The Happy Manager by Adela Masarykova

Author:Adela Masarykova
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: managerial, leadership books, team building, leadership development, manager development, managing people, management skills, manager tools, leader and manager, management books
Publisher: Adela Masarykova

5. Boost meaning of your people’s work

Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'. ~ Victor Frankl

Do you remember your tasks and projects from the past? What was the meaning of your projects? Did everything make sense, or did it sometimes happen that you didn’t know why you performed a certain task? Or did it happen that you worked hard on a project and suddenly the project was stopped without explanation? How did you feel?

When we know a deeper meaning of a project, we work with an absolutely different intention and intensity on it, in comparison with a situation when we don’t know why we do something.

The meaning of our work is highly reflected in commitment, engagement, and performance of people. This area is still underestimated and gives managers a huge possibility to significantly increase productivity. Employees who feel the meaning of their work are more motivated, loyal and satisfied at work. According to the survey of The Energy Project: “Employees who derive meaning and significance from their work were more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations — the highest single impact of any variable in our survey. These employees also reported 1.7 times higher job satisfaction and they were 1.4 times more engaged at work.”

The meaning of work is influenced by multiple forces. External characteristics of the job, skill variety, tasks identity and significance, others’ reactions, people’s relationship to work, their attitude toward the work.

You as a manager are able and should boost the meaning of work for your people. You have several possible ways of doing this.

You can share your vision of your company, involve them in decisions, engage them so they identify themselves with the vision. You can give them “a cathedral.”

Simon Sinek tells a beautiful story about two stonemasons in his book Start with Why:

“You walk up to the first stonemason and ask, “Do you like your job?” He looks up at you and replies, “I’ve been building this wall for as long as I can remember. The work is monotonous. I work in the scorching hot sun all day. The stones are heavy and lifting them day after day can be backbreaking. I’m not even sure if this project will be completed in my lifetime. But it’s a job. It pays the bills.” You thank him for his time and walk on.

About thirty feet away you walk up to a second stonemason. You ask him the same question, “Do you like your job?” He looks up and replies, “I love my job. I’m building a cathedral. Sure, I’ve been working on this wall for as long as I can remember and yes, the work is sometimes monotonous. I work in the scorching hot sun all day. The stones are heavy and lifting them day after day can be backbreaking. I’m not even sure if this project will be completed in my lifetime. But I’m building a cathedral.”

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