How to Find Meaning and Significance as a Young Leader

It starts with getting clear about you as a young leader. You are not any different from other young leaders around you who seem to have more control over their lives and careers. You just haven’t figured out how to have the right people around you who can help you maximize your potential. Personal coaching helps you do this well.

The most important thing personal coaching helps you find is your voice. Your Authentic Leadership Voice as I call it.

It helps you uncover that voice.

It helps you develop that voice.

And it helps you master that voice.

Your voice is more than what you are. It’s more than what you do. It’s more than what you have to offer. It’s more than the benefits you give others. It’s more than the features of your resume. It’s more than your qualifications. And it’s more than your education.

Your voice is about inspiration. It’s about the human spirit. It’s about ignition. It’s about passion. It’s about setting your team on fire. It’s about expansion. It’s about quality. It’s about presence. And it’s about influence.

I like these words by Paul the Apostle in the book of 1st Corinthians in the 14th Chapter “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” That word signification means meaning, message or significance. Your voice has significance. Your voice has meaning. The meaning and significance of your voice is found in your message. Your message is how you build people up. If you want meaning in your life, find your voice. If you want significance in your life, find your voice.

How do you find your voice?

You start by asking yourself authentic, deliberate and intentional personal questions. Personal coaching can help you ask the right questions that are central to your identity such as “Who am I?” and “Who do I wish to become?” In her 2006 study titled The interdependency of vocational and liberal aims in higher education, Kathleen Knight Abowitz points out that these types of questions encourage students to place their vocational goals within a broader context of purpose. I believe we are all students and I believe in lifelong learning. I believe there is still so much to learn about yourself, how you think and why you do what you do, and this is why I founded Becoming a Willing Student.

These questions are about crafting an identity and personal mission that your team can rally behind. You can’t fake this. Your identity and mission have to be real. It has to be genuine. Think resonance. Think deep. Think appealing. Think others. You have to speak to the hearts not just the minds of your team.

In her study, Abowitz also points out that at a time when colleges are focused on job preparation, coaching can help students obtain a greater vocational perspective. In their 2018 report titled Humans Wanted: How Canadian youth can thrive in the age of disruption, RBC found out that too many young people “have been trained for jobs that may go away rather than equipped with skills that will be ever more valuable.” I believe coaching helps you as a young leader to develop foundational skills to navigate the new global marketplace and have a bigger mission for your life beyond just having a job. Meaning and significance is more important in life than just having a job.

If you haven’t started asking the right questions, start now and start where you are, but don’t stop there. Think beyond your career. Think beyond your industry. Think beyond your city. Think beyond your workplace. Think beyond positioning yourself. Think about being the one, for your team. Like Oprah Winfrey once said “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”

Think why your team should choose you. Think what really makes you stand out. Think beyond anyone else who looks like you. Think beyond your skills. Think beyond your experience. Think beyond your credentials and your qualifications.

Think proclamation. Think immediacy. Think identity. Think ideas. Think authenticity. And think brand. It’s about maximizing you. You are that Authentic Leadership Voice.

If this seems a little hard, I understand. Finding meaning and significance in your life and becoming who you want to be as a young leader is more than having a job title. It’s more than PowerPoints. It’s more than having a social media profile. It’s about hearts. It’s about emotions. People follow their hearts. People follow their emotions. You need help doing this and I would love to get on the phone with you and talk about this.

Some of my best lessons about finding meaning and significance in life and succeeding as a young leader have come from studying successful corporate brands.

When I think about Disney, I think magic. Not movies.

When I think about Apple, I think innovation. Not technology.

In my humble (but accurate) opinion magic is Disney’s Authentic Leadership Voice. And innovation is Apple’s Authentic Leadership Voice.

What is your Authentic Leadership Voice?