Finding The Real Meaning of Your Work
By Patrick Lencioni
During the holiday season many of us spend time with our aunts and uncles and cousins, and inevitably they ask "now what exactly are you doing with your career?" And nine times out of ten our answers seem woefully inadequate - vague descriptions of consulting or sales or finance or, heaven forbid, business development - and so finally we just give up and say, "I'm an executive at a company". Hiding their disinterest, our relatives force a nice smile and say "good for you" and then wonder off toward the hors d'oevres table.
These awkward conversations are easily tolerable in and of themselves. However, they sometimes make us take stock of our jobs and our lives in a way that we don't normally think during the rest of the year. This is especially true when you ask your cousin Ed what he does and he says he is a priest or a teacher or a social worker.
Even the most cynical among us must sometimes wonder "am I making a difference in the world?" The answer is an unequivocal "maybe".
Certainly most of us do not work in organizations with completely altruistic goals. At best, we rationalize the mission of our companies as making people's lives easier in some way. However, to look for goodness in what our companies do is to miss the most meaningful and important aspect of what we do. We lead people.
That may sound like an obvious statement, or even a cliché, but it is worth examining in detail, especially during this time of year. The question that we must ask ourselves is this: "do we fully appreciate the impact we have on the lives of our employees?" Don't nod your head too quickly.
When I work with CEOs and other senior executives I often ask them if they have considered the following scenario, and usually they are dumbfounded by what I say.
Imagine, if you will, that you have just ended a one-on-one meeting with an employee in your organization. For you, it is a meeting about whatever issues you discussed. An agenda, a time-frame, an outcome, a meeting. For them it is something altogether more.
Imagine the employee planning for the meeting the day before. Imagine her rehearsing the dialogue with her husband because she is a little nervous about meeting with you, given your title and level of responsibility.
Imagine that immediately after the meeting she calls her husband to let him know how it went. Imagine that she replays the meeting for him, recreating subtleties and details that you will never think about again. Imagine her evening with her family, and how the way she treats them will be impacted in some way by her mood after coming out of that meeting.
Usually the executives are shaking their heads by now, a little embarrassed by the previously preposterous notion that their seemingly innocuous actions can have such a profound impact on so many people, some of whom they've never met.
This raises a number of questions: How did you act during that meeting? Did you listen intently to what she was saying? Did you help her understand the importance of what she is working on, and how it ties into the company's mission? Did you express sincere appreciation for the work that she did, and for her dedication to the organization?
These actions, no matter how easy or inconsequential they seem to a busy leader, are the very things that impact an employee's self-esteem, mood and behavior. And yet so often, in the rush of our responsibilities, we lose sight of their importance. And when we multiply the number of interactions we have with employees every day by the number of days we spend working each year, the impact becomes staggering.
This becomes even more powerful when we consider how much of an employee's life is spent at work, and how much of their self-worth is built upon their professional lives, for better or for worse. All things considered, an executive can influence the lives of people in a way that few others can.
So, though we may not have chosen vocations which are completely altruistic and service-oriented (and God bless those people who do), as leaders we have an incredible and rare opportunity to contribute to the betterment of the human condition. As the new year begins, this is a good time to rededicate ourselves to taking full advantage of that opportunity.