From Reactive Living to Meaningful Leadership
We’re becoming an increasingly individualised society, with rates of burnout, depression and anxiety soaring, and, concerningly, mental health concerns twice as prevalent in small business owners compared with the rest of the population. Globally, the percentage of people volunteering and donating to charity has decreased, and when we do give, it’s often in response to major events.
It seems that, as well as becoming increasingly reactive to the many tech notifications that steal our focus, we’re even reactive in our giving. The result of this individualism and lack of collective relational alignment is plummeting engagement scores in our workplaces and rising loneliness levels in society as a whole.
As someone who’s not just a leadership speaker and coach, but also the founder and owner of a brick-and-mortar technical business with more than 20 staff, the outlook feels dire.
The answer is simple, but not easy. We can choose to architect our purpose, as individuals and as organisations, to align the individuals within our organisations.
Now, this is the point at which many of you will start to eye-roll. Defining purpose, just like finding Simon Sinek’s “why,” is hard… or so I’m told.
But what if it wasn’t? What if it was a simple examination of the patterns of your life to date?
The things you most care about. What you’d do if money or time wasn’t an object. What you think about and talk about. The experiences you’ve had. The “Can I pick your brain about…” questions that people ask you.
And once you build your purpose, then what?
I have a number of regular rituals to reconnect back to mine. Some of these include a simple daily, weekly and monthly reflection process: what’s gone well, reviewing my vision board on my wall, a family and business-based charity giving program so that when good things happen for us, good things happen in the world.
And most recently, at a media event in Sydney, I wrote down three words to summarise what I see as what I do: legacy, meaning and courage. I want these for myself, and I want them for the people I work with.
Is there a KPI or an end goal or a way we can measure these? Maybe, but not always. But to me, that’s the point.
Our purpose is a guiding principle that we define based on what matters to us. It’s fluid. It can evolve. And only we can decide, ultimately, what our definition of success is.
But do we ever reach the summit of our purpose? Probably not. So let’s learn to love the journey.
Originally published in my 20% More newsletter on LinkedIn on 26 May 2026.
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