The Why of Work

“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

An abundant organization is a work setting in which individuals coordinate their

aspirations and actions to create meaning for themselves, values for stakeholders,

and hope for humanity at large.

Proliferating electronics, high mobility, urban sprawl have all been blamed for

increased social isolation. Those who spend hours in front of a computer screen

spend less time with real people.

In a work setting, countering these trends means building a culture and work setting

that unite and unify people.

According to a Saratoga Institute study of more than 19,000 U.S. workers in 17

industries, 72 percent of employees who quit leave because they feel they are not

being recognized for their contributions or sufficiently respected and coached by

their leader. Gallup Management Journal’s semiannual Employee Engagement Index

shows that only 29 percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, while 54

percent are not engaged and 17 percent are actively disengaged.

The abundance we imagine is not just an abundance of visible assets (money,

prestige, security, or position) but an abundance of an intangible sense of purpose,

identity, growth, and well-being.

As leaders weave affirming stories, find heroes and causes, embody ethical and

trusted values, clarify principles that lend order and rationality to decisions and

routines, and make visible the ways employees’ efforts help the company contribute

to a greater good, they create organizations that overflow with a sense of meaning

and abundance. In the words of former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, “You are

not merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more

amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here

to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

A sense of abundance is fostered by a clear sense of who we are, what we are good at.

Dave Ulrich & Wendy Ulrich, How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations that Win- The Why of Work . The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2010.

Researchers in positive psychology have discovered that when we identify and

regularly use our signature character strengths, life becomes more satisfying and

meaningful.

Abundance emerges from a clear sense of what we are trying to accomplish and

why.

Research suggests that high-performing teams come from high-relating people.

When leaders help their organization “families” move beyond the superficialities of

getting along to struggling through conflict so that they can understand one

another’s strengths and weaknesses, they can approach the kind of synergy that

occurs in the best of human relationships.

Leaders can tolerate cynical, negative, and demeaning cultures, or they can

encourage constructive, affirming, and uplifting cultures.

The most engaged employees are generally those whose work gives them the

opportunity to stretch while doing work they love and solving problems they care

about.

The study of talent has evolved from a focus on employee competence (ability to do

the work) to employee commitment (willingness to do the work).

Commitment or engagement grows when we work in a company with a vision, have

opportunities to learn and grow, do work that has an impact, receive fair pay for

work done, work with people we like working with, and enjoy flexibility in the terms

and conditions of work.

Go to authentichappiness.org and take the VIA survey of Character Strengths to

identify your signature strengths compared to other people.

Leaders do well to follow a similar pattern, commenting on, praising, and rewarding

constructive work behavior and mostly ignoring annoyances. When a serious

problem must be corrected, it is best to do so with minimal engagement by

withholding pay or privileges, not engaging in yelling matches or protracted threats

or shaming, all of which build resentment, not change.

As a leader, you meld organization and personal identities by hiring, training, and

compensating employees whose personal identity melds with the identity of the

organization or its subparts.

Help employees become more aware of their signature strengths through

assessment, conversation, observation, and assignment.

Research by Gallup Organization reveals that employees who have a best friend at

work are seven times more likely to be highly engaged at work than those who do

not.

In an experiment with simulated work teams, the mood of the leader impacted not

only the moods of the team members but their productivity and cooperation as well.

What’s more, people remember negative interactions with a boss far longer and

with more emotions than they remember the positive ones, so it takes a lot of

positive interactions to make up for one emotional zinger. In contrast, feeling a

sense of security, trust, and connection at work makes it easier to take tough

feedback, solve problems, creatively, take smart risks, and work through obstacles

without giving up.

Participative management does not mean that we get our way but that we have been

respected and heard. An executive once said, “I am putting you on my team because

you and I do not think alike. If we both think alike, one of us is not necessary…and it

won’t be me! But when we go public, we go with one voice.”

Are you willing to ask how people would rate you (anonymously) on how

consistently and skillfully you demonstrate empathetic listening, emotional

trustworthiness, appropriate humor, and encouragement of others and on how

consistently and skillfully you avoid criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and

stonewalling?

A negative work environment comes with cynicism, frustration, and gossip.

Employees spend more time backbiting, protecting turf, resisting, or blindly obeying

than solving problems and helping the company add real value for customers. There

is an assumption of deficiency and not enough to go around of all the things that

matter: resources, respect, information, opportunity.

A positive work environment inspires, invigorates, and challenges. Employees have

positive relationships with each other and savor the work itself. They see work as

adding to their quality of life and personal well-being, not detracting from it. There

is a feeling of abundance-enough and to spare of what matters most in our lives:

good relationships, meaningful work, learning and growth, and positive impact on

the work.

