Your Guide to Creating a Meaningful Work Experiences for Employees
Think of your direct reports, or a group of people you advise or coach on a somewhat regular basis. Do you know what matters most to each of them, what makes them excited, what makes them tick? How many of these people would you say are doing work that is deeply meaningful to them? Purpose, “Our Why”, and meaningful work are buzz words these days, but organizations that tap into these concepts demonstrate significant benefits. According to McKinsey, “Research has found that when employees find their work to be meaningful, their performance improves by 33 percent, they are 75 percent more committed to their organization, and are 49 percent less likely to leave.” In today’s highly competitive hiring environment, not to mention a crowded market, these numbers are important for leaders to consider.
Many think of purpose in their career as working for a healthcare company with a direct impact on patient lives, or working to address climate change. However, defining purpose as serving a global cause misses the bigger picture. People don’t just derive a sense of connection from working on global problems, they also derive it from supporting their families, engaging in their communities, and building relationships with their coworkers. Purpose comes from developing in areas we care about and making progress we can feel. So how can we as leaders support our teams in finding meaning in their work with us, no matter what industry we are in? We’ve outlined a path for you below.
The first step involves supporting employees in a process of self discovery. People come to us from many walks of life. Some might know exactly who they are and what they are here to do, others will need more guidance to find out. We ask Genius Questions to facilitate this process. Here are some Genius Questions you can use to help your team discover their uniqueness:
What’s one thing you feel you contribute to this team that’s special? How does it impact our colleagues? Our customers?
Of any project you’ve worked on throughout your career, what was your favorite? What made it your favorite?
What do you want there to be more of in the world because of your work? More innovation? More connection? More productivity? More love? Something else?
What’s the most memorable moment you can think of where you saw the benefit of your work for someone else? What did that mean to you?
These questions are designed to help uncover your peoples’ core drivers and their gifts. If we can create a work environment where people have opportunities to use their unique talents, to engage in the kinds of projects that are fulfilling to them, to work with others in a way that is rewarding to them, and to make their special contribution, we are creating an environment for meaningful work to happen. Speaking with employees about these kinds of things might feel a bit vulnerable at first, but ultimately you will begin to know them much better and can focus on what they care about most.
To ensure organizational cohesion and ultimately organizational success, we also need to tie our employees’ personal drivers back to our business drivers. Your company’s mission, vision, values, and guiding principles are a roadmap to what sets the organization apart. These foundational documents outline how work gets done at your company and if they are done right, they also provide a shared understanding of what excellence looks like across the organization. However, just having them written out and sharing them with employees when they are onboarded isn’t enough. Your team needs to understand why each behavior, each task is important to success, and explain the tangible benefit to colleagues and customers when it is lived fully. Once this understanding is in place, your leadership team can create systems and operationalize these documents, making them clear and actionable. When the company values meet the employee’s gifts and abilities, areas of overlap will appear, along with areas for continued growth. Most importantly, in the context of these foundational documents, it should become clear how every one of the employees skills, traits, and growth areas are important to the company and to the people it serves.
Finally, a system is needed to help coach employees in growth areas and to keep them engaged in opportunities they find rewarding, challenging, and meaningful. This system is informed by:
Who is this employee? What type of person are they? What projects do they enjoy? What’s skills do they have and which are they developing? What lights them up?
Meaningful work is driven by Flow - flow happens when tasks use all of the employee’s level of skill, when the environment provides actionable and prompt feedback, when the work is directed towards a specific goal, and there are clear guidelines for what success looks like.
Who are the specific people we are trying to serve? What are the specific behaviors we know will help us serve these people at the highest level?
Coaching must take place on a level playing field and be a supportive resource for team members no matter where they are on the org chart. This process is getting down to the truth, getting down to what will help us do our most effective, meaningful work, together.
Now more than ever, workers are on a quest for meaningful work. The days of showing up to work just to get a paycheck, or showing up because it is our divinely ordained duty to do productive work, like in the days of the early American Puritans, are over. In our globally connected world where challenges are televised daily, a sense of purpose provides the direction people are desperate for. Our opportunity as business leaders is to provide a powerful channel for people to live their purpose and grow doing it. This is a cultural shift, but many organizations choose to make such an investment. Meaningful work extends beyond the walls of the office and benefits people in all areas of life. Organizations that help their employees grow give them real skills and real tools that strengthen the quality of their work but also benefit them outside work as well. This leads to employees engaging more with their work, because they see the benefits of this development in all areas of their life.
Liked this article? Please join our email list by entering your email above, and drop us a line on our Contact Page. Thank you!