Question #1 was “Why do I exist?”, question #2 was “How do I behave?”and the third question to get unstuck and create clarity in your life, work and leadership is “What do I do?” This question is the simplest and takes the least amount of time to answer. While question #1 was aspirational and idealistic, this question is one sentence that your grandfather could understand. It sounds straight forward and it’s amazing the impact of not clearly stating it and not communicating it just as clearly.
For the first three years of being in business, my wife told everyone who asked that I was a life coach, instead of a leadership and executive coach. My wife wasn’t alone either because during that same time, as my business was getting started, I would basically do anything that even remotely resembled leadership coaching or consulting. Sometimes I would even…wait for it…life coach. This fuzziness on the question “what do I do” kept me stuck, unfocused and made it difficult to gain much momentum on my purpose and questions 4 and 5 that I’ll introduce in upcoming posts.
My answer to this question today is I provide leadership coaching, consulting and training to help leaders develop as servant leaders and implement servant leadership into their organization.
So stop right now, and write down the answer to “What do I do?” After you write it, go tell you wife, husband, significant other, business partner, close friend and anyone who will listen. Make sure they know the answer to.
The answer might change over time, but always knowing the answer will contribute to clarity and a new guidepost will be added for your life and leadership.
How did it feel to write down the answer and share it?
Review the answers to all three question. What clarity do you have that you didn’t have before?