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“Success means that we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” – Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
I like Marianne’s statement, which builds personal fulfillment into the definition of success. Later on in A Return to Love, her commentary on The Course in Miracles, she states that whatever work we choose to do, our purpose is to spread love in the world. How we go about living and working, then, is the most important ingredient in creating success and fulfillment in our lives.
That does not mean that we cannot make a good living from our work. She obviously does. What it means is that we need to keep our focus on how we can help others, and figure out how to make the life and living we want while doing it. It is not an either/or scenario. You can have both.
In my own life and work, I find that the people I encounter who are most satisfied with their work are doing something that “makes a difference” in some way, to other people’s lives. One way making a difference can be done is through direct involvement in a “helping” role of some kind. Some of the obvious examples of this are work such as health and wellness professions, social work, therapies of all kinds, and teaching, the so-called helping professions.
But many other kinds of work allow us to have positive interactions with others. In my own life, I am grateful to, among others, my financial advisors, the auto saleswoman I keep returning to, the receptionists in my chiropractor’s office, sales people who want to help me and are cheerful about it, my favorite cashiers in supermarkets and many others. They bring brightness to my day whenever I encounter them.
Another way to serve others is by creating something that makes a positive difference in people’s lives, even if you never interact with them. Examples of this vary widely, anything from creating beauty to developing new technologies to making quality products to finding the illusive cure for cancer.
Not everyone approaches their lives and work in this way. It’s a choice that we all make, to make a positive difference, or not. Those who “spread love” are the happiest people I meet. The happiness comes from how they choose to live and work, and it rubs off on others.
How do you choose to live and work?
To your success!
Lee
The clients with whom I most love to work are people who have achieved some degree of worldly success, but who are not happy in the work they do. They want both success and happiness, but are having difficulty figuring out how to do that. One day, I mentioned this in a brief presentation I made to a small group. The next day, one of the group members dropped off in my mailbox not one, but three, articles that argued it was somehow selfish and irresponsible to want to be happy and fulfilled in your work!!!!! One even suggested that you should be moderately unhappy in your work, to make you hungrier, I suppose. I was stunned that some people really believe and argue this nonsense.
Actually, what the writers were doing was assuming that being happy in your work means that you aren’t making any money – the “starving artist” image. Unfortunately, many people who are unhappy and unfulfilled believe they cannot have it all. They think it is either “success”/or satisfaction. It isn’t. We spend far too much of our lives working to be anything less than happy and fulfilled. Otherwise it is a horrible waste of our energy, enthusiasm and talent. It is a “lose-lose-lose” situation. We lose, the organizations for which we work lose, and the world in general loses, because we could be contributing so much more.
The first step, then, toward finding both success and satisfaction in your work is to get rid of the idea that you can’t have both. You can, even if you don’t know yet how to do that.
To your success!
Recently, I started working with a new client. One of the first things we did was to look over her resume. I asked her the question I always ask before discussing a resume, “What makes you really good at what you do?” Her answer came out instantly, starting with “Because I care….” and continuing with a series of statements clearly indicating what she was passionate about in her work, while emphasizing how she was excellent at what she did. In all the years I have been doing this, I have found that very few people answer the question by leading with their passion. They may think it is too risky. People may get there eventually, often prompted by me, but they don’t start with their passion. I was impressed!
My client, whom I’ll call Sue, has been working as a Human Resources manager, in a specialized area. What she is passionate about is the people whom she hires and supports in their career development. She lost her job in a corporate reorganization that eliminated her position in this region. Her former employer made it clear to me that it had nothing to do with her performance, which was excellent.
Sue is not looking for a job. She is looking for the right job, and I have no doubt that she will find it…soon. Potential employers are already contacting her. Sue’s issue is being clear in her own mind what her ideal work is. She is taking her layoff as an opportunity to think carefully about how best to apply her passion. It will definitely involve helping people in some way.
I love being around people who are positive, energetic, passionate about their work, and who get things done. So do hiring managers. If you are looking for a job, a promotion or for new work that is a better fit, what can you say about yourself in these same areas, being positive, energetic, passionate and delivering results?
The other question to ask yourself is the one Sue is asking herself: “What is the right work for me?”
To your success!
When I arrived at my car early one morning not long ago, I discovered that one of my tires was very flat. I had to be at a short, but important business meeting at 9:00 am and getting there was going to be very tight. I contemplated changing the tire myself, but I knew I wouldn’t make it to my appointment on time, if I did. So, I called a cab, picking a company out of the Yellow Pages.
Fortunately, the cab arrived within minutes and, even more fortunately, Pierre was driving the cab. To keep the story short, Pierre drove me to my appointment, arriving with 5 minutes to spare. He redirected me, when I went to the wrong door, waited for me (no charge) and drove me home again. When we got back to my car, Pierre pumped up the tire for me, using a compressor and hose built into his van and sent me on my way to get the tire fixed. I was in such a good mood after my encounter with Pierre that it didn’t bother me that the tire couldn’t be fixed and I had to buy four new tires!
All of what Pierre did for me is good service and smart business, but there is more to it than that. Pierre is a helper. Whatever job he might choose to do, he would be a helper. Pierre has been driving a cab for 35 years, and he makes a difference in this world, one customer at a time, because of the way he chooses to do his work. Judging from some of his stories, while we were waiting, Pierre treats his customers and everyone else alike. He is cheerful and helpful beyond “the call of duty”.
Thank you, Pierre. You made my day. I hope we will cross paths again.
