Meaningful Work- Building A Leadership & Management Must

Meaningful Work- Building A Leadership & Management Must

© Irene Becker | www.justcoachit.com | 3Q Leadership Blog

 [google-translator]

The importance of meaningful work to YOUR success and the success of YOUR people cannot be minimized.  Old school:  work=profit   New school purpose=profit The information is clear, a whole new generation of employees will look for and ultimately demand meaningful work.  And, the shift and importance of meaningful work to all people is critical.  After our survival needs are met, meaning and purpose are the key drivers of potential, innovation, ideation…successful results.

 

 

 

 

 

Meaningful Work Is Critical to Agile and Effective Leadership & Management . Finding meaning and purpose in your work is critical not only to the results you achieve, but to the attitude and the emotions that are picked up by your people.  Yes, brain science tells us that mirror neurons make what we are feeling contagious, viral.  Can YOU lead forward if you do not believe in what you are doing?  Can you inspire and empower the best in others if you do not feel that your work and theirs is important?  Will you be able to engage and retain your people? NO.


What is the secret to meaningful work?

I am going to share something that is counter-intuitive.  YES, you can have your cake and eat it too.  It is possible to find meaning and purpose in your work, and the caveat is not only improved focus, management and leadership but a feeling that will be shared with your colleagues, your direct reports, your clients…YOUR people and constituents.  Finding meaning and purpose in YOUR work starts with self awareness, with total candor and with a place to share your truth and use it to move forward. Yes, that’s right the things you love about your work and the things that frustrate YOU can be used/transformed into  personalized tools, simply strategies that help you reset or rewrite default patterns that no longer work.  Yes,  YOU can probably have your cake and eat it too!

Success Story: Having your cake and eating it too!

Executive comes to me disenchanted with new position, executive team etc.  We work on key areas of focus, determine meaning and purpose for the client as well as gaps, areas of improvement in communication, collaboration that could be built with the executive team, managers and in the organization as a whole.  Result, we use what is to create a new way of seeing and using challenges that not only reinvigorates meaning and purpose for the executive and causes a pivotal shift in the Executive Team and ultimately senior managers; a shift that creates momentum, empowerment, engagement, improved communication and an organizational spirit of motivation that infuses the leaders and managers with a NEW CAN DO attitude and emphasis.  Result:  An improved foundation, an important, vibrant seedbed for improved and agile management and leadership.

YES, YOU can probably have your cake and eat it too.

The cake is meaning, purpose-YOUR true potential; eating it is the coachable moment.  A moment that is pivotal to turning challenges around and using them to communicate, lead and succeed forward forward! Ask YOURSELF… Is it time to find greater meaning and purpose in your work?  Do you want to inspire meaning and purpose in your executive team, your managers, your people?

Get in the know & start to grow.

Enjoy a self test-go ahead self-test the quality of your work and life.  Think about having your cake and eating it too.  Making the decision to embrace the meaning and purpose of your work, finding new ways to do so can change your life and the lives of your people…yes, you can shift and LEAD forward!

More? You Betcha!

 How To  Improve Culture by Adriana Girdler

The Thriving Organization-10 Power Steps Out Of Jurassic Park 

From Now To How: Building Building Social, Virtual and Cross Generational Leadership

Building an Agile Self and Team 

Constructive Discontent-A Critical Leadership and Life Skill

The Power of NOW

LEAD Forward 7 Power Words &  Leadership Posts in One

Communication – 5 Posts in One

Executive coaching, training, consulting, keynotes and articles with a 3Q Edge

for greater reach, resonance and results

 

Irene Becker | Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | QBlog
Toronto & Virtually Everywhere | (1) 416-671-4726 416-671-4726 Skype: beckerirene

5 replies
  1. Karlene Petitt
    Karlene Petitt says:

    Meaningful work is huge. I cannot tell you how important this is to pilots… but they don’t realize it. They attribute dissatisfaction to all the external things of pay, work rules, seniority…etc. All are real. But… what they don’t see is how much the flying job has shifted from one of Pride and Accomplishment, to one of being a slave to an industry, and pushing buttons. With the advancement of automation, their purpose falls. Before we flew, now we manage. Can anyone learn to manage the systems of a plane under normal circumstances? Yes. It’s when they break, that becomes the problem, and we need the experience of real pilots. But the experience is leaving because of job dissatisfaction and the lack of purpose. We going to get new pilots who punch buttons. How can we bring purpose and meaning back to our aviation careers? Passengers lives depend upon it.

