How Purpose and Leadership Change in Transformational Times
We live in transformational times in which almost everything is radically changing. Our values evolve and our belief system is changing as quickly as the things around us. In the Next Visions Podcast, we welcomed many thought leaders, who shared their journey and personal advice. What can we learn from them for the challenges ahead in terms of leadership and purpose?
“If you can see your employees working, they’re productive. If you pay them more, they’ll work harder“. Already a decade ago the Harvard Business Review argued that this corporate mentality is not suitable to meet the challenges of work in the future. Even the title of the article sums up the changing belief system perfectly: “Meaning is the new money”.
One of the central values in the digital workplace, which is becoming increasingly important, is collaboration. But managers cannot prescribe teamwork, it must be created within the company culture. Rather than monitoring and evaluating the work itself, managers need to create the foundation, a framework within which employees can express themselves. So how does that work? With Purpose, writes Tammy Erickson, a widely-respected expert on collaboration and innovation, the changing workforce, and the nature of work in intelligent organizations. In 2020 it cannot be dismissed that people are looking for a purpose in their jobs and that many career changes are driven by that wish.
In the first season of the English Next Visions podcast by Porsche in collaboration with the House of Beautiful Business, we brought together thought leaders of today to talk about their vision for the future. Many of our guests have changed their career paths and their lives over time, transformed themselves or found a new purpose; especially the guests of our very first episode: Ebru Koksal and Herminia Ibarra. Their experiences and insights about leadership and purpose in the future can certainly inspire to navigate the challenges ahead — especially in uncertain times.
A leap of faith can make you a trailblazer
If anyone knows what it feels like to turn your life upside down basically overnight, it is Ebru Koksal. In 2000, Ebru had just become a mother for the second time and she already had an impressive career as a financial manager in New York and her home country, Turkey. But suddenly, things did not go as planned, she got fired and found herself needing to rethink her future.
It led her to become Managing Director of Galatasaray Istanbul, one of the most prestigious Turkish football clubs. In 2010, Ebru became the first and so far only woman to be elected to the board of the European Club Association. A year later, she also became the only female general secretary of the Turkish Football Association. Her story shows that it’s worth to take risks and leave your own comfort zone or as she describes it: “I took a leap of faith by leaving banking, but I stayed in football for the next twenty years.”
Well-being can be a goal for your work in many professions
As a study published in 2017 by Jing Ju and Jacob B. Hirsh revealed, people are willing to accept significantly lower salaries in exchange for more meaningful work. The analysis suggests that companies should have a strong interest in communicating the meaning of the work. The researcher Jing Hu and Jacob B. Hirsh have also found that people are more likely to turn down very well-paid job offers if they have a sense of purpose in their work.
However, what is meaningful is an individual matter for each employee. So there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Having an idea or vision is hard enough, but it can be even harder to implement it. How do you shape your career in the future to get into a position where ideas can become a reality?
How to change your career path
Ebru, who was forced to change careers, found her perfect counterpart in the podcast. She met with Herminia Ibarra, one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and career development. Herminia did not only study a countless amount of people who went through drastic career changes, she made a lifechanging decision as well.
From a professional view, Herminia’s engagement at Harvard was a dream, but she never really liked Boston. In consequence, she took a sabbatical and moved to Paris on trial — and eventually fell in love with the city and her life there. And that is also the advice she would give to others: To develop your own entrepreneurial gig and decide which path you want to follow.
And ultimately, as both women agree, you have to know when you need to leave your comfort zone. Herminia says: “Leaving your comfort zone is hard and sometimes it’s risky. But sometimes it’s actually a lot riskier to stay there”.
You find the full conversations of Ebru and Herminia on all audio streaming platforms including Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Deezer.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
