In word and deed do top managers honor the dignity of employees, and the value of their ideas?
Of all the POSITIVE EVENTS that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work.
The secret to amazing performance is empowering talented people to succeed at meaningful work:
- Progress in meaningful work
- Events that directly help project work (catalysts)
- Interpersonal events that uplift the people doing the work (nourishers)
Facilitating progress is the most effective way for managers to cultivate healthy inner work life.
People are most likely to experience creative work days when they start out in a positive frame of mind.
Stress and unhappiness interfere with their ability to get work done well (or at all).
Why not use the power of progress to ethically steer people’s thoughts, feelings and drives?
Inner work life influences all aspects of performance…
IWL: The confluence of perceptions, emotions and motivations that individuals experience as they react to, and make sense of, the events of their work day.
Funny thing is:
IWL hides from view.
Try as you might, to do a good job as a leader, do you ever question your approaches?
Have you recognized the effects of inhibitors on your subordinates?
Would you recognize such inhibitors in your own behavior?
Most managers know nothing about the ideas inherent in the progress principle and therefore mishandle the opportunity. Best intentions or not,
Most managers do no appreciate how deeply people care about progress in meaningful work.
Meaningful work, supported by management, can enhance life immeasurably.
Work that is devoid of meaning, interest and joy can lead to lives that feel empty.
This presents a massive opportunity. Supporting inner work live can make you a hero, build long-term success of your organization, and add meaning to your own life or nurturing your own inner work life. Conversely,
Of all the NEGATIVE EVENTS:
The single most powerful is the opposite of progress.
Setbacks in the work.
Managers do not seem to understand the dynamics of this. Even if you do understand it, how do you gauge it?
This is Needless daily suffering.
This cannot be outsourced.
An accumulation of negative events could permanently taint the person’s backstory about the organization.
Each of us interprets each workday event against our own backstories in our organizations.
If people cannot feel joy in their accomplishments, there is little intrinsic drive to work.
Motivation for taking action stalls. Stymied in work, treated as half-wit commodities by management, these employees think badly of the organization, managers, coworkers, projects, eventually themselves… losing the spark of motivation that we want so much to love.
Avoid coming across as an ill-informed dictator:
Most organizations have unwritten rules against showing strong emotions and expressing strong opinions. Especially if they are negative or contrary to prevailing views. Especially, to superiors.
A manager or coworker undercuts an idea. Or fails to offer help when it needed. Or undermined a person’s efforts. These can lead directly or indirectly to setbacks.
When people see that leader’s cannot or will not support their work, they view themselves like tightrope walkers working without a net. When leadership or other groups actively hinder their work, they feel like someone is shaking that tightrope. Motivation decays because such tenuous support provokes anxiety and signals that the work is either unimportant or doomed to failure, or both.
If management generally overrides people’s decisions, they quickly lose motivation to make any decision. This severely inhibits progress. Work gets delayed because people feel they have to wait and check in before they begin or change anything.
If you have a broken system, even a stellar reputation can only conceal the damage for so long,
People smile and say thank you. Sometimes trapped in golden handcuffs. Others, feel an abused spouse – unable to leave.
Inner work life influences all aspects of performance…
Bad inner work life: Decisive management. Uncommunicative support groups. Competing agendas.
Good inner work life: Prompt support at every turn, honest feedback on ideas, ensure each group supports the team.
Progress can and should be boosted every day.
Lavish resources are not required. Just access to necessary equipment, funding, data, materials, personnel when needed. Lacking these catalysts, employees realize progress is unnecessarily difficult or impossible. Their IWLs dip. The organization suffers.
Just support conditions that allow us to succeed at important work. Few things can nurture inner work life as much as being successful.
Why not build a company that people love working in?
Work is personal, it is not just business.
Turning negative IWL positive, requires only the removal or reversal of progress obstacles.
If you figure happy clients stay longer, spend more, and recommend you to others, how else can you deliver?
Only in a psychologically safe climate can people take the risks necessary to produce truly innovative work.
The curse of a bad set of habits, is that all the unnecessary things you are doing, actually seem necessary.