If there’s one ailment most of us can agree on that’s found in today’s workplaces it’s a lack of engagement between employees and their work. Specifically, a lack of connection between what we do and what matters to us – both professionally and personally. Now, thanks to the recent study “Philips Work/Life Survey” conducted by Philips North America, we have additional insights into why organizations and their leaders need to address the issue of creating meaningful work in today’s workplaces.

As part of my collaboration with Philips North America for this new study, I was able to review the raw data that was collected from a national sample of 1 000 US workers, and I found some interesting patterns on how employees view their relationship between their work, their career goals and what they derive a sense of satisfaction from in their lives.

These findings – which I’ll discuss below – can help leaders to understand what they’ll need to do in the months and years ahead to ensure their organization not only survives, but thrives in this new era of work.

1. How gender impacts work/life balance and meaningful work
While the Philips study found that men are slightly more satisfied with their jobs than women (47% of men compared to 40% of women), the more interesting finding is how men are more driven to find a connection between their passions and work than women.

When asked how often they’re able to pursue their personal interests and passions through their work, nearly half of the men (47%) responded all or most of the time, while only 30% of women reported the same. Men were also more willing to take a pay cut if that would allow them to do work that was connected to their passions and interests (75% of male respondants compared to only 57% of female respondants).

These two findings reveal how men are more likely to make career decisions based mostly on their ability to do work that provides a sense of meaning, compared to women who tend to take into consideration personal/family responsibilities when making decisions about their career path.

In this light, it’s not surprising that only 13% of women feel their organization’s top priority is talent development – compared to 21% of men – as the type of development opportunities organizations provide often fails to take into consideration employee commitments outside of the workplace.

What these findings serve to reinforce is the differences in how men and women approach the workplace and their careers – where men are clearly willing to pursue meaningful work to the point of switching to a lower paying job, while women continue to struggle to find a balance between being able to do meaningful work while respecting their personal obligations outside of the workplace.

It also serves as an important reminder to leaders to make sure that they appreciate these differences not just in terms of how they develop their employees, but also the need to ensure that all employees have a realistic opportunity to do meaningful work.

2. Employees need our help to identify and connect with what matters
One of the study’s more revealing findings is an apparent double-standard in what we recommend our family and friends use to assess a new job opportunity, and what we do ourselves when faced with a similar decision. When study participants were asked if they would recommend that a family member or friend accept a job offer “without fully considering how it adds meaning to his/her life”, over 60% of respondants said no.

Ironically, 60% of these same respondants admitted that they have taken a job “without fully considering how the job adds meaning” to their lives, which no doubt explains why more than half of the study’s participants said that their work brought little or no meaning to their lives.

The practical implications of this contradictionary behaviour can been seen in the responses the study’s participants gave about the impact the ability to do meaningful work would have on their performance.

When asked what differences would there be in their performance from being able to connect their passions and personal interests with their work, over 90% of the study’s participants said that it would motivate them to work harder, that they would care more about their work, that it would reduce their stress levels regardless of their workload, and that it would make them feel more successful.

This disconnect between how employees view the importance of meaningful work and their accepting jobs without considering whether it is meaningful reveals a lack of clarity many employees have about how to connect what they do with what matters to them; of how to identify work that would provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose.

Although employees are certain of the value, importance, and positive impact doing meaningful work would have on their career and personal lives, most of them haven’t yet discovered what they should be doing to derive that sense of purpose.

Leaders often admit that one of the big challenges they face is how to provide the kind of talent development that will ensure employees remain invested in their organization’s shared purpose. This study’s finding reveals a fertile opportunity for leaders to help their employees gain greater clarity about what matters to them, and how it can be tied to what they do as members of your organization.

3. Be prepared for the salary motivation bubble
For a study on the importance of meaningful work, one of the seemingly unexpected findings is how 60% of respondants listed salary as the most important factor for job satisfaction, with meaningful work coming in second place with 34%.

Of course, in light of the prevailing economic uncertainties seen in most countries, it’s not surprising that salary would rank so high, which also means that we need to recognize that we’re on borrowed time when it comes to using salary to keep our employees satisfied.

Indeed, this study’s findings reveal that salary bubble is already looming – almost 70% of respondants said they would be willing to take a pay cut in order to do work that allowed them to carry over their interests and passions from their personal life into the workplace. Additionally, more than one third of respondants stated that if every job in the world paid the same salary, they wouldn’t stay with their current position.

What’s more, Millennial employees were the most willingly to take a big pay cut in order to do work that connects with their personal passions and interests – 43% of this generation of workers said they would take a pay cut of 25% or more in order to do meaningful work.

