Your best employees can be successful at their jobs and still miserable while doing it.
They can meet their goals, receive positive performance reviews, earn a good salary, and still dread Monday mornings.
I’ve been thinking about the difference between being successful at work and finding satisfaction in the work we do.
Patrick Lencioni explores this in his book The Truth About Employee Engagement. He identifies three conditions that contribute to job misery:
- Anonymity: Feeling like nobody really knows or cares about you.
- Irrelevance: Not understanding how your work makes a difference.
- Immeasurement: Not having a clear way to evaluate your own success.
Zooming in on the question of irrelevance raises an important question about leadership:
What responsibility do leaders have for helping people find meaning in their work?
Most leaders spend considerable time making sure their people know what they’re supposed to do and how their performance will be measured. But how much time is spent helping them understand why their contribution matters?
I don't mean communicating the company’s mission. People need to see how their individual contribution makes a difference to someone.
You have likely seen the declining stats on workplace engagement (link in the comments). I wonder how many capable, successful employees are feeling disengaged because they’ve lost the connection to the meaning of their work.
When you think about your leadership, do you consider yourself a part of helping your employees answer that question? When was the last time you intentionally helped someone make that connection?
A Challenge to Leaders This Week
Have a conversation with someone on your team, and ask them two questions:
- Do you know what success looks like in your role?
- Who benefits from the work you do, and how?