Summary
- Decide that work should be meaningful.
- Offer spiritual opportunities for employees.
- Consider what may best fit your company.
Are you searching for meaning in your life? How about your career? If you are looking for meaning in life, you are in good company. And your career? Read on to learn about the relevance of seeking more out of your workday.
Searching for meaning ... at work?
Think about it: We spend so much time at work. And many of us spend a lot of time thinking about work even when our bodies aren’t at our jobs. We go to school for years to prepare for work. We spend hundreds more hours honing our skills and developing new ones in order to advance at work.
So, if we spend so much intellectual and emotional energy, as well as time, in matters related to work, shouldn’t it be meaningful? Sure, work is a means to an end (salary to pay for needs and wants), but why can’t it be more? What if it were more meaningful to you and to your employees? How would your day be different? What would Monday mornings begin to feel like—for you and for your staff?
So, what’s a manager to do?
Some things may be simple to institute. For example, the management consulting firm McKinsey and Co. found that when organizations offered opportunities for their employees, such as time for volunteer work or meditation, turnover decreased and morale improved. Here are some other things to consider:
- Create an atmosphere of fertile openness that fosters growth, and model what you expect from others. Author Richard Foster’s analogy may be helpful: The farmer prepares the environment for his seeds to grow, and growth happens through no power of his own, but is facilitated by his preparations.
- Consider what may best fit your company, your upper management and your staff. Many experts’ objectives focus on the development of an environment of good, nurturing, and highly trusting and honest relationships between all staff. David Bastone suggests in Ten Principles for Saving the Corporate Soul points such as:
- Keeping your promises
- Hiring a diverse workforce
- Encouraging whistle blowing
- Striving to produce safe, quality products or services
- Minimizing pay disparities
- Sharing equity across all employee levels
- Community service or support
- Mentor your staff. Help them develop the skills they need to work more effectively. Encourage them (and allow for the latitude) to redesign their jobs to be more meaningful, and to make their accomplishments more profitable for the company, notes trainer Tom McDonald.
- Model good behavior. Promote being ethical, honest, non-manipulative, proactive, acting responsibly, being concerned about quality and correctness (accuracy), going beyond minimum obligations, etc.
Prominent business philosopher Peter Drucker once noted that one of the most important lessons he ever learned is that the primary difference you make is the difference you make in people’s lives. So, every so often, think about how you want to be remembered and then think about what you can do to make a difference.
Summary
- Decide that work should be meaningful.
- Offer spiritual opportunities for employees.
- Consider what may best fit your company.
Are you searching for meaning in your life? How about your career? If you are looking for meaning in life, you are in good company. And your career? Read on to learn about the relevance of seeking more out of your workday.
Searching for meaning ... at work?
Think about it: We spend so much time at work. And many of us spend a lot of time thinking about work even when our bodies aren’t at our jobs. We go to school for years to prepare for work. We spend hundreds more hours honing our skills and developing new ones in order to advance at work.
So, if we spend so much intellectual and emotional energy, as well as time, in matters related to work, shouldn’t it be meaningful? Sure, work is a means to an end (salary to pay for needs and wants), but why can’t it be more? What if it were more meaningful to you and to your employees? How would your day be different? What would Monday mornings begin to feel like—for you and for your staff?
So, what’s a manager to do?
Some things may be simple to institute. For example, the management consulting firm McKinsey and Co. found that when organizations offered opportunities for their employees, such as time for volunteer work or meditation, turnover decreased and morale improved. Here are some other things to consider:
- Create an atmosphere of fertile openness that fosters growth, and model what you expect from others. Author Richard Foster’s analogy may be helpful: The farmer prepares the environment for his seeds to grow, and growth happens through no power of his own, but is facilitated by his preparations.
- Consider what may best fit your company, your upper management and your staff. Many experts’ objectives focus on the development of an environment of good, nurturing, and highly trusting and honest relationships between all staff. David Bastone suggests in Ten Principles for Saving the Corporate Soul points such as:
- Keeping your promises
- Hiring a diverse workforce
- Encouraging whistle blowing
- Striving to produce safe, quality products or services
- Minimizing pay disparities
- Sharing equity across all employee levels
- Community service or support
- Mentor your staff. Help them develop the skills they need to work more effectively. Encourage them (and allow for the latitude) to redesign their jobs to be more meaningful, and to make their accomplishments more profitable for the company, notes trainer Tom McDonald.
- Model good behavior. Promote being ethical, honest, non-manipulative, proactive, acting responsibly, being concerned about quality and correctness (accuracy), going beyond minimum obligations, etc.
Prominent business philosopher Peter Drucker once noted that one of the most important lessons he ever learned is that the primary difference you make is the difference you make in people’s lives. So, every so often, think about how you want to be remembered and then think about what you can do to make a difference.
Summary
- Decide that work should be meaningful.
- Offer spiritual opportunities for employees.
- Consider what may best fit your company.
Are you searching for meaning in your life? How about your career? If you are looking for meaning in life, you are in good company. And your career? Read on to learn about the relevance of seeking more out of your workday.
Searching for meaning ... at work?
Think about it: We spend so much time at work. And many of us spend a lot of time thinking about work even when our bodies aren’t at our jobs. We go to school for years to prepare for work. We spend hundreds more hours honing our skills and developing new ones in order to advance at work.
So, if we spend so much intellectual and emotional energy, as well as time, in matters related to work, shouldn’t it be meaningful? Sure, work is a means to an end (salary to pay for needs and wants), but why can’t it be more? What if it were more meaningful to you and to your employees? How would your day be different? What would Monday mornings begin to feel like—for you and for your staff?
So, what’s a manager to do?
Some things may be simple to institute. For example, the management consulting firm McKinsey and Co. found that when organizations offered opportunities for their employees, such as time for volunteer work or meditation, turnover decreased and morale improved. Here are some other things to consider:
- Create an atmosphere of fertile openness that fosters growth, and model what you expect from others. Author Richard Foster’s analogy may be helpful: The farmer prepares the environment for his seeds to grow, and growth happens through no power of his own, but is facilitated by his preparations.
- Consider what may best fit your company, your upper management and your staff. Many experts’ objectives focus on the development of an environment of good, nurturing, and highly trusting and honest relationships between all staff. David Bastone suggests in Ten Principles for Saving the Corporate Soul points such as:
- Keeping your promises
- Hiring a diverse workforce
- Encouraging whistle blowing
- Striving to produce safe, quality products or services
- Minimizing pay disparities
- Sharing equity across all employee levels
- Community service or support
- Mentor your staff. Help them develop the skills they need to work more effectively. Encourage them (and allow for the latitude) to redesign their jobs to be more meaningful, and to make their accomplishments more profitable for the company, notes trainer Tom McDonald.
- Model good behavior. Promote being ethical, honest, non-manipulative, proactive, acting responsibly, being concerned about quality and correctness (accuracy), going beyond minimum obligations, etc.
Prominent business philosopher Peter Drucker once noted that one of the most important lessons he ever learned is that the primary difference you make is the difference you make in people’s lives. So, every so often, think about how you want to be remembered and then think about what you can do to make a difference.