Step towards your purpose
Barbra Carlisle • April 16, 2025
Time is ticking, you want to do something with more impact
Tom left a business where he had excelled as a leader and influencer for over a decade, where opportunities were still knocking at his door. He didn’t get head hunted, he didn’t get disillusioned, he loved his team, he was stimulated daily.
So why?
To follow a passion that he had had for many years, to invent an e scooter that meets the needs of people with mobility challenges.
What do you need within you and around you to take that step into the unknown?
To leave a stable job to follow your purpose might sound like something reserved for mavericks or those with a financial cushion. But more and more leaders in the UK are doing just that—and not because it’s easy, but because they know they have more to offer the world.
The Evidence
According to research by the CIPD (2023), over 1 in 5 UK professionals are actively considering a career change, with “lack of meaning” cited as one of the top three drivers. And among senior leaders, this pull toward purpose is even stronger, especially post-pandemic.
The British Academy’s “Future of the Corporation” programme argues that business purpose beyond profit isn’t just good ethics—it’s good strategy.
Purpose-led companies in the UK are outperforming their peers in
- employee retention,
- customer loyalty, and
- innovation (PwC, 2021).
It may not make everyone stay but it is certainly going to help people feel aligned with their employer.
The Transition Tension
When I work with clients at this kind of crossroads, the question they often wrestle with isn’t just “What am I about to do! am I crazy? Will it work?”. They tend to be of the opinion – “If I don’t do it now I will never do it”. And it is here that I will always ask them about their gut feeling on the issue. Knowing your internal voice.
Inside each of us, there’s often a quiet negotiation happening. One part of you wants to hold on to what’s known—what’s safe (we call this your Guardian voice). Another part (perhaps the Nurturer voice) is whispering about what really matters to society and the people affected. And then there’s the bolder voice, the Pioneer, ready to look well into the future and strategize how to get there. The challenge is not choosing one over the other—but recognising and aligning these internal drivers/voices so you can lead from wholeness, not restlessness.
When I coach, I help leaders map these differences early. To identify what their key drivers are, and how their personality preferences can aid / limit them from doing something different to what they have done before.
Next step
Following your purpose takes structure, not just passion. It’s about aligning your internal compass, building external scaffolding, and learning how to lead yourself before you lead others. Thinking about your next chapter? Give me a call and we can talk about your next step together. book here https://zcal.co/barbracarlisle/30min
Ideas and thoughts on how to lead well through complexity and change
The Intergenerational Advantage: Why Construction Firms Who Blend Ages Will Outperform Everyone Else
If you’re worried about not having enough young people, including women coming into construction, you’re asking the wrong question. The real risk is what happens when you don’t use the people you already have properly. The Crisis No One Is Solving Properly Across the UK, the construction workforce is ageing faster than it’s being replenished. There are 20% more workers aged 55+ than under 25. And it gets worse: 35% of the workforce is now over 50, and only 20% is under 30. Yes this presents an industry risk, but closer to home we see organisational risk. Leaders worry about recruitment, apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps all useful, but none of them address the real issue: Experience is walking out of the door every single day, and new capability isn’t being integrated fast enough. This is exactly what my conversation with Colin McEllin MCIOB of Clan Contracting highlighted. When a 21 year old commercial graduate joined Clan Contracting, Colin didn’t roll his eyes or think, “another kid who’s never been on a site.” He leaned into it and welcomes thoughts, ideas and advice from 'young Aaron'. Massive benefits for him, and Aaron, and the wider team. Why Intergenerational Leadership Is Now a Strategic Priority The construction sector is staring at a workforce cliff edge: • 140,000+ vacancies lie unfilled. • By 2036, 750,000 skilled workers will retire, stripping the industry of vital capability. • The UK will need nearly 1 million additional construction workers by 2032. Yet recruitment alone isn’t enough. You cannot hire your way out of this crisis. We must integrate generations on purpose, not by accident. What Younger Workers Bring (That Leaders Ignore at Their Peril) Younger talent offers: • Modern thinking around sustainability and digital tooling • Analytical approaches and better documentation habits • A willingness to question processes that haven't been updated since the 90s • A commercial lens shaped by newer training systems In Colin’s words, their thinking “took him right back to when he was 21” eager, energetic, ideas driven. You want that energy before they lose it. What Older Workers Bring (That You Can’t Replace) Your experienced people have: • 30+ years of instinct • Pattern recognition that no textbook teaches • Quiet influence that stabilises teams • Technical fluency on heritage, concrete, structure, sequencing, conservation, problem solving These people are your institutional memory. Once they go, they’re gone. And currently, UK engineering employers admit they only retain knowledge effectively from 57% of retiring staff. That is a crisis hiding in plain sight. Leadership Actions That Works 1. Create deliberate two way mentoring (not hierarchical mentoring). Younger staff teach digital skills, new processes, sustainability thinking. Older staff teach technical judgment, site sense, risk spotting. Both feel valued. 2. Give young people actual responsibility, not token tasks. The CITB plans 40,000+ industry placements a year. It means nothing if leaders hide young people in the corner. Let them make decisions, with support. 3. Systemise knowledge transfer. You cannot afford to rely on “ask Dave if you need help.” You need processes, templates, technical walkthroughs, shared documentation. 4. Remove the “that’s not how we do it here” reflex. 76% of construction workers say current training doesn’t adequately prepare people for the job. So your way probably isn’t the best way anymore. Your Competitive Advantage Is Sitting Right Under Your Nose When generations work in isolation, capability leaks. When generations work together, capability compounds. The firms who win over the next decade won’t be the ones who grab the talent, it will be the ones who blend talent. Listen to the full episode of the podcast here or watch on You Tube here About me I write about topics that my podcast guests bring to the podcast. They have years of experience with challenges and opportunities along the way, highs and lows and are in the thick of leading with purpose and passion, faults an'all. As a coach and trainer I work with leaders and their times to help them thrive, laugh, enjoy their work, be productive and to build teams of all ages.
We love what we do so we grow in that role, we end up as leader with people around us but we want to stay doing the thing we love doing. Balancing leadership is hard.
