Episode D2.009 Challenging Work

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Introduction
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Show Objectives - The Why
Jim Rohn had a saying, “Don’t send your ducks to eagle school.” Before we can focus on challenging work, you have to know who is in the room. Are you surrounding yourself with ducks or eagles? Ducks will always be ducks, but eagles will soar! Good workers, ones who want challenging work, are found, not changed. They can change themselves, but you can’t change them. If you want motivated people in your company, you have to find them. Once you do, providing challenging work will be as easy as tapping into what specifically motivates them - and they will probably be self aware enough to tell you. 

Celebrated Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl (March 26, 1905–September 2, 1997) remains best-known for his indispensable 1946 psychological memoir Man’s Search for Meaning (public library) — a meditation on what the gruesome experience of Auschwitz taught him about the primary purpose of life: the quest for meaning, which sustained those who survived. For Frankl, meaning came from three possible sources: purposeful work, love, and courage in the face of difficulty.

Today we will explore the first of Frankl’s revelations that meaning is found through purposeful or challenging work. 


Key Issues- Owner’s Perspective

1. Majority of life is spent at work 
2. People have an innate need to find meaning for life 
3. What motivates them - power, affiliation, achievement 
4. Key job components - demand on learning, multiple skills, authority = responsibility, autonomy

What You Need to Know - The What
Most people spend a majority of their life at work - and hate it. Companies have capitalized on this phenomena and made millions of dollars with TGIF campaigns. The question is, if we spend so much time at work, how can we make it a more rewarding and fulfilling experience? This is a question you, as the business owner, needs to ask not only for your team members and employees, but it is one that you should also be asking yourself on a frequent basis. As a startup, you will be married to your business for the foreseeable future. How can you turn it into a love affair and avoid the ball and chain feeling?

One way to do that is to find meaning. Quoting Frankl once more will give you insight into how to find that meaning. Reference and teach it often as your company faces new opportunities and new challenges. 

“What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

The final piece to finding and installing challenging work is finding the right kind of motivation to inspire the receiver to action. There are two major types of motivation: intrinsic (from within us) and extrinsic (from outside of us).  

Your job is to find a balance of motivators and tie them into key job components so team members and employees continue the motivation loop on a daily basis. It is also important to incorporate rewards and goals as well, but the more you can tap in to daily motivators the happier and more productive your employees will be. 


What You Need to Do - The How

1. Embrace, model and teach the idea that happiness and meaning is an inside job. Make this part of your company culture by instilling “right action and right conduct.”
2. Identify ducks and eagles. Send your ducks swimming and allow your eagles to soar.
3. Become familiar with all the different types of motivation - both intrinsic and extrinsic. Then design programs and opportunities to reward, recognize and equip team members according to the different motivation styles. 
4. Incorporate motivation into daily work activities and key job components. Place a high demand on learning, cross training and developing multiple skills, create a culture that authority = responsibility, and place a high value on autonomy. Give the tools and guidance for your people to make decisions and do their work independently and allow your eagles to soar. 

Resources

• brainpickings.org/2013/03/26/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning/

Shows
Previous:Episode D2.008 Practice Business Values
Next:Episode D2.010 Quality Part of the Job 


Written by Donna Kunde

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