the company and what the company is
trying to do for the world—especially at this moment, when there are so many
things going on in the world that really demand business to make a greater
contribution to society.
Diane Brady: You know, as we’ve been talking, I’ve been thinking, “What’s my
sense of purpose?” I can articulate a couple of different things that drive me,
and I certainly feel purpose in what I do. But I’d be curious to know, since you
are both on the front lines, how would you articulate your own sense of purpose?
Bill, I’m going to go to you first.
Bill Schaninger: Yeah, it’s a great question. You know, throughout this
conversation I was reflecting on the distance between my mom and me. My mom was
a teen parent. She was barely 17 when I was born and had both of her kids by the
time she was 20. She was a good student through school—and likely would’ve gone
to college and then had kids. At that time, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, she
didn’t go to college. In fact, she was actually kicked out of high school. But
as soon as I was, I don’t know, six or something, so my sister would’ve been
three, my mom had a real desire to go get a job.
A good portion of that job was just that there needed to be something more to
her life than being a housewife and a mom. It didn’t mean she didn’t love us or
didn’t love my dad. But she needed something for her. Some sense of freedom.
Some sense of belonging to something outside the home, not being defined by it.
And so for her, a lot of it really had to do with freedom and, to some extent,
contributing to the family economics. But mostly it was about freedom and
autonomy and being able to enjoy something. So she ended up becoming a
bookkeeper—you know, accounts payable, accounts receivable—and then, over the
course of 20 years, ended up running a plumbing-supply house, being the general
manager. A rather phenomenal arc, honestly.
Diane Brady: Definitely!
Bill Schaninger: But a lot of that was under this basic idea of freedom and then
enjoyment. But I think in her case, there was also some gender-norm busting, if
you consider the ’70s and early ’80s. Now, in my own case, it’s almost entirely
that I get unbelievable enjoyment out of being good at something or being
believed to be good at something. Being part of a place that has such a really
great institutional reputation like McKinsey.
You know, in many conversations, Naina and I anchor on this one phrase: “We’re
not going to make stuff up.” Anybody can make stuff up. We’re going to make sure
that what we say is right. That is core to my purpose. I would have been an
academic had I not come to McKinsey. I’d be a professor somewhere, teaching
about behavior and HR and management. The firm has really allowed me to tap into
my professional purpose, which is advancing the cause of the human condition at
work. Why do people behave the way they do at work? Why do leaders behave the
way they do at work?
That was the first decade of my McKinsey career. After I got elected partner, I
started feeling a greater and greater need. And my own personal situation
improved and changed, obviously. A huge portion of it was, “Boy, I’ve got to do
something for the kids who are like me.” And then it went from having the
freedom, the ability to choose whether I worked or not, to things like caring
and equality and security. Taking care of the ones I love, expanding beyond my
immediate family to making sure my mom had a house and was set up, taking care
of my godchildren. But then I started looking around where we were living, and
certainly here in the Lehigh Valley, in Pennsylvania, it was just, “Well, how
can I help kids who were like me?”
And McKinsey helped facilitate that, either through not-for-profit boards or
what I do with—well, frankly, excess income. Do you fund scholarships? Do you
fund summer programs? So if I compare and contrast the difference between my mom
and me, a lot of this purpose, for her, was that she loved being part of
something that was outside the house that she could be good at, have competence
at, and get the reward of doing what she felt she could maximize to do more.
For me, I was afforded the luxury of always being told I was going to be the
first one to go to school and make something of myself, in air quotes, and then
I landed at McKinsey. And Naina and I were talking about an organization being
able to help a person define their purpose. My purpose, initially, was rather
narrow. It was that McKinsey was going to be two or three years. I’d get the
stories and hightail it back to academics.
Diane Brady: Your initial purpose.
Bill Schaninger: Right. Initially, the purpose was just to make me a better
academic, a better professor. I didn’t count on loving it so much. I didn’t
count on realizing that, wow, we can really help change these
organizations—change the quality of the professional and personal lives of the
clients we’re working with. And I’m sure when you talk to Naina, even 30 seconds
in, there’s stories of some of the clients she’s serving. She’s personal friends
with many of them. Many of them have had these pivotal moments in their careers
and their lives where she’s helped them.
At least for me, I didn’t count on how much I was going to get enjoyment and
satisfaction and personal pride out of helping our clients. And then,
eventually, it just became doing not-for-profit work, helping large civic
institutions try to help make everybody’s life better. And so this arc, I think
it can change over time. I think it usually starts with some version of freedom
or caring or sustaining the people around you and can migrate. And when an
organization plays it right, it helps people through that progression, and it
helps them see broader opportunities so that when they excel, everybody can
excel.
Diane Brady: It’s very interesting to think about the recognition of purpose and
where somebody is in their career. Naina, I’m curious. What’s your sense of
purpose?
Naina Dhingra: You know, I was listening to Bill’s story, and the way I would
describe myself is truly as an accidental consultant who, in my heart of hearts,
is still the 20-year-old AIDS activist, almost getting arrested at the
Republican National Convention. You know, throwing stones in different areas of
big protests in Washington, DC. I grew up as a Sikh. Religion was very important
in my family. And one of the tenets of Sikhism is equality and social justice
and this desire to fight against things that are not right.