In a positive work environment, an employee knows what is expected and what he

or she can expect for meeting (or not meeting) those expectations.

Leaders who emphasize other service more than self-interest demonstrate a real

commitment to treat people with fairness and respect. They help create work

environments where people look out for and serve each other because people trust

that the small sacrifices they make for the public good will be reciprocated, not

taken advantage of.

A positive work environment is supported by routines that foster openness to new

ideas.

Leaders ask more questions and become a clearinghouse for innovation. Ideas are

valued and become a clearinghouse for innovation. Ideas are valued and sought out.

Leaders build a positive work environment through caring connections by focusing

on what is right more than what is wrong, expressing appreciation and gratitude,

and creating ways to celebrate both people as individuals and the work unit as a

whole.

Leading includes setting clear goals and expectations and then following up to make

sure people are accountable for results.

When leaders offer performance strengths and weaknesses, employees learn and

move forward. When employees succeed, they have a better experience at work.

Effective communication requires redundancy. When complex or new ideas are

involved, it probably takes 10 units of communication for every unit of

understanding.

Leaders who sense a conflict among employees need to teach and model skills for

conflict resolution. It is easy to fall into shouting, blaming, and seeing only one side

of an issue.

Win-win decision making requires understanding and buy-in, not agreement will all

aspects of the resolution.

When there is a clear line of sight between what we do and what we value, we find

work more meaningful.

When leaders build a line of sight between action and outcome, employees are

motivated because they want those outcomes. When work has intrinsic value,

employees do the work not only because of the outcomes of the work but also

because they value and enjoy the work itself.

Deficit responses to change are rooted in fear, stagnation, and withdrawal, born of

the belief that failure is a threat to success. Abundance responses to change focus on

learning and resilience, born of the belief that failure is a path to success.

If you are not failing at something, you are probably not pushing yourself hard

enough. What’s more, failure should be disappointing. If there is no disappointment,

the work you tried was probably not that important to you.

Self-reflection shows up as well in leaders’ willingness to be accountable. When they

make mistakes, learning leaders run into them rather than away from them. They

also help others reflect on their goals and take responsibility for reaching them.

When goals are missed, learning, not blaming, becomes the priority.

Leaders who take seriously their meaning-creating role of honoring the past and

boldly envisioning the future help others complete the transitions related the

change.

A Number of Keys to Successful Change

Leadership

Change requires a strong leader who sponsors and champions the change.

Felt Need.

When the need for change is palpable, it helps overcome the natural resistance to change.

Vision

A clear and compelling vision based on clear values and with specific goals and action

steps facilitates change.

Commitment

Get people to act as if they are committed, and commitment will follow.

Decisions

Build a decision protocol that breaks the vision of tomorrow into decisions today; start

with small, visible changes to let success build success.

Systems

Institutionalize a change through wise investments in people, communication, rewards,

information and date, and budget.

Measures

Monitor how the change is going to ensure learning and adaptation.

Delight teaches us that life’s goodness is not found in money or fame but in simple

pleasures, meaningful connections, and a sense of discovery. Great leaders not only help

shape that vision or identify those problems but also help people muster the stamina and

courage to keep trying, to keep staring down their self-doubts or fear or boredom until

they get somewhere new.

Individual competencies (ability to do the work) and commitment (willingness to do the

work) are sustained and leveraged when employees see how their work makes a genuine

contribution to people and causes they care about (finding meaning in the work).

Leaders Might Ask Questions Such As These:

How do you feel about the work you do?

How do customers feel as they receive the outcomes of your work?

How do you use your strengths and values at work, and how often?

How do you see your work contributing to things you care about?

What are you learning about yourself in this job?

How do you explain what you do at work to your closest friends and family?

How much energy and passion do you feel for your work?

What will I be known for? How can I express my core

Where am I going?

Whom do I travel with? How do I build the skills of good relating?

How do I build a positive work environment? What can I do to make my work

environment more conducive to my work style?

What challenges interest me? How can I calibrate the level of challenging to stay

optimally engaged and make a significant contribution?

How do I respond to disposability and change? How do I do a better job of making

what I have enough?

What delights me? How can I make more room for pleasure, playfulness, creativity,

and living in the moment?

We believe that the heart of leadership is fundamentally about the creation of meaning

and that leaders have a primary accountability to work with their employees to

unleash it. A focus on meaning can yield employees who are more productive and

committed, who build the organization’s capacity to respond to business challenges,

and who help their organizations succeed.