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If you’re a Chief Human Resources or Chief People Officer, then you can request to join a brand new community I put together called Future Of Work Leaders which focuses on the future of work and employee experience. Join leaders from Tractor Supply, Johnson & Johnson, Lego, Dow, Northrop Grumman and many others. We come together virtually each month and once a year in-person to tackle big themes that go beyond traditional HR.
The words “purpose” and “meaning” are used interchangeably at work and while they are similar there are differences between the two. Leaders have a unique responsibility to help create both of those things for their employees. In today’s article I want to provide a framework that distinguishes between these things and then provide some specific action items for what leaders can do to create both.
But before talking about HOW to do that let’s first start with what these things actually are. In my previous book, The Future Leader, I developed the following framework.
Job: This is what you got hired to do. Whether it is writing code, handling customer service issues, or selling.
Purpose: Purpose bridges your work and its impact on customers, employees, or the world. Many employees struggle with their purpose because organizations are so focused on completing tasks and projects that employees don’t see what happens because of their work.
Impact: Impact is what happens from your purpose. Your purpose in customer service is to resolve issues and improve customers’ lives. But is that the actual impact that you are having? Your purpose is about the potential, but the impact is about reality. You want your impact to be greater than or equal to your purpose. But unfortunately, many employees don’t know the impact of their work.
Meaning: Meaning is subjective and unique to each of us. It’s about why we do something and the feeling we get from doing it. If you write code, you might get meaning from working on complex problems or challenges. If you’re in sales, you might get meaning from building relationships.
A great starting point is to be able to distinguish between the four segments above and to understand that they are all connected to each other.
In the rest of the article I’m going to explain HOW leaders can actually help employees discover their purpose, identify their impact, and find their meaning.
Doing so will create an organization where you can cultivate great leaders, engage your employees, and build a future-ready organization.
A quick disclaimer. It’s not JUST about to the leader or the organization to magically create and give these things to their employees. Employees also need to play an active role but that will be the subject of another post.
Discover purpose
At the core of helping an employees discover their purpose is communicating the vision and values of the organization. Not just talking about these things but demonstrating how they are actually coming to life. If I were to write your values down on a sheet of paper and then walk around your office, would I see these values actually come to life? For example, consider a technology firm that prides itself on innovation as a core value (which many do!) It’s one thing to say innovation is a core value it’s another to actually live it. In this case, the leadership team can communicate this value by actively investing in research and development, encouraging creative thinking and risk-taking, and celebrating the launch of new projects, regardless of their outcome. They can take it a step further by enabling employees to spend a portion of their work time on personal projects that push the envelope of current technologies, akin to Google’s famous “20% time” policy that led to the creation of Gmail and AdSense.
Another effective strategy for leaders is to give employees a chance to participate in the decision making process. Instead of telling what employees to do, ask for their feedback. Not only is this just a general good business practice but it allows employees to feel more of a sense of owners and connection over the work they do. For instance, if the company is seeking to enhance its customer service experience, the leader can establish a committee that is tasked with developing new strategies for customer interaction.
A third strategy that leaders can and should implement is to get to know their employees as human beings and not just workers. This means that you should know what your employees care about and value and why, what their aspirations are, what challenges them, where they shine, and where they struggle. A big component of this is identifying the key moments that matter in the lives of your employees. Doing this will allow you to more effectively communicate with them around projects and help you decide what types of projects various team members should be working on. A simple and fun thing you can start can be “coffee chats” where each week or month you invite a few members of your team to explore non-work based themes and discussions.
Identify impact
While purpose is the seed of potential, impact is the fruit of reality. It’s the tangible change or benefit that results from our work. Despite its importance, many employees are often unaware of the real-world effects of their labor, leading to a disconnect between their efforts and the organization’s achievements.
One of the best strategies here is to use stories. At the San Diego Zoo for example their vision is to end the extinction of animals. Let’s say you are an employee at the zoo working in the concession stand and one of the things you need to do is upsell customers to get toys and more food. Sounds pretty transactional right? And more importantly, how are you ever going to know that what you are doing is making an impact? At the San Diego Zoo, employees are shown how the extra money they bring is allocated to achieve this exact vision. I used to work at a movie theatre that ran contests around who could sell the most good. I won a few of these contests but eventually I didn’t know what I was participating or what the impact of my work was. If you work at a software company, you could share user stories about how the product is significantly improving a client’s business.
