The Loneliness of Corporate Roles and the Purpose Mindset as an Opportunity

The Loneliness of Corporate Roles and the Purpose Mindset as an Opportunity

Last week I met with a friend who had been promoted six months earlier to an important corporate role: Head of Sustainability and Internal Communications. The reason for our conversation? She was looking for a job. In her words, corporate roles were lonely and full of political challenges. Why did Alejandra feel this way?

 

The complexity of having both a functional boss and a matrix boss, along with the tension caused by poor business results stemming from recent low economic growth, puts interpersonal relationships at risk and can lead to transactional, distrust-based dynamics in which each executive is more focused on saving their own skin than on working toward the organization’s results.

 

The Corporate World Today

 

Working for a corporation has many advantages: from hygiene factors such as salary, benefits, a spacious office and always-hot coffee, to motivational factors such as being part of a large team, having a boss and an HR department that encourage your growth and development, or the chance to impact many people through your work. All of these seem like relevant factors when choosing this career path.

 

However, as people move up the hierarchy, those initial motivational factors can fade. Corporate roles often have a matrix structure, with shared services for People (Human Resources), Technology and Finance, and sometimes other areas as well. This means people have a functional boss and a headquarters boss, which involves balancing the requests of each, building trust with both and meeting both sets of goals. These roles are inherently challenging, even more so when one of the bosses is physically far away, at corporate offices in another city or country.

 

Today, amid an unfavorable economic climate, organizational leaders are especially vigilant about avoiding unnecessary expenses, optimizing production and maximizing sales, which places a great deal of pressure on them and their direct reports. When sustained over the long term, this pressure can boil over, giving way to finger-pointing, mounting demands on teams and, at times, mistreatment.

 

The Effect on People’s Mindset

 

Depending on the context, we approach work in different ways. One is a transactional mindset, in which we contribute exactly what we receive in exchange for our work. We work for the paycheck at the end of the month, or according to our job description. In this case, work is a way to make a living, but not a source of fulfillment.

 

An alternative that has gained ground today, especially with generational shifts and what we at Almabrands call the “Age of Purpose,” is working with a Purpose mindset—that is, working for the opportunity to bring my talent, abilities and, above all, my personal Purpose to work. The gains in performance, ability to prioritize and overall well-being among people who operate with this mindset have been widely documented; you can find more information about this in this article.

 

Bringing this Purpose mindset to work requires developing three dimensions: having meaningful relationships at work, being able to see the impact of your work on others, and having opportunities to grow and develop. When that happens, work becomes not just a source of income, but also a place where people can find fulfillment. When one of them is lacking, it’s easy to slip back into the old transactional mindset.

 

How to Support a Purpose Mindset in the Corporate World

 

To the extent that the corporate world can sustain these three dimensions for its employees, it will also get the best out of them. But if, as in Alejandra’s case, relationships become strained and she receives no support in building genuine connections with her peers and/or managers; if the opportunities to make an impact through her work get tangled up in the bureaucracy inherent to a corporation; or if she receives no support in understanding her new role so she can develop the skills needed to perform, then we will hardly be able to retain key people for when the economy improves, or to identify today the opportunities that will materialize in the future.

 

I invite you to ask yourself these questions and assess how much you are helping people navigate the corporate world:

 

How much are we supporting the development of meaningful relationships within our organizations?

 

To what extent do our employees feel that what they do has a direct impact on others, whether inside or outside the organization?

 

To what extent do our employees feel that what they do has a direct impact on others, whether inside or outside the organization?

 

How much are we supporting and challenging our people to step outside the comfort zone of their job description?

 

How much are we supporting and challenging our people to step outside the comfort zone of their job description?