A511.6.3.RB - Meaning

Have you ever really asked yourself why you are doing your job? Are you in a job because it is your dream job?  Is it the job you always envisioned yourself doing?  Do you despise getting up to go to work because you hate every aspect of it? It is a reality that most of us need a job to make money to provide for ourselves and/or family.  However, it would be nice if we were provided endless opportunities and the ability to be so selective about a job we wanted until we found our perfect match.  What does our perfect match even mean?  Most people are on a search for happiness in their employment, but in order to find that happiness, we must first understand the meaning of the work we are doing.  We usually understand what we need to do in our work, but it is rare to understand our impact.  Enter leadership.  This is where effective leaders need to provide employees meaning and communicate the “why” of our job to facilitate individual and organizational success.  Even Ulrich (2010) suggests “To get the most from their employees, leaders should do all they can to make this “why” clear” and I couldn’t agree more.

Early in my career, I worked in a warehouse which supplied aircraft parts when I was in the military.  My civilian friends thought my job was really cool because I was always around jets and got to see some neat stuff.  Conversely, I viewed my job as boring and grew tired of the feeling that I was not making any impact to the mission.  I would constantly ask myself, “What is the point of what I am doing?”  However, there came a day when my supervisor brought me to an aircraft hangar to show me some of the aircraft that had just returned from a mission.  He reminded me that all of us have important jobs to do and the each of us plays a vital role in the success of every mission.  I realized that if I did not do my job and provide the necessary aircraft parts when they were needed, it might not only cause a delay, but it might completely jeopardize the mission.  My supervisor demonstrated very effective leadership by answering the “why” to what I do and gave me the meaning I was looking for in my position.  This simple gesture of leadership ignited me to want to do my job better and provided me enthusiasm that I was making an impact.  “Leaders who help shape a vision that is engaging to others, who weave the stories that help people make sense of the past and imagine the future, and who tap into the unique desires and values of individuals engage people’s hearts as well as their heads and hands” (Ulrich, 2010).

Creating meaning to our work may be overlooked by organizations, but it is an area that deserves a lot of attention.  Organizational leaders who successfully create meaning for their employees will notice employees “tend to work harder, more creatively, and with more tenacity, giving the companies a leg up in the marketplace” (Ulrich, 2010).  Additionally, a survey by the Energy Project “which reached more than 12,000 employees across a broad range of companies and industries, found that 50% lack a level of meaning and significance at work.  Moreover, employees who derive meaning from their work are more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations—the highest single impact of any other survey variable they tested.” (Amortegui, n.d.).  This is a prime example of how giving employees a cause as to why they are performing their jobs can only lead to great organizational success.  

References:

Amortegui, J. (n.d.). Why finding meaning at work is more important than feeling happy. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3032126/how-to-find-meaning-during-your-pursuit-of-happiness-at-work

Ulrich, D., Ulrich W. (2010).  Getting Beyond Engagement to creating Meaning at Work. Harvard Business Blog. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/06/getting-beyond-engagement-to-c