2: How Mission-Driven is Your Career?

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[This transcript has not been edited and is being provided as a service.

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] I want to help make the world a better place.

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Sound familiar?

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Have you ever found yourself thinking that or saying that about your work?

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If the title of this episode caught your attention, then it probably does.

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As a career and executive coach with a background working for and with mission-driven organizations, many of the people I've met and worked with have said those same words to me.

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And does that mean that they'll end up working in the nonprofit, in the mission-driven world?

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Most of the time it doesn't.

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The truth is, you don't have to work at a nonprofit to be mission-driven, and the importance of mission isn't a yes or no thing For most people.

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You fall somewhere on a spectrum.

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Let's figure out where you are.

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I'm Doug Lester, an executive coach and career strategist to MBAs and ambitious professionals.

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I've worked one-on-one with well over a thousand people, helping them craft compelling work-life narratives and advance satisfying, meaningful careers.

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When it comes to your career and your life, if you don't craft your own narrative, then someone else might do it for you and you might not like what they come up with.

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So let's work together on your narrative.

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Now the vast majority of people I coach are trying to advance careers in for-profit companies, and the majority of those people are working in support of some sort of mission.

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It's often the case that it's a personal mission that comes to light as we discuss their lives and histories and what determines if their work is ultimately satisfying.

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Here are a few examples that come to mind from people I've worked with over the years Ensuring the world is a healthier, greener place.

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That comes from a mom thinking about her kids' futures.

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She found her mission-driven work at a for-profit startup that processes hard-to-recycle materials, making housing for disadvantaged populations more affordable and accessible through community investing at an investment bank.

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That came from an MBA who wanted to give back to a community like the one she grew up in, helping small business owners compete by making online retail affordable and accessible through an online marketplace.

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That one is from the daughter of immigrant parents who were successful because they were able to start their own business.

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My own business career narratives is for-profit, but I still consider the work I do to be mission-driven.

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I created career narratives to help MBAs and ambitious professionals find meaningful, satisfying work and advance their careers in a decidedly imperfect world.

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They face a lot of challenges along the way and I want to be there to help them overcome those challenges, and I've realized that this drive to help people advance their careers is partially the result of the challenges I saw my colleagues and mentees face when I was working as a manager in Fortune 500 companies.

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But when it comes to understanding a personal sense of mission, perhaps the most enlightening experience I've had was working as an executive recruiter for Isaacson Miller.

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Isaacson Miller or IM, is a top executive search firm that specializes in placing senior leaders in mission-driven organizations.

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As a recruiter there, I was sometimes approached by mid-career and senior professionals in the for-profit world who had developed a nagging sense that their work, regardless of industry or role, wasn't fulfilling a need to be doing something that was helping people, and they would make a case that their particular skills and experience could be put to better use as a leader at one of the firm's nonprofit clients.

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In short, the people who were contacting me wanted to do mission-driven work and they thought that the only possible way to do that would be at a nonprofit organization.

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After quite a few of these conversations, I came to the conclusion that their concept of mission-driven work was too limited.

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I also noticed that their commitment to mission existed along a spectrum, regardless of the industry and role.

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I found that people's relationship to mission generally falls into four categories.

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The first would be mission first.

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I would describe people working in the nonprofit world as mostly being mission first.

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They typically prioritize mission over money and may also prioritize it over other things like prestige and career progression.

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They still need to be making a living and it may be important to them that their work is recognized not necessarily through money, but their overriding concern is that their work advances a mission that's deeply meaningful to them, and that focus on mission tends to be quite specific.

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Examples could be fighting the causes of malaria in lesser developed countries, enabling symphony orchestras to survive and flourish in contemporary society, raising funds to cure a rare disease or facilitating the care and support of cancer patients and their families.

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The causes are quite specific and it's often the case that the person who supports the cause has a deep connection to the mission, either through direct personal experience or the experience of friends and family.

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Think of a person who, early in their life, saw a close friend or family member suffer from a rare disease, who then pursues a career in developing a cure for that disease or other similar diseases.

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Then there are people I would classify as mission-driven.

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They prioritize work in support of a mission, but they may have a broader view of what that mission could be.

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They also might be willing to make trade-offs to achieve specific financial goals or a certain level of career advancement.

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As an example, I've worked with a few MBAs who are committed to a broader mission of access to education or improving the health care system.

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While those missions definitely have a degree of focus and are more specific than simply helping people, they are less precise than the missions of those who might fall into the mission first category.

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I've often found that people I would classify as mission-driven will typically entertain a relatively wide range of career options in support of their mission, or even what you might call adjacent missions.

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I would consider an adjacent mission one that benefits a similar population of people.

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Let's consider the example of access to education for children.

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An adjacent mission might be access to high-quality nutrition for children so that they can be better learners.

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The third category is mission preferred.

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People who fall into the category of being mission-preferred are conscious of mission in their work and generally prefer work that benefits people in society or is at least neutral in terms of its effect on people in society.

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However, they prioritize personal and professional goals like career advancement, financial gain and prestige over mission.

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A classic example would be a marketer who works on a relatively unhealthy snack food, but one that genuinely brings people joy.

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The marketer is comfortable with the trade-off between health and joy because the career path that the snack food company provides excellent training, prestige and competitive compensation.

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And then there's mission last.

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People who fall into the category of mission last are either not conscious of mission at work or actively disregard it in favor of financial gain, status or security.

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For some, they may have consciously chosen to consider mission as a last consideration or no consideration at all, because of some necessity, whether that be paying off large amounts of debt or supporting an extended family.

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It could also be due to the personal preferences and values of the individual.

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One clear example of the latter that comes to mind is when I met a young man and asked him about his goals in life.

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Without any hesitation, he responded I have one goal I'm going to make $100 million.

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His plan was to pursue whatever career path offered the greatest chance of achieving that goal, regardless of whether it supported a mission he believed in or not.

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So what category do you fall into?

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Mission first, mission driven, mission preferred or mission last, and you might be wondering if the category you fall into can change over time.

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From what I've seen in over 10 years of coaching, it definitely can.

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People I might classify as mission first or mission driven transition to mission preferred for a portion of their career as they encounter pressing life commitments like raising a family, with all of the expense that involves.

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Practical considerations like needing to refashion a career after making a geographic move, as a trailing spouse or for health reasons may also prompt the change Related to that.

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Younger people who are highly conscious of mission and aren't yet weighed down by life's practical and financial necessities may feel free to pursue jobs and careers that would fit the mission first model.

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And at the other end of a career, people in well-paying industries who are approaching retirement with ample savings may also feel it's possible to pursue jobs and volunteer work that is entirely driven by a commitment to mission.

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So I'll ask again which category do you think best describes your relationship to mission?

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Are you mission first, mission driven, mission preferred or mission last?

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If you're currently working in a for-profit business, have you ever thought of making a transition to the non-profit sector or founding a non-profit yourself, or are you just looking for more meaning in your work and life.

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If you're currently working in the non-profit world, have you ever felt that you're not as engaged as you used to be?

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Do you think you could potentially be transitioning to a mission-driven or mission preferred mode?

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Or perhaps you need an entirely new mission to support?