Regrounding in Our Purpose to Guide Our Professional Journeys

As my business has evolved over the last few years, I have found a deep sense of clarity in the purpose of my work. And that’s what many of us are seeking right? Meaningful work. Purposeful work. Purpose and values-driven work. It doesn’t mean questions don’t abound about where my professional journey will lead me. But I like being clear about who I am and what I do. In this reflection, I want to ask myself some questions and let the answers unfold as I write. Whether you own your own business or not, these are questions that I hope you will take time to reflect on too to help guide you on your own professional journey. I’d love to hear or see your responses to these questions. Reach out anytime.

What change do you want to help bring about in the world?

I want to help create a more shared society. I want to help people have the ability to connect with people who are different in some way. I want to help create more common ground and for us to be able to better see, honor, and even celebrate our common humanity. I want to help people, teams, and organizations be well, healthy, and kind. 

How are you living this out in your work right now?

I support shared society work in two ways via my work right now. First, I help support direct dialogue and bridge-building work with clients who hire me as a facilitator or facilitator trainer. Second, I help mission-driven, including bridge-building organizations deepen their impact through more effective and strategic data use. I have been doing parts of this for most of my professional life, and it’s been a gift to be able to focus on this via my own strategy consulting company, Monarch. 

What is your professional superpower?

I can speak the languages of people and data. I am a translator between data and social change. I can help changemakers see more into their data to drive their work forward in more strategic ways. My central focus is always people and making them feel seen and heard. And then I like to bring in my data skills to support their success as people, teams, and organizations. Most data experts can’t facilitate the kinds of cross-cultural, dialogue-focused conversations that I do. I take pride in bringing heart, softness, deep listening, facilitation, bridge-building, and intuition to my data strategy work. 

What is your professional story?

When I look back on my career, I see the sectors of education policy research, philanthropy, and strategy consulting. When I look at the common thread of my career, I see a builder. I see someone who has helped organizations build something new in every organization of which I have been a part. I love helping organizations try new things that align with and help further their mission and purpose. Whether it’s building out an internal research-to-practice initiative, supporting the development of a policy center, redesigning a data system to expand data access for users, piloting a data services support stream, designing and implementing new grantmaking portfolios and sub-strategies, and building my own company from the ground up, I can look back and see how I helped create and execute a vision for change. 

What’s your next adventure, if you can chart it? 

I want to keep doing this work. I love it. I believe it is aligned with my life purpose, values, and gifts. It doesn’t matter how we form our business relationship- I can be a hired contractor, fractional impact officer, or full-time hire. I want to help organizations build out their impact verticals covering all things data, strategy, and impact. I want to continue to facilitate and build connections between humans with different perspectives. I want to live out my wellness values in how I live, how I work, how I interact with clients, and how I make change in the world. 

What mantra or idea helps you push forward?

1. Self-love and grace help me climb all my mountains. 

2. What is meant for me will be. 

3. You can do hard things!