This last finding is particularly noteworthy, not just because the Millennials represent the largest generation of workers to enter the workplace in the last few decades, but also because of their willingness to take such a significant pay cut even though they are at the low-end of the pay scale.

In light of these findings, it’s easy to understand why employee mobility is currently rather low, but it also serves as a warning for organizations to not rely on salary offerings to prevent an exodus of employees – especially the key talent within their organization – when economic conditions improve.

In reviewing the various findings and data from this study, there’s no question that there’s a clear need and interest among employees in all age groups and career stages to have the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful and purpose-driven fashion.

Perhaps equally important is how these findings reinforce the relationship-based nature of today’s work – where employees need to collaborate with leaders to not only identify where they can provide the greatest contribution, but to also identify and facilitate the kind of work environment and opportunities they need to succeed and grow.

Such an approach will serve not only employees, but the organizations they work for by ensuring their collective ability to evolve and thrive in the years ahead.

The post Making The Case For Creating Meaningful Work appeared first on TanveerNaseer.com.

The following is a guest post by Doug Sundheim.

When I talk to clients about effective goal setting someone invariably mentions that good goals are SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. I agree these are critically important to strengthening goals. But they’re not the whole story. They don’t tell you how an individual or team arrived at the goal. And that’s more than half the battle.

Anyone can slap a specific, measurable, and achievable number on things and give you a due date. “We’ll have 6 new clients by the end of the quarter!” Great, but how did you arrive at that goal? Did you really think through it or does it just sound good? More often than not I find it’s the latter.

And more often than not I find people lose steam in pursuing their goals if they don’t go through a thoughtful goal setting process to arrive at them and keep them alive.

I’ll share an example of what I mean…

Recently, a client, the CEO of a medium-size accounting firm, sent me the following list of 2013 goals

• Revenue in excess of $200M
• Capitalize on our potential in our manufacturing practice and grow it 15% this year
• Increase our share in the finance practice by 10% this year
• Build a healthcare practice finding at least 2 new clients this year over $1M each
• Make our new office in Dallas a success increasing revenue and headcount by 50% by the end of the year
• Develop a global strategy by June 2014
• Initiate long term reduction in overhead cost such that overhead is not greater than 25% of planned revenue

On first glance they were an impressive set of goals, and they were everything SMART goals should be—specific, measurable, time bound etc. But then I started push a little. My first question was, “how were these created?” The CEO didn’t have a clear answer. They were his gut senses from what he felt the firm should be doing.

“OK, so is the entire executive team aligned on them?” I followed up.

“I think so,” he answered. It didn’t seem very convincing to me, but knowing he’d be sharing them with the entire executive team the next day, I let it slide.

The next day at the executive meeting, people started asking all sorts of questions:

How would you actually define our manufacturing practice?

Do you really think we can grow it that much? Is that where we should be putting our resources?

Who’s running the healthcare practice?

I thought we decided that we would hold off on that until 2014?

Did someone make a decision I wasn’t aware of?

Do you really think we should be growing headcount as fast as revenue in Dallas?

My gut tells me that we should staff the business out of other offices until 2014 so our costs don’t get ahead of our revenue.

There were 5-10 elements of the goal plan that should have gone through a much more rigorous vetting and consultation process before they ended up on the list. Instead they were created in a relative vacuum. I wish I could say this is the exception, but unfortunately it’s very common.

The problem is that it takes time and energy to really think through the implications of a set of goals and facilitate a thoughtful process to vet them. As a result, a lot of people take shortcuts. Sometimes, you can get away with it if you’re a small group people or the goals are simple, but for the most part, it creates big problems.

When goals aren’t thoughtfully defined, people don’t feel invested in them. Then the goals don’t stay front and center in their minds. And then people don’t hold each other accountable for hitting them.

Here are 11 questions I always keep in mind as I work with clients to set goals. It starts with some of the SMART elements, but goes beyond them. These are written from a leader’s perspective, but you can use them to strengthen individual goal setting as well. The more “yeses” you can answer, the better your goal setting process.

1. Are the goals specific and measurable – i.e. will it be clear we did or didn’t hit them?
2. Are the goals time bound?
3. Was the process of setting them inclusive of key stakeholders? If not, you could have buy-in problems down the road.
4. Are the goals easy to understand?
5. Do the goals feel motivating and inspiring?
6. If a goal is big or broad, is it broken down into sub goals and strategies?
7. If a goal is conceptual, is it operationalized to clarify target behaviors?
8. Have the goals been communicated clearly to all involved in their pursuit?
9. Are the goals at the forefront of all we’re doing – i.e. driving agendas, conversations, planning
10. Do we revisit the goals at regular intervals to check progress, make changes?
11. Do we use the goals to hold ourselves and each other accountable?

