LTYM - The Work Has Meaning

Letters to a Young Manager

The Work Has Meaning, #65
LTYM > Leadership and Values

Dear Sophie,

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What motivates your team? If you don't already know, I would ask them. I've notice a generational shift, where meaning has pulled ahead of money. Of course, this is supported by the classic paper on the topic.[1][2]

From time to time, I'd meet 1:1 with my department members and ask them three questions: what should stay the same, what should change, and what would they do if they were me? One of the engineers on my team told me something I will never forget. She said that she liked that when she would really hard it had impact on the people we were serving, and it was not about making the guy in the corner office richer.

Working for a humanitarian organization, that was chock full of meaning. But it's also applicable in the for-profit world. We all serve a customer, whether external , internal, or half-way around the world. What are you doing to make that person's life better?

***

Sincerely,
Ed

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[1] Frederick Herzberg, "One more time, how do you motivate employees?" HBR, January 2003 Issue. Herzberg argues that money is a maintenance factor, while achievement and recognition are motivators. However, impact and meaning is coming to the fore in the current generation.
[2] Compare this more recent article by Jenna Goudreau, "7 Surprising Ways To Motivate Millennial Workers," Forbes, March 7, 2013. "Millennial workers are more likely to look for meaning and impact in their work and aren't satisfied simply punching a clock."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2013/03/07/7-surprising-ways-to-motivate-millennial-workers/

Takeaways:

The work has meaning

Discussion Questions:

1) How does what your team is working on have impact on the people it serves? Does it make their job easier? Does it meet a basic need? Solve a problem? You get the idea?
2) Are you talking about your team's accomplishments in terms of the impact and meaning it has ?
3) If you were the complaint desk in a retail store, how would you re-frame your job to have more meaning and impact?

For Further Reading:

1) See Clay Christensen's "How Will you Measure Your Life?", where he writes, "The answer to [how can I be happy in my career] ...comes from Frederick Herzberg’s assertion that the most powerful motivator isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute, and be recognized."
http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr
2) See "The Returns Desk", Letter #394