That was a huge part of my upbringing and really followed me in my 20s, which
were about being a social-justice activist. I somehow found myself at McKinsey,
in our Nonprofit Practice, and very much described my sense of purpose as about
equitable healthcare. I was working a lot on issues of AIDS in Africa, malaria,
tuberculosis, and very much felt McKinsey was a place for skills training to
help me fulfill that purpose. I would be able to fulfill that sense of purpose
outside of McKinsey, but I needed greater skills.
And lo and behold, ten years later, somehow I’m here as a partner. And I would
say, do I still have that sense of purpose? Very much. Very much. It is a core
part of who I am, this idea of equitable healthcare access. But my sense of
purpose has evolved and grown through my experiences, particularly my reflecting
on what I see as the powerful role of business to help solve humanity’s greatest
challenges—as somebody who grew up in nonprofits and grassroots campaigns and
working with the UN, to then really seeing the platform that business has. And
working with a number of clients, in particular pharmaceutical companies, and
seeing their passion and commitment toward solving some of the greatest global
health challenges of our time. And so I think purpose is something; there is an
innate sense of it that I’ve had.
But there is an evolution that happens, based on one’s experiences, the people
that one meets—and that’s one of the reasons why, ten years later, I still work
at McKinsey, even though many of my same friends working in many of these
public-health institutions crack up at the idea that I’m a pharma consultant and
management consultant who works on all of these interesting topics. But still,
in my heart of hearts I’m really this AIDS activist.
HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES FIND PURPOSE—OR WATCH THEM LEAVE
Read the article
WHY PURPOSE MATTERS, AND HOW TO FIND IT
Diane Brady: What advice do you have for the two thirds–plus of people out there
who don’t feel that sense of purpose, who certainly may be grateful to have a
job or may be looking for a job? What can they be doing to ignite a sense of
purpose in themselves if their employers are not doing it? Bill?
Bill Schaninger: Yeah, I was just reflecting on your question. It’s a really
good one. I’ve often thought that when talking about this, I wanted to make sure
that I wasn’t forgetting the very real condition for a lot of people, which is
that employment is necessary. It’s necessary so they can put food on the table
and a roof over the heads of the people they love. I don’t think we should ever
look past that or diminish it. I do think there’s an opportunity for
organizations when someone arrives at your doorstep because it’s a job. Maybe
you have an opportunity by just running the place a little bit better for them
to see some meaning in it, to see some purpose in it.
I remember I said to my mom, “Why is it so important to be a bookkeeper? Why
would you not want to be at home every day when we get home from school?” And my
mom said to both my sister and me, “Look, you just see it as a job. But it’s my
job. And I need to know that what I do there, I do really well and I’m good at
it.” That stuck with me quite a bit. Because if I’m honest, as a teenager,
things came naturally to me and I didn’t necessarily work as hard.
I think she was trying to impart this idea that there is satisfaction in doing
something well that’s yours, that you identify with, that you affiliate with. My
hope is that by engaging on this, organizations can see an opportunity to really
lay out a clear path for people and say, “This is what we stand for here at this
place. If you want to join us, we’re going to help you. We’re going to help you
make more meaning of it than its being just a job.” Any job can have meaning.
Any job can help fulfill performance. It does require the organization to live
into it. It requires the organization to be well run.
I think for individuals, it’s important to see through a lens of just how
important purpose is for autonomy, how important it is for freedom, for
stability, for caring for others, or moving into what Naina was talking about in
terms of equality and equity. You may not fulfill all of them but you can
certainly fulfill some of them. And I think one of the things we’re seeing is
that as people have more time, they have more affinity. They have more
belonging. They have more attachment to what the organization is doing and what
they’re doing individually. So maybe it becomes a bit of a virtuous cycle and it
can be reinforcing.
Diane Brady: Great. Naina, any thoughts that you have for listeners out there
who may or may not be feeling a sense of purpose?
Naina Dhingra: I would offer two simple questions to reflect on over a month,
every day. When did I feel most alive today? When did I feel most drained? I
think reflecting on those two questions over a 30-day period may offer some
really interesting insights about how you might feel about what’s going on at
work, what’s going on in your life, and help you on a path to reflecting on what
that sense of purpose might be.
Diane Brady: I think that’s great advice. I can’t think of a better place to
leave than that. Naina Dhingra, Bill Schaninger, thank you very much for joining
us.
Bill Schaninger: Thank you; it was a great conversation.
Naina Dhingra: My pleasure. Thank you.
Diane Brady: And thank you to the listeners out there. Whether you have found
your purpose or not, you’ll certainly find more information on how to nurture it
within your company and nurture it within yourself at McKinsey.com. I’m Diane
Brady. I look forward to seeing you next time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Naina Dhingra is a partner in McKinsey’s New York office, and Bill Schaninger is
a senior partner in the Philadelphia office. Diane Brady is an alumna of the New
York office.
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