Reward and recognition programs are also a great strategy for leaders to implement. However, there are two parts to this. On the one hand is a reward for performance, maybe it’s a bonus, an experience, or a perk. But what is far more effective and meaningful for employees is genuine recognition on behalf of their leader for a job well done. This can be a personal one-on-one discussion, an acknowledgement during an all-hands meetings, or a show of appreciation during a small team gathering. Being able to genuinely acknowledge and show appreciation for your people is an amazing way to help show the impact that your people are having.
Feedback loops are also an amazing way to give employees clarity when it comes to impact. Telling stories is a great precursor to this but imagine letting customers provide direct feedback to the employees who are doing the work. Customer experience professionals typically have direct feedback loops since they are actually on the phone with customers. But, why can’t this feedback loop exist between someone in marketing and a customer or someone in HR and a customer (in this case an employee?) Feedback loops can come in the form of surveys, peer reviews, feedback apps, real-time checkins, client interaction days, and the like. The goal is to create as many direct lines of communication as possible.
Find meaning
Meaning is subjective, we all get different meaning from the work we do and there are a few strategies leaders can use for their people.
The first strategy is to focus on the strengths of the employees instead of always trying to focus on improving the weakness. Consider a software developer who is particularly good at solving complex algorithmic problems but isn’t good at front-end design. If their leader consistently assigns them tasks that require intricate back-end coding, this plays to their strengths and allows them to excel and take pride in their expertise. The employee finds meaning in tackling challenging problems and creating efficient code, which contributes to the overall success of their team and projects. As a result this employee is more likely to deeply engage with their work and see it as a reflection of their unique skills and an opportunity for future development. This also sends a message that the leader values the unique attributes and individuality of each team member.
Another effective strategy is to give employees opportunity to learn, grow, and advance. Work is an important area of our lives that helps us have meaning. One of the reasons why a lot of employees leave their employer is because of a lack of opportunity to move forward. As human beings we have an innate desire to progress both personally and professionally. A feeling of achievement and mastery is fundamental to our ability to find meaning in the work that we do. After graduating college I took a job where I was stuck doing PPT presentations, cold-calling, and fetching the CEO coffee. It was a dead-end soul-sucking job and I felt no sense of meaning at all. When employees are given the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations at work then their goals become aligned with the business goals which in and of itself is meaningful.
The last strategy here is autonomy which is all about the freedom and independence that employees have to get their work done. It doesn’t mean you don’t have any clear guidelines or frameworks in place. When employees that they have more ownership of how their work gets done and the decisions they can make to actually get that work done, then they are going to feel more responsible for their outcomes. That sense of responsibility fosters meaning. A study by Deci, Ryan, and Williams (1996) found that providing employees with more autonomy increases their intrinsic motivation, leading them to find their work more inherently rewarding. I always tell leaders to give their employees as much autonomy as possible, even if mistakes are made. On my team of 10 people I give everyone the creative freedom and autonomy to get things done the way they see fit. We align on the outcomes and the objectives and the rest is up to them. I make myself available for questions and discussion but I don’t micro-manage. Autonomy helps create a culture of trust and respect. It tells employees that leadership believes in their skills and judgment. This empowerment can lead to more innovative solutions to problems as employees feel safe to experiment and take calculated risks.
The journey to cultivating a workplace where job, purpose, meaning, and impact intersect is essential, rewarding, yet severely lacking. It requires leaders to not only articulate a clear vision and values but also to actively demonstrate and communicate how these are realized in everyday work. Ultimately, this approach leads to a more engaged, fulfilled workforce where each member understands and appreciates the significant impact of their contributions, thereby fostering a culture of purpose-driven work and meaningful achievement.
We all deserve to work for this kind of an organization.
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If you’re a Chief Human Resources or Chief People Officer, then you can request to join a brand new community I put together called Future Of Work Leaders which focuses on the future of work and employee experience. Join leaders from Tractor Supply, Johnson & Johnson, Lego, Dow, Northrop Grumman and many others. We come together virtually each month and once a year in-person to tackle big themes that go beyond traditional HR.
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