I was eleven years old, watching a helicopter carrying Robert Kennedy land on the beach.

(RFK was making a campaign stop on Fire Island where my family spent the summer.)

Along with a few hundred others, I followed Kennedy as he trudged across the hot sand. Dressed in wingtip shoes, a white shirt and tie, he was turning beet-red and sweating profusely.

Someone yelled, “He needs water.”

A teenager ran into a nearby cottage – emerging moments later with a glass of water.

The glass of water was passed from hand to hand until it came to me.
I carefully passed the glass of water to the next person. A few seconds later, Bobby Kennedy lifted the glass to his lips and drank deeply.

What could be more trivial, commonplace, and ordinary than handing someone a glass of water?
I had done the same thing hundreds of times. I had passed countless glasses of water around the dinner table to my younger brother and sister.

And I have forgotten every single one.

So, why do I remember passing along this glass of water – after all these decades?

What transforms an ordinary, everyday activity into something significant?
As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t merely passing along a glass of water.
Nope. I was participating in something significant. Even historic.

I was contributing to something that mattered.
My sense of playing a part in something significant – transformed a commonplace gesture. Passing a glass of water became truly important.

Without a sense that “my work matters”, people lose enthusiasm for what they do.
Most people have lost that sense of significance. They don’t see that what they do really matters.

All they have is an endless (and lifeless) to-do list. A list of tasks to be completed. But, no sense of why it matters.

From one perspective, most workdays are spent doing ordinary, commonplace activities.
It’s task, task, task – as far as the eye can see.
One task after another.
One “glass of water” after another.

But, when you look at your work this way – your sense of purpose dies.

Taking a task-only perspective – robs work of its vitality and meaning.
When you view your work through the “task only” lens you can’t see the meaning of what you do.

Blinded by too much task awareness, the sense that what I do matters dies.

When purpose dies, people just go through the motions. Mechanically completing tasks. Without enthusiasm or care.

Not good.

Actually, bad.
For people, the organization, and those you serve.

That’s why leaders need to focus as much on meaning as they do on tasks.

Leaders help people (and themselves) connect daily tasks with a sense of purpose and meaning.
One of the functions of leadership is to reveal the significance of “what we do” as an organization. Not just in terms of metrics and measures but also in terms purpose and meaning.

This doesn’t mean that you’re in the business of saving the world.

You may build heavy equipment. Or make chocolate. Or process data. Or sell shoes.
That’s the product or service you deliver.

Not the purpose you serve.

Leaders help people connect to both. Because, people need to be clear on both. They need to understand (and be skilled) at their tasks. And they need to know why what they do matters.

Even selling cosmetics can have a higher purpose.
Consider Mary Kay who defined her organization’s higher purpose this way: To give unlimited opportunity to women.
Having a clearly defined higher purpose infused all of the myriad tasks of the Mary Kay business with a sense of meaning and significance.

Because everyday people are doing tasks. Their dealing with their “glass of water”.
But, to what end?
Why? Mostly, they don’t know.

People need to see how what they do – in the most commonplace activities – contributes to something that matters.

Here’s how:

1) List your “glasses of water”?
What are the tasks that fill your days?
What do you do – in very concrete and practical terms?
What activities constitute – doing your job. These tasks are your glasses of water.

2) Reflect on what makes these tasks meaningful?
Ask:
Why does what I/we do matter?
Why does it matter to me/us?
To the team?
To the organization?
To the customer/clients?
To society at large?

3) Add purpose into planning the tasks of the day.
Ask yourself:
What can I do today to ensure that my work reflects my higher purpose?

Ask your team:
What can we do today to ensure that our work reflects our higher purpose?

Take time to embed this way of thinking and you will transform the ordinary “glasses of water” that make up the day – into acts of purpose and meaning.

Otherwise, work will be as empty as . . . an empty glass of water.

Related Posts:

• How to see your leadership Blind Spots?
• Servant Leadership: A lesson from Paul Simon
• What are you doing?: The power of purpose at work
• Are you ready to stop otherizing?
• When is teamwork wrong?