AMPLIFY  VOL. 37, NO. 8
  

After more than 30 years working alongside charity leaders, I have learned that when you ask one of them why they work in the social sector, they often say something like: “I feel called to the mission of my organization.” A sense of calling connects with something deeply personal, reflecting what they believe about who they are and who they want to be — to the point that they feel drawn to the role.

Calling is anchored in deeply held values, often alongside religious belief. For many, calling is foundational to their decision to work for organizations that don’t pay as well as similar positions in for-profit companies, have relatively limited resources, face some sacrifice, or tackle seemingly insurmountable problems (e.g., fighting poverty or injustice). Because calling is linked to intrinsic motivation, it can compensate for limited opportunities for financial gain or career advancement. In this sense, calling can affirm and even amplify a leader’s sense of purpose.

That has been my own experience. In 2007, I had just been made a partner in a leading law firm when I was offered a leadership role at World Vision, an organization to which I had been connected since completing an internship there after my undergraduate degree. From an outside perspective, my decision to step away from my law career did not make sense: the compensation was less, and it required leaving a flourishing career and moving my family across the country. Yet the opportunity to bring my skills, experience, and values to bear on the issue of children’s rights and well-being felt right, and it connected to a meaningful purpose more significant than my sense of self-interest.

The path has not been straight or easy, but many years later, I can say that I do not regret leaning into my sense of faith and calling to the role and this mission. It has brought joy, personal and professional satisfaction, and strong alignment with my perception of who I am and what I am meant to do, leaving me with a deep sense of fulfillment and contentment.

A meaningful sense of calling is not limited to social justice activists or nonprofit leaders. As I listen to executive MBA students and colleagues at business school, many from the private sector, they directly or indirectly refer to a sense of calling when describing their emerging sense of purpose. They don’t usually lean on the language of “being called” to provide reasons for otherwise unlikely career decisions, and they may feel uncomfortable sharing such values-laden or religious concepts in a business context. Nevertheless, many see their jobs as more than just the means to an end — it’s a way to align their values, vocation, and beliefs with their business’s mission, creating a strong sense of connection and engagement. Calling in this setting is characterized by a deep, purpose-driven commitment to a mission, a passion for work, and a desire to positively impact the world.

Calling & Purpose

For this reflection, I distinguish calling and purpose. Both are essential for creating meaningful leadership and work experiences but operate at different levels and scales. Although these concepts inevitably overlap, I consider calling as profoundly personal, internal, and intrinsic: unique to an individual. Calling is often linked to ideas outside ourselves, including religious faith.

For business leaders, calling might be characterized by a passion for a particular field and a desire to contribute to a more significant cause than oneself. This can lead individuals to choose careers or business paths that align with their values, talents, and interests as closely as possible. Calling is often associated with passion and personal fulfillment.

I consider purpose to be broader. It can apply to both individuals and organizations. Purpose is the overarching mission or reason for being that guides actions and decisions. In a business context, this is often articulated as a statement of a company’s values and goals, explaining why it exists beyond making a profit. It might include commitments to sustainability, social responsibility, innovation, climate action, or supporting global frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Purpose contributes to a strategic direction and framework within which decisions are made, helping to align the efforts of all stakeholders. Purpose can be shared by a group or organization, serving as a unifying vision that guides collective action. The purpose of a business shapes its strategy, culture, and impact on society.

This distinction may seem artificial, but I point out these differences to show that a personal, professional, or business purpose can perhaps exist without an identified sense of calling. However, when individuals tasked with building an organization’s strategy and its teams are anchored to a deeper understanding of calling, their collective purpose can be amplified. In my experience, calling deepens purpose.

Calling & Faith

For many, calling is connected to a deeply held set of values, frequently based on or linked to a personal religious expression. Something or someone is doing the calling through some form of explicit or implied revelation, providing an external spiritual scaffold or framework for personal purpose.

Religion remains a critical personal driver for many around the world. For example, in my country of Canada, although religiosity has been declining, in 2019, more than two-thirds of Canadians reported having a religious affiliation, and more than half (54%) said their religious or spiritual beliefs were somewhat or very important to the way they live their lives.¹ Therefore, it is not surprising that many leaders consider faith in their understanding of vocation and calling, whether privately or publicly.

Frequently emphasized in Christian thought, the concept of calling has parallels in other faiths and philosophies.² At the risk of oversimplification, and although there is always a diversity of interpretations, we can see examples in many leading faiths. In Islam, calling is related to submitting to divine will and pursuing justice and compassion. Buddhism emphasizes the path to enlightenment as a calling, focusing on compassion and wisdom. In Hinduism, the idea of dharma (duty) reflects a form of calling that involves living by ethical responsibilities and social expectations. Indigenous spirituality emphasizes harmony with the land, respect for all living beings, and the importance of serving the community. Jewish religious texts contain teachings from prophets like Micah, who emphasize that true faith must be reflected through ethical living. Building on this shared perspective, Christians look to Jesus, who modeled how we should live through his life and words. For instance, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus emphasized that his followers must care for those in need and see it as a spiritual act, showing compassion, social responsibility, empathy, and solidarity with those in need — and do so without strings attached.³

People who do not ascribe to a particular set of religious beliefs but profess openness to a broad spirituality may still look outside themselves for inspiration and guidance to inform their calling. Even for a secular humanist, calling can find an anchor in human-centered values rather than divine mandates or religious obligations.

