What I learned about goals from HBO’s show Silicon Valley
Take meaning seriously.
Meaning isn’t an add-on—It must be built into your goals
If you don’t truly believe it, no one else will.
Meaning is the great motivator in life. Your sense of purpose gets you up in the morning and keeps you going when you face obstacles. Meaning is what enabled Viktor Frankl—a famous psychiatrist and philosopher who survived the Holocaust—to endure the worst possible human suffering.
In his influential book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl wrote:
“There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.”
Most corporate leaders would agree that it is important to provide broader meaning to goals to motivate employees. There is merit to this idea, however, I’d like to reframe it:
You and your organization must pursue goals that have meaning.
I’m not playing with words. There’s a difference between adding meaning to goals and pursuing goals that have meaning.
Given its importance, meaning isn’t discussed nearly enough when organizations set goals.
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Patagonia, and Google may sometimes be perceived negatively (just like no one is perfect, no company is perfect), but their leaders set big goals. They create a sense of direction. They focus on a worthy mission.
Perhaps companies like Enron, Lehman Brothers, Sears, Worldcom, BlackBerry, and Blockbuster failed because, at some point, they lost their way, their sense of meaning. Companies need a North Star.
What about you? What’s the meaning of what you do? What’s your purpose?
I must admit that I ignored these questions for most of my career. I would’ve benefited from a more profound sense of purpose and direction when I faced setbacks. As I’ve climbed the ranks into leadership positions of increasing responsibilities, I’ve realized that most people and organizations are starved for meaning, especially considering how much time we devote to work every day.
Let’s take a look at three mission statements from tech companies:
“We’re making the world a better place through Paxos algorithms consensus protocols.”
“We’re making the world a better place through software-defined data centers for cloud computing.”
“We’re making the world a better place through scalable fault tolerant distributed databases with asset transactions.
Now, these are fake quotes. They’re from an episode of HBO’s satirical series Silicon Valley.
These aren’t far off from some mission statements I’ve come across. We all want to “make the world a better place” but if it’s our goal to create meaning, it is essential that we do not merely play lip service to it. If you do this, the opposite will happen. No one will take you seriously for one simple reason: They know you don’t mean it.
When you talk about meaning, be sincere!
You may have to dig below the surface to find purpose. That’s okay. You must think and talk about meaning and define metrics for success that reflect the organization's purpose.
Don’t say you want to “make the world a better place” if it’s not an attainable goal, and it rarely is. Don’t rely on marketing gimmicks, corporate shadow writers, or cliches.
Take meaning seriously. Don’t merely attach meaning to goals; pursue goals that have meaning. Roll up your sleeves, convene your leadership team, and start the discussion.
Seb
When he decided to write a book on leadership and self-improvement, Sébastien Page was rejected by over 200 literary agents.
He was asked, “Why would a finance expert write about leadership?” He was told to stay in his lane.
Sébastien has more than two decades of leadership experience. As an author, he believes breakthroughs often happen when experts venture outside their field. That is why, in "The Psychology of Leadership," he went beyond finance and economics to study research in psychology.
He is currently Head of Global Multi-Asset and Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price. He oversees a team of investment professionals actively managing over $500 billion in assets under management.
Sébastien won research paper awards from The Journal of Portfolio Management in 2003, 2010, 2011, and 2022 and the Financial Analysts Journal in 2010 and 2014. In addition to The Psychology of Leadership, he is the author of Beyond Diversification: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Asset Allocation (McGraw Hill, 2020) and the coauthor of Factor Investing and Asset Allocation (CFA Institute Research Foundation, 2016).
Sébastien is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Financial Analysts Journal, and the Board of Directors of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance (Q Group). He regularly appears in the media, including Bloomberg TV and CNBC, and was recently named amongst the 15 Top Voices in Finance by LinkedIn.