The Journey to Finding My True Purpose
- Feb 19
- 2 min read
By Kathleen Wisemandle, MSLOC, ELOC
Leadership Coach, Scientist & Organizational Psychologist
Earlier in my career, I defined my purposeful impact by leading teams to deliver on important project goals. Over time, it evolved into building successful and engaged operational teams, solving complex business problems and developing employees for their next best step. Since we spent most of our time working, it was important that we built an environment for collaboration, trust and fun. I wanted them to like their work.
As my career progressed, my definition of impact evolved.
As burnout was common with an increasing demand on productivity, I found myself motivated to remove barriers for my teams. My impact was now to ensure my teams were caring for themselves, minimizing unnecessary work while achieving aggressive business goals. They were all highly motivated people, especially during the remote working environment of the pandemic. If their well-being wasn’t considered, our team would not succeed. Individually, their health would be impacted.
As their leader, I also needed to embody this practice. I too needed to delegate. I needed to rest and delegate. I needed to remind myself to not work late hours. Occasionally, there would be a need. It was also my responsibility to check in with my employees, during 1:1s and team meetings to ensure I could assess their well-being and mood. My aim was to create an environment of psychological safety to share concerns, wins and build trust with one another.
My purpose was to help guide my team and employees to be productive AND efficient. To find new ways to leverage their strengths and to remove work that no longer served them. This also meant coaching them to delegate. This delegation allowed them and others to grow and develop. They could begin to reframe delegation as a generative process, rather than “dumping” work on others.
Now, I am a leadership coach to women executives and leaders, I hold a similar purpose. I want women leaders to know they can succeed without giving up on their well-being . I work with women to shift their personal narrative to one that includes letting go of perfectionism, letting go of work that no longer adds value and delegating to others so they can do work that is meaningful for their development. It’s a common theme across industries and professions.
Most of my clients feel compelled to carry the emotional and performance loads of their teams. They want to ensure their well-being, while trying to maintain their own. Many, like their employees, are the primary caregivers for family members. Without self-care and boundaries, these women will burn out.
Now, I see its imperative to take a whole-life view of ourselves, our employees and our coaching clients. We need to offer ourselves “permission” to build in time for rest, nourishment and joy. We need to make time for mindfulness practices so that we can care for those who are important to us, so that we may address the issues of our important professional and personal commitments. Finding this purpose was a journey. But I believe each impactful step led me here. It’s a purpose I find to be impactful for women professionals in all industries.
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