This list above isn’t a panacea – after all setting goals is tough. However, I’ve found it’s a great checklist to ensure you’re goals have power, and a greater likelihood of success.

Doug Sundheim is a leadership and strategy consultant with over 20 years experience in helping leaders drive personal and organizational growth. His latest book is Taking Smart Risks: How Sharp Leaders Win When Stakes are High. You can also follow Doug on Twitter @DougSundheim and find out more about his services at www.clarityconsulting.com.

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The following is a guest post by Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson.

Is your employee a risk-taker, or does he avoid risks like the plague? Does she get uncomfortable with too much optimism or praise, or is she known for her sunny outlook? Do some assignments always seem particularly hard for her, while she excels at others naturally?

The answers to these questions give you a window into your employee’s motivational focus – something every leader needs to understand in order to give feedback and create incentives that are persuasive and motivating.

There are two ways to look at the goals we pursue at work (and in life). Let’s start with a goal many of us share: “doing my job well.” For some of us, doing our jobs well is about the potential for advancement, achievement and rewards. It’s about what we might gain if we are successful, how we might end up better off. If you are (or your employee is) someone who sees goals this way, you have what’s called a promotion focus.

For the rest of us, doing our jobs well is about security – about not losing everything we’ve worked so hard for. When you are prevention focused, you want to avoid danger, fulfill your responsibilities, and be someone people can count on. You want to keep things running smoothly.

What’s important to know is that promotion and prevention-focused people work very differently to reach the same goal. They use different strategies, have different strengths, and are prone to different kinds of mistakes. One group will be motivated by applause, the other by criticism. One group may give up too soon – the other may not know when to quit.

The key to helping your team reach their goals your goals is to identify their focus, and learn to work with it instead of against it.

What’s Their Focus?

There are online assessments you and your employees can take to identify your motivational focus, but you can also get a pretty good sense of it by comparing any employee’s behavior to each of the following descriptions:

Promotion People are…

• Creative and innovative
• Comfortable taking chances
• Optimistic
• Speedy workers
• Good at seizing opportunities
• (Downside: They are also more likely to make mistakes, less likely to have a back-up plan if things go wrong, bad with details, and more likely to take a risk that lands them in hot water.)

Prevention People are…

• Great planners
• Deliberate, thorough
• Cautious, skeptical
• Accurate workers
• Analytical, good at evaluating
• (Downside: They are also more likely to miss out on great opportunities, get too bogged down with details, and have a tendency to be overly-anxious.)

Working With Focus

Studies show that the way to be most effective in leading your team is to understand how they work best, and use the strategies that match each individual’s particular motivation. Here is a sample of what I mean:

Feedback

When your employee is promotion-focused, their motivation feels like eagerness – an enthusiastic desire to really go for it. So encourage them to be optimists, and provide frequent praise (though only when it’s deserved, of course). Confidence heightens their energy and intensity. Doubting themselves takes the wind right out of their sails.

When your employee is prevention-focused, their motivation feels like vigilance – they are always on the lookout for danger. Vigilance actually increases in response to negative feedback or skepticism. There’s nothing like the looming possibility of failure to get their prevention juices flowing. Over-confidence or effusive praise, however, may lead them to let down their guard, and undermine their motivation – so beware of both. Offer honest, realistic feedback and focus on ways to improve performance.

Decision-Making

Allow your employees to make decisions in the way that feels right for them. Promotion-focused people make the best decisions when they weigh the relative pros of Option A and B, when they think about why something is worth doing, and when they trust their instincts.

The prevention-minded, on the other hand, prefer to weigh the cons of Option A & B, and go with lesser of two evils. They make the best decisions when they think about how something could be done, and when they can point to rational reasons, rather than feelings, to justify their choices.

Problem-Solving Approach

Expect your promotion employees to be more exploratory and abstract in their thinking. They generate lots of options and possibilities when coming up with ways to reach goals – they are creative, and always consider alternatives.

Prevention-focused thinking is concrete and specific – they will pick a plan and want to stick to it. Prevention people drill down to the details, and focus on the nitty gritty of what’s still needs to be done. And they are more comfortable with tried-and-true methods rather than “innovative” but untested ones.

Incentives

Promotion-focused employees are more motivated by incentives that are framed as gains or reward. If you meet this sales target, you will get a bonus. If generate a certain amount of new business, then you get a Caribbean vacation.

Prevention-focused employees care more about hanging on to what they already have, so frame incentives as opportunities to lose. Everyone gets a bonus this year, except those who fail to meet their sales target. Everyone on the team gets a Caribbean vacation, except those who generate too little new business.

