Do you help people find the work they love?

We believe great leaders help people find work they love.

Sometimes this means helping people find ways to change the work they do to become reinvigorated and re-engaged. Other times it means helping people move on. Why?

Leaders need engaged followers. Engaged followers are motivated to be there and do their best work. Good things happen for everyone, (the individual, the team, the leader and the organisation) when the bulk of the people are truly enjoying their work.

Our purpose at Hartwick Associates is to help leaders find their formula to building a stronger workplace. We believe (idealistically maybe) that workplaces should be full of people who want to be there, who want to do their best work, and work collaboratively with others. If this isn’t the case, they’re in the wrong place, poorly led, or both.

When an individual isn’t engaged with their work, something needs to change.

When people no longer want to be in a job or in the organisation they often stay on. They stay longer than they should, and are encouraged to do so by managers who want to retain their unique skills. Sometimes we even bribe them to stay by offering to pay them more. Unfortunately, this rarely works out well for anyone. As individuals become demotivated, they perform inconsistently, become unhappy and may even cause problems. The last thing a team needs is members that are demotivated and just collecting a pay cheque. A good leader helps prevent all this and if it happens anyway, helps the person move on for the good of the team and for their own good. The leader, as well as the person, is responsible to sort it out before it becomes a bigger mess.

How can you a build stronger workplace?

In simple terms, there are two options:

• Option 1: Select people who want to be there, and keep them there only as long as they want to be there, or
• Option 2: Get the people who are already there to become reinvigorated and inspired (if they aren’t already)

Option 1 seems the easier option, particularly if you are starting from scratch and you are good at selecting the right people. It’s not as easy as it sounds of course, but the good news is that all employees start out motivated to do a good, if not great job. So it’s mostly about maintaining that energy and focus.

This leads me to Option 2 which you will eventually come to, even if you start with Option 1.

Getting people reignited and re-inspired is a challenge and requires a unique formula for each person. They along with the leader are responsible for finding this. We maintain, along with most other leadership specialists, that leaders should provide a clear sense of purpose and direction , focused priorities and targets for the team. But that is not enough. Leaders also need to provide on-going learning opportunities and challenges for the team members to keep growing.. Doing these things well will mean higher engagement and a humming team; maybe not for everyone forever, but for most for longer.

Leaders can help each individual by identifying their specific work-related strengths. Following Marcus Buckingham’s lead, we define strengths as:

a) things they are good at or have had some indication of success,
b) things they are inspired to do more of, and,
c) things that leave them more energised when they are done.

You as the leader can help them become aware of how these specific strengths are opportunities to be applied to help with the team’s and/or wider organisation’s needs (or not). You can keep them learning, growing and improving by helping them find new challenges and interesting work. Help them discover their choices and work through a process to come to the best long term solution for them and the team.

Helping people find the right job or make their existing jobs more enjoyable is both the leader’s and each person’s obligation. Remember, good things happen for everyone, (the individual, the team, the leader and the organisation) when people are truly enjoying their work.

You might enjoy watching this Marcus Buckingham’s video where he links business performance to engagement and the manager’s performance.