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Hi Karlene: Thank you so much for your comments. I understand from what you have shared that there is a perhaps a crisis of lack of meaning for many pilots given what has happened in the profession and in the industry. One would like to think that from an enterprise perspective companies employing pilots would address this, and do coaching to help the situation. Sadly, most organizations are not forward thinking.

      I think that it would be so worthwhile to have coaching for new pilots, because perspective is everything, and the ability to see meaning and purpose in one’s work is SO critical. I think that meaning an purpose can be brought back into aviation careers by an onboarding process or coaching existing pilots in a way that allows them to see the incredible meaning and purpose to what they are doing. It is so important to instill pride in one’s work and to be able to feel a sense of meaningful contribution.

      And, of equal import meaning and purpose must be modeled by the CEO and the executive team; they must make meaning and purpose part of the organizational culture. This may seem obvious, but this has not been the focus on the past. I have seen astounding positive changes when executives are coached in this area. We now know that mirror neurons pick up the feelings of others, and having executives who are on purpose and feel that they are doing meaningful work in itself has a positive impact on their direct reports. Furthermore, teaching/coaching executives to build a culture of meaning and purpose is critical to great work as well as employee engagement and recruitment.

      Am I overstating the need for effective executive coaching, and I would furthermore say 3Q coaching to address these problems? I do not think so. We are living in times where we need to reset default patterns of thinking and doing in order to survive and thrive. The imperative for coaching is great, and I feel of the utmost importance.

      Best, Irene

      Reply
      • Karlene Petitt
        Karlene Petitt says:

        Irene, Coaching pilots would be the best. Unfortunately they are cutting the training footprint and not bringing pilots into the “schoolhouse” any longer because of the expense. We train at home.
        The pilots have lost a sense of community too. Which studies have proven impacts health. Unfortunately with deregulation of this industry, there is no money, or time to make it work. But mental health is essential. While Flight For Control is a novel based on the current industry, and there are many twists and turns, the main issue I wanted to convey was the mental health of the pilots. This lack of pride in their job, and themselves, is a huge part of the instability. It weakens the system.

        Leadership at the top, the CEO, is a great example of a great leader. However, the next problem arises as the airline grows. An airline is a business, within a business. The leaders manage corporate. The pilots (managers) manage flight operations. Depending upon the culture they grew up in, is the type of personality you get managing pilots. In some (most) cases they came out of the military. They’ve been flying a desk. They still fly a desk. Pilots have huge egos. They can do anything. And, they attempt to “control” their environment. These managers have one focus in mind…themselves.

        Imagine that type of leadership. And I use the L word loosely because these types of military pilot managers are anything but leaders. They’ve never been trained to be leaders, and would never rise to this prestigious position in flight operations had they displayed the traits of a leader along the way. Oh… I could go on.

        And will during my thesis on my Ph.D. Until then, I will write fiction to show the public the potential problems this lack of meaning has on the pilot and industry. I wish we could instill coaching. Unfortunately, we’ve gone the other direction and I cannot see a shift in the wind in the short term.

        Note: There are leaders in the military, but not in the aspect I term leadership. They are “leaders” “only” because of positional power. Troops do what they are told because their commanding officer told them to do it.

        Thank you for the comment!

        Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] • Meaningful Work:  Building A Leadership And Management Must • The Leadership Compendium More?  Yes!  Two Videos I Hope You Enjoy! • Extraordinary Women Interview:  Crashing Through Cement Ceilings! • My Interview With Resiliency Expert Michael Ballard […]

  2. […] • Meaningful Work:  Building A Leadership And Management Must • The Leadership Compendium More?  Yes!  Two Videos I Hope You Enjoy! • Extraordinary Women Interview:  Crashing Through Cement Ceilings! • My Interview With Resiliency Expert Michael Ballard […]

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *