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Empowering employees for the retail revolution
Speaker, trainer and author Pete Smith is a leading thinker in the fields of leadership, management and personal growth. Author of the popular and inspiring Dare to Matter: Choosing an Unstuck and Unapologetic Life of Significance, Smith recently spoke at the PRSM National Conference in Nashville on “Advancing Your Career: A Focus on the Five Pillars of Progress” and “Built for Legacy: Developing and Leading Teams that Matter.” Here, he offers insight into the relationship between business productivity and a personal sense of purpose.
PRSM: How do you and your company, SmithImpact, help businesses?
Smith: My primary focus is to work with employees and managers on incorporating significance into their lives, both personally and professionally. Everyone wants to know with certainty that what we do matters. The keys to motivation, engagement, recruitment and retention exist within someone’s relentless pursuit of significance, not solely in someone’s pursuit of success.
PRSM: We are often advised to “follow our passion.” How does this differ from the pursuit of purpose?
Smith: There’s a lot of talk about the importance of passion, and while I’m a believer in passion, for many people, passion is a feeling, and feelings come and go. The larger thing we want to focus on is purpose; passion is your fuel, but purpose is your roadmap. Especially for the sales managers and sales teams of tomorrow, I would engage them in conversations that will involve them in purpose on an individual and collective level.
PRSM: How does an individual or a sales team find their purpose, beyond the obvious goals and objectives of their workplace?
Smith: I think there’s a bit of a myth around purpose, in that many people think it’s lost and it needs to be found. My perspective is it’s not lost; it simply needs to be chosen. You choose those one or two words that embody everything you want your life to be about. If people can articulate an answer for that question, they’re much further along in identifying their purpose.
PRSM: Why is this important for business?
Smith: If there’s a disconnect between personal and professional purpose, people burn out. For example, if you personally stand for equality, it would resonate in your relationships and your parenting; it penetrates every aspect of your life. You apply it individually, and you also apply it to your team.
You have organizational identity, team identity and personal identity. One team identity was summed up in the sentence: “We don’t let a day go by until at least one sale is made.” Their product is a $3,500 product. One member of the team personally stood for opportunity. He viewed his role as creating opportunities both for the sales people on his team and for the customer. Someone else had a stand for achievement; through being a part of that team, he fulfilled his purpose.
We always hear that we have to keep our personal life separate from our professional life. That sounds awesome, but I’ve never seen it in action.
By: Sarah B. Hood
