Michael Horn breaks down four ways people relate to purpose at work: aligning their job with personal values, finding meaning through work itself, doing meaningful work, or using work to fund purpose elsewhere. His research of over a thousand job switchers shows people aren't chasing purpose so much as trying to make progress in their specific circumstances.
Everyone's talking about purpose at work these days, but here's the truth. Not everyone finds it the same way. Some people want their job to be aligned with their purpose. Others are still searching for what gives their life meaning, and they hope that work might help them find it. Some just want to do something that feels meaningful. And others, they see work as the vehicle that funds their purpose outside of the job. What we learned from studying over a thousand job switchers for job moves, our bestselling book, is this people, they're not just chasing purpose, they're actually trying to make progress in their own way through their own struggles and circumstances. And so I'm excited to attend the Human Potential Summit in Utah on November 12, because at the summit, Gallup is going to share its findings from research that it's just recently conducted to understand where different people are finding meaning in their lives, in the intersection or not with work.
