Give Work Meaning™
I have received limitless counseling about how bad our tagline is, and yet I persevere, because I really believe it. Perhaps it’s not that I believe that software alone can give work meaning, but I absolutely believe that work should have meaning, and that the necessary preconditions for this are that a worker must know
• What you are working on,Now at first blush, these all seem like trivial points.
• How you are doing, and
• Why it matters
Who doesn’t know what they are working on?
Well, the overtasked person doesn’t know what they are working on. When faced with a pile of competing tasks, what are they working on? Alternatively, there are workers who live in a management vacuum. That vacuum sounds like this:
“Mary should know what she is supposed to do, because she is a manager”
Welll, Mary may be a manager, but unless she is really special, she is not a mind reader. Neither title, training, gender, nor any other quality an individual has is a substitute for clear direction from a manager.
As to how you are doing, again, isn’t that clear? Don’t you know how you are doing? Well, if everyone knew how well they were performing there would be no basis for the plethora of shows like Heidi Klum’s …, or the interior design show.
As an entrepreneur I have found that what I miss most is positive, granular feedback about my day to day activities.
Which probably explains why small companies have dogs.
But really, the absence of feedback is crushing. Gallup cites it as a key reason why people leave their jobs. So people really need to be told that they are doing well or poorly. The effect of this feedback is for another post.
Finally, what about why it matters? Doesn’t everyone just work for a paycheck? I don’t think so. A paycheck is necessary but not sufficient to make work meaningful. (And in the case of the volunteer, not even necessary.)
The employee working just for a paycheck is not engaged, not fulfilled, and not staying. Or worse, they do stay, sucking all the air out of the business, dragging down morale, and daring you to make a move.
So what matters? Lots of stuff. The direction of the business, each individual’s contribution to the success of the business, their personal career development, the impact the business has on the market, community, industry, and so on. Without visibility into what is happening in the business, it is difficult to convey what matters.
So Give Work Meaning™. Do it now. You won’t regret it.
