Finding Your Purpose at McCoy
The McAdemy session through the eyes of McCoyan Wim Olieman
McAdemy is our vibrant learning environment where exchanging knowledge is key. From in-depth SAP training to personal development, whether by external speakers or from our own McCoyans, sharing knowledge is central to the McAdemy. Our BI specialist Wessel Verheijen organized a training themed 'Finding your purpose'. Participant and colleague Wim Olieman shares his experiences in this blog!
Wim: “Finding your purpose. The topic appeals to me. Filled with curiosity anticipation, I enter the session. Wessel is well-prepared and gets straight to the point: this is not going to be a sit-back-and-relax type of session! We must get to work. With various questions and assignments, we started looking for “our purpose”.
A good and a bad day
To find your purpose, it is important to look at what makes you happy. Therefore, the first assignment of the workshop is to describe a day when everything goes right. Wim: “Certain days immediately come to mind. The exercise brings me back to that day and certain moments of that day. It makes me feel great. I quickly recognize a central element: helping others by solving a concrete problem. A valuable insight, if you ask me.” Then we discuss the opposite: what characterizes a bad day? And what role do you play in this?
Determine your core values
During the second part of the session, the candidates focus on core values. After all, you cannot determine your purpose without knowing which values are important to you. Wim explains: “I quickly came up a pretty good list. The challenge, however, lies in reducing it to five values. Because what is truly important? And why? Ultimately, I managed to summarize my core in the following five values: responsibility, trust, cooperation, helpfulness, and integrity. Another thing I had to think about, is which values are an obstacle to me. One immediately springs to mind: bureaucracy! Writing this down, I realize that McCoy is the right place for me.”
Create a purpose statement
Lastly, the group gets to work on making a personal purpose statement. This is a short and powerful statement, in which a personal core goal is described. Wim continues: “Wessel explains that he wrote down his own a while ago. He regularly rereads it to check whether he is still doing the right things. I'm working on it. It should not be convoluted and vague, but realistic and tangible. I write a purpose statement that I am quite satisfied with. But I still want to fine-tune it a bit. According to Wessel that’s completely fine.
This valuable evening gave me insight into what I do. What do I want to achieve with my talents? What do I want to spend my time on? And am I doing the right things? Very useful. Thank you, Wessel!”