As I live out my calling linked to my purpose in my vocation and professional life, my religious faith deepens my purpose by motivating my actions, helping shape my priorities, and informing my decisions and values.

Calling & Faith Amplify Purpose

My faith informs my calling and thereby amplifies my sense of purpose. When I felt a call to my role, my Christian faith informed my decision-making, providing a filter for discernment as I sought affirmation of my chosen direction. Other leaders in my network share similar experiences and some common perspectives on how engaging with faith deepens their purpose:

• Faith helps deepen personal meaning-making. Values and faith provide a way of organizing decisions and actions that deepen meaning. By using their faith’s ethical expectations as a framework or filter, leaders can rely on an external source to validate action.

• Faith provides connections and community. Many people of faith are part of a community of like-minded people who gather to create a sense of belonging, support, encouragement, and even challenge in following the tenets of faith and leaning into a sense of calling. Relationships in the context of faith can foster empathy, compassion, and humility, qualities that enhance a leader’s ability to connect with and inspire others.

• Faith looks both inward and outward for identity and to validate calling. As they consider their calling and purpose, followers of religious belief can anchor in their potential, often seen as God-given, which provides internal support for their identity as an instrument for action. Also, through prayer, community discussion, or peer support, people of faith look to others, including the divine, for insights and input.

• Faith can oppose self-interest. When leaders look for meaning and value outside their own experience and interests, calling informed by faith provides a set of expectations that consider interests broader than our own. Faith usually sees the needs of others as equal to or more valuable than our own. It helps us look outward and drives us to consider community and global needs.

Through those insights, faith can amplify purpose, but the reverse can also be true. Purpose can amplify one’s faith — by giving shape to broad expressions of value and turning belief into action that goes beyond theology or principle to be put into practice through career and leadership.

Challenges to Connecting Faith & Purpose

Bringing faith into conversations about calling and purpose is not without challenges. Personal religious beliefs and expression can be seen as exclusive when carried from a private setting into a more public one. In most North American secular business settings, there are expected limits to (or concerns about) engaging in faith-related conversations, especially in the context of organizational strategy and purpose. Leaders may be afraid that discussions of faith to describe calling could move beyond questions of values or motivation toward proselytism. Focusing on how faith finds commonalities in values and direction is a way to mitigate this.

For individuals, although faith can deepen a sense of purpose, if personal circumstances or lack of opportunity prevent them from living out what they feel is the true expression of their faith- and values-based calling, they risk a sense of disappointment or failure. Understanding that purpose is a journey and that calling can be both an aspiration and an inspiration (even during change) can prevent calling from being seen as a destination.

Understanding faith as a list of rules and expectations divorced from personal passion can make a certain kind of purpose performative. Faith should enhance calling in a way that is not about just meeting expectations but about leaning into an individual’s full potential. That is why I love how Christian author and theologian Frederick Buechner explained the concept of calling: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”⁴ When we connect our joy with the world’s needs, we find our calling in the most profound sense.

How Leaders Can Nurture Calling

For leaders committed to finding purpose for themselves, their teams, and their organizations, showing openness to talking about calling — including recognizing the role of faith and values — can provide an opportunity to expand the understanding and conversation about purpose. Faith and calling connect to their values, linking personal and professional life. Calling provides additional foundations for understanding and deepening purpose, building resilience and confidence, even in the face of change.

Businesses and organizations led by individuals with a clear sense of purpose deepened by their own sense of calling can prioritize practices, social responsibility, and sustainability as they are driven by a desire to live out their values by contributing to society. In this way, calling can powerfully shape individual careers and businesses’ broader direction and impact.

In for-profit contexts especially, leaders may face pressures to balance financial performance with ethical and social responsibilities. However, those who view their work as a calling can find resilience in these challenges, drawing strength from their commitment to their mission and values.

As leaders, we can nurture the benefit of calling and amplify purpose by making space for conversations about calling. In faith-based organizations like mine, conversations about faith are part of the fabric of organizational life. Even in secular environments, encouraging respectful and inclusive discussions about calling can allow staff to more easily integrate their values with the organizational mission.

Living Out Calling & Purpose

Purpose amplified by calling has continued to shape my leadership and guide organizational priorities. One could argue that World Vision has an “extreme” purpose, focusing on making a positive impact on the most vulnerable children around the world, coming alongside them in the face of conflict, disaster, and injustice.

When I witness suffering in these contexts, my faith helps give meaning to even difficult experiences. I am not immune to feelings of despair, sadness, or frustration. I do not always get it right, but I usually rely on my deep sense of calling to use those emotions as fuel for action: sharing stories of need and hope with Canadians, advancing policy advocacy for children’s needs over many years, and ensuring we do all we can to demonstrate impact.

Whether I continue to serve at World Vision or in another organization, my purpose, informed by faith, will anchor how I can live out my calling in a way that contributes to improving our world.

I suggest that for other leaders, this can be a new way of thinking about personal purpose — not just in extreme situations, but in how we show up each day. It starts by making space for and valuing how each of us may feel a sense of calling to who we are and how we can contribute to making our teams, our organizations, and the world a better place.

References

¹ “Study: Religiosity in Canada and Its Evolution from 1985 to 2019.” Statistics Canada, 28 October 2021.

² Cahalan, Kathleen A., and Douglas J. Schuurman (eds.). Calling in Today’s World: Voices from Eight Faith Perspectives. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016.

³ Interpretation comes from author.

⁴ Buechner, Frederick. Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC. Harper San Francisco, 1973.