There is a lesson for all of us in this. How we choose to do our jobs often matters much more than what we do. Attitude may not be everything, but it certainly is very important, both to our clients, customers and co-workers and to our own job satisfaction.
I love to be around people who bring a positive attitude to their work. How about you? Do you know anyone who makes a great contribution to others because of the way they choose to do their job? If so, please respond to this post with their story. How do you choose to approach your work?
If you are an employer, your high quality workers are about to become more valuable, and more in demand, as the growth in our workforce slows to a stop. How will you attract new workers and how will you keep the ones you have?
The way the world economy is going, more and more work is being outsourced from North America to countries like India and China, where a skilled workforce can be paid considerably less than North American workers. That being said, many jobs will not be outsourced and skilled North American workers will be very valuable to their employers. How will you develop your workers so they provide high value to your company?
Many employers are reluctant to invest in the development of their employees (at all levels), primarily because they are concerned they will lose them to competitors who will try to lure them away. That is possible unless your company is the best place for them to work.
So, how do you create a work place that attracts and keeps the best workers that you will need in order to thrive? It’s not just about how much you are willing to pay. It is also about job satisfaction. If your company pays competitive rates and provides workers with an environment in which they thrive, you will be able to develop a highly creative, productive and collaborative workforce. And you will be able to keep them when a competitor waves a few more dollars at them.
To do this, you may need to make significant changes to the way that you lead.
When Janice and I say that we work with leaders and organizations who really do believe that their employees are very important, most people laugh. They say things like, “Let us know when you find an organization like that.” The degree of cynicism around this issue is enormous!
How many companies do you know that say something like “People are our greatest asset?” How many do you know that actually act in alignment with what they say? More important, how many organizations have employees who believe they really are valued? Do yours?
Do you really mean it when you say, “People are our greatest asset”? Do you act accordingly? That’s the hard part. Do you, for example, ask your employees their opinions and advice? Do you pay attention to what they say? Do you foster leadership skills at all levels? Do you want engagement in their work from your employees, or do you just want compliance? If you don’t engage your employees, you are wasting much of the huge resource of their talents and experience.
My business partner, Janice Calnan, and I gave a presentation two weeks ago to the Ottawa Manufacturers Network (OMN). In it, we outlined the issues I described in the last two posts. We will be working, in partnership with the OMN, to offer some solutions to the emerging problems.
Solutions boil down to one direction that companies and other organizations need to take: developing a workforce that is engaged in their work, that works collaboratively throughout the levels of the organization, and that pools its experience, skills, creativity, energy and enthusiasm so that the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. That is where a company’s sustainable economic development and profitability will be rooted.
2011? My brother was born in 1946, at the leading edge of the Baby Boom. Last year he turned 60. In 2011, he will be 65. 2011, then, is time when the first Boomers reach the “retirement age”. Many, like my brother, will retire sooner. Others will continue working beyond age 65. But 2011 signifies a major change in the labour market, in North America and beyond. The Boomers have dominated and their moving on will have a big impact.
The first impact will be in sheer numbers. Projections from Statistics Canada give three scenarios for the Canadian workforce, depending on a number of different factors. The middle projection indicates that the growth of the labour force will decline significantly over the next 10 years, arriving at a no-growth level by 2016-2021. With the economy continuing to grow, the demand for skilled employees is increasing and the competition for them is heating up. How will employers handle their workforce issues? If they don’t handle them well, their companies will be in trouble.
Where will we find the workers we need? The projections indicate that in the next 5 years or more, workforce growth will come largely from immigration. At the current rate of immigration, that will not solve the problem, especially since we do a mediocre job of integrating skilled immigrants into our economy.
We can encourage older workers to stay in the workforce. The Province of Ontario, for example, has recently joined most of the other provinces by removing legislation that made retirement mandatory at age 65.
We can also encourage higher skills development and employment for socio-economic groups that have traditionally been under-represented in our skilled workforce: women, aboriginals, people with disabilities and other visible minorities.
The other very important thing we can do is focus on developing the quality of the workers that we do have and utilizing their skills, abilities, creativity and experience better than we do now.
To me, fostering job satisfaction among employees is essential to businesses and other organizations:
- Satisfied employees are engaged in the work they do and bring their best to their work;
- Engaged employees are not only happier but more productive;
- Higher productivity results in a better bottom line.
Job satisfaction, then, is not some airy-fairy concept that is irrelevant to creating a thriving organization. It is an essential ingredient. In his book, The Servant Leader, former Better Homes & Gardens executive James Autry states bluntly that “Business is about people. Business is of, by, about, and for people.” Some of those people are your clients and customers, of course; the others are your employees. If you ignore their needs and wants, you do so at your peril.
One thing that really disturbs me is how many people dislike the work that they do. It seems like a terrible waste. I have worked with thousands of people over the years and I know that everyone has activities that they love to do and are good at doing. Given that we spend the largest part of our waking existence working, whether we get paid or not, doing work that we hate is a waste of our talents, energy and lives. This is also a huge waste for employers, who so often get less than our best.
When people dislike their work, what is going on? It is probably for one or more of the following reasons:
- The work itself may be unpleasant, tedious, dangerous or demeaning;
- The work may be OK for some people, but it is not a good fit for their interests and abilities;
- The people they work with are not a good fit for them and are seen as negative;
- Their boss operates in a way that creates a negative atmosphere (at least for them);
- They don’t get support or appreciation for what they do; they aren’t listened to or valued (keys to job satisfaction for many people);
- They don’t believe the work they do is meaningful, worthwhile or makes a contribution.