Which Focus is the Best Focus?

People always want to know – is it better to be promotion or prevention focused? The truth is, both kinds of motivation can bring you success, and each has its pitfalls. Each brings something of value (e.g., bold solutions, attention to detail) to your organization. In fact, no organization can truly thrive without a balance of promotion and prevention motivation – to keep you moving forward, while maintaining the progress you’ve already made.

As a leader, be sure to appreciate and recognize the value of your promotion and prevention-minded team members, and help each of them to work in ways that bring out their very best.

Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson is the Associate Director for the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia University Business School. Heidi is also a regular contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, WSJ.com, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Psychology Today and SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Leadership.

Her latest book, co-written with Tory Higgins.is “Focus” Use Different Ways of Seeing The World For Success and Influence” is now available on Amazon.com (and Amazon.ca for Canadian readers).

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Are we giving away our power when we show up at work? It’s a question that came to mind following a thought-provoking conversation I had with Kathy Caprino about a recent piece she had written about tapping into our power to achieve a sense of happiness and fulfilment.

Through our discussion, I began to wonder how many of us experience moments where our knowledge, experiences, and insights tell us that the ideas and plans being put forth are missing key details, but we don’t speak up for fear that others will see us – and not their plan or idea – as being problematic.

Although it might be fear that prevents us from taking action and becoming full participants instead of passive observers, the bigger issue is how in each of these moments we’re giving up our power at work.

Now for many of us, this might sound odd. After all, how much power or influence can I possibly have given my place in the organizational organogram, or how much money I have stashed away in my savings account? Surely those in positions of authority and those among the wealthy class have far more power to wield, and consequently more influence to direct what course my organization or my community might take?

The problem, though, is that it’s not a question of position or wealth. Rather, it’s about recognizing that we need to shift our perception of power from the previous and clearly unsustainable survival-of-the-fittest model, to one that’s based on viewing power in terms of each of us having the means and the ability to contribute meaningfully and to be valued.

This requires that we redefine power beyond the scarcity model of positional power and wealth to a more reflective one where the focus is more on what we bring to the collective table – of how through committing ourselves to do the work we were meant to do we can make a difference and be impactful.

Unfortunately, many of us have been beaten back and pushed to our limits doing work that seems to have little benefit beyond the narrow scope of a few months or even weeks, not to mention a lack of connection to what matters to us.

And so, we end up checking ourselves at the door, leaving behind that inner capability that exists within each of us – the collective talents, experiences and genius that so many organizations desperately need if they are to do more than survive, but thrive in the years ahead.

At the same time, though, we need to understand that by treating power as a scarce commodity that is based on external factors such as our position at work or in our community, we literally take the power out of our own hands because we designate the permission to be able to use our power on factors that are beyond our control.

Certainly, history is replete with examples of people who grew tired of the status quo and elected to use their own power – their gift of words, their inner sense of courage and integrity, even their physical or mental fatigue with the current realities around them – to take what was at first a quiet stand against what is, in favour of what could be. A stand that inevitably rallied those around them who also saw and believed in that vision of what could be, instead of accepting what they experience today.

In each case, these individuals were not people of positional power or wealth. On the contrary, they were often members of the disenfranchised and those who were viewed by their contemporaries as being unworthy of attention or focus. And yet, from our comfortable perch in the present, we tend to place most of them on pedestals, heralding them as being exceptional people who displayed a unique capacity for envisioning a better future in the face of a seemingly unyielding status quo.

While they were certainly remarkable and in their own ways unique, the fact is that their actions were not borne of exceptionalism or uniqueness. Rather, it came from that internal recognition that within each of us there is a power to affect change and to make a difference through how we live our lives and what we contribute to those collective efforts we commit ourselves to, whether it be in our workplaces or in the communities we live in.

Once they came to that understanding, they realized that it’s more a waste to not put that power to use than to worry about what we might lose by putting ourselves out there.

More than any inspirational quote of theirs, perhaps that is the most important message and key component of their legacy – that we should not choose to believe that power is something beholden to a few based on position or wealth, but that it’s a force for change and creating value that exists in each of us to use for the benefit of the greater good.

Of course, in uncertain and challenging times, it’s easy to understand why so many of us long for courageous leaders who can help lead the way or at least shine a light on how we can get through the fog and back onto more firmer ground.

While there is certainly a need for courageous leadership, we should be careful not to confuse courage for bravado or the sheer force of will. Rather, courage arises from a clear sense of purpose grounded with the integrity to commit to realizing it in concordance with one’s values.

In this light, we all have the capacity and opportunity to exhibit courageous leadership in the decisