Knowing one’s purpose plays a significant role in developing the right leadership skills.
By Pete Mercer
What are you here for? Are you fulfilling your purpose? Finding your purpose can be a tricky journey. Too often, we cite our skills, positions at work, or even our job descriptions as what we are “meant to do” with our lives.
Our purpose runs much deeper than that. It plays a significant role in developing effective leaders – it acts as a sort of compass, guiding each person to what they were meant to do with their particular skillset. If we are all here for a reason, why not make the most of our purpose?
Repertoire Magazine recently spoke to Elizabeth Dixon, the CEO and president of the Trilith Foundation, about the power of purpose and effective leadership tactics. The Trilith Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of creatives and makers through mental, physical spiritual and relational support.
Dixon has been on a leadership journey for several years – she has worked for the corporate offices of Chick-fil-A, founded a sleepwear brand, and worked as an author and public speaker to “help make the daunting doable” for her audience. As a public speaker, she discusses how to connect executive leadership with their team members, create engaging customer experiences, and what it means to find your purpose.
About Trilith Foundation
Currently, Dixon’s role at The Trilith Foundation allows her to create and lead a nonprofit designed to inspire human flourishing and enrich the lives of creatives who work to inspire the world. Through that mission, Trilith Foundation has hosted a series of events with speakers like Michelle Williams, Juliet Funt and Dan Cathy, as well as musicians like Jon Foreman, Mat Kearney, and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.
“Our programs feature the Trilith Experience, an enrichment initiative designed to inspire creativity by offering tours of both Trilith Studios and the Town at Trilith,” she said. “Additionally, we provide a mental health subsidy program that offers financial support to professional creatives seeking mental health resources, including counseling.”
Nestled in the heart of Fayette County, about an hour south of Atlanta, Georgia, Trilith Foundation partners with the Town at Trilith, a walkable community for makers and creatives, and Trilith Studios, a major motion picture studio lot. This environment is designed to facilitate the creative process and celebrate excellence.
The power of purpose
In addition to an accomplished career in several leadership roles, Dixon is also a published author of two books: “The Power of Customer Experience: 5 Elements to Make an Impact” and “The Strength of Purpose: A Guide to Knowing and Living Your Reason for Being”.
“The Strength of Purpose”, Dixon’s latest book, aims to help readers find their purpose and a sense of meaning in all the chaos of everyday life. As the world becomes more complicated and overwhelming, it’s more important than ever for us to understand why we do what we do.
That power of purpose should not be underestimated as it can make the difference between a leader who is effective at what they do and one who is not. Dixon said, “As leaders, if we can’t articulate our purpose, leading effectively becomes challenging. It’s common to unknowingly tie our purpose solely to our job, but the reality is our purpose existed before our current job and will continue beyond it.”
In Dixon’s book, she outlines several questions to ask to help discover purpose and ensure alignment in our lives, focusing on three main components:
- Thoughts – Is our purpose reflected in our daily mindset?
- Decisions – Do our choices reflect our purpose?
- Work – Does our job allow us to live our purpose?
She shared that in a recent workshop that she facilitated, one of the participants shared that their purpose was their job description. From there, they were able to open the group discussion that led him to a revelation.
“As he processed crafting a purpose that is greater than his job, he began to light up with passion for how his current job is more meaningful to live his purpose than ever thought. This mindset shift showed him the powerful impact he could make every day in his current position,” Dixon said.
The customer experience in 2024
As the business landscape continues to evolve, so should our approach to the customer experience. Stagnation can be dangerous for any business, especially those in the healthcare sector. New technologies and tools are developed each year that can optimize the provider’s performance and improve the patient’s experience, which makes it more important for us to be prepared to evolve with these changes.
Dixon said, “In 2024, customer experience continues to evolve with technology. Efficiencies that used to be too costly for small companies are now achievable for all. Yet, this blend of humanity and technology requires careful balance.”
As technology continues to evolve to meet our needs, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we don’t abandon the human element that helps to build the connections with our customer base. Providing personal touches and building relationships is the cornerstone of the healthcare sales industry, making that balance critical to your success.
“Within these enhancements it creates a tension worth managing – humanity and technology,” she said. “When do you lead with the human element and when do you lead with the technology element? The answer to this is found from knowing your customer, a rigorous pursuit of a seamless experience and continual feedback and change.”
Leadership tactics for 2024
The idea of leadership is typically tied up in the role or position that we hold at our company. While that’s certainly a way to distinguish and designate leaders within our community, it’s important to understand that leadership isn’t always about the job title.
“Leadership shows up everywhere in life,” Dixon said. “I see it in my kiddos at school – there’s a line leader role that rotates, but the true leadership is seen on the playground. It is the same for us in our lives! There are titles and roles that require us to be responsible for others, but true leadership shows up in the people that you want to follow.”
Dixon uses the mantra “be the person that you want to follow” as a way to challenge herself, regardless of the season of leadership she’s in or the responsibilities she stewards. When she experiences personal growth, she also finds that the type of person she wants to follow changes as well.
As for how leadership should look today, Dixon looks to the founder of one of the companies that she used to work for: Truett Cathy. “Truett Cathy said, ‘Marry the mission and date the methods,” and I think that is as relevant as ever.” In other words, stay loyal and focused on the “why,” while changing up the “how” as needed.
For this approach, leaders should be fully committed to the mission and vision of the organization. No matter what, that mission is the goal of all your efforts and strategies – innovation, excellence, service, teamwork, partnership and growth. The methods, while important, will change. There will always be newer pieces of technology, processes, systems, products, and efficiencies.
She said, “When we can see the difference, it helps us stay fluid where we need to and hold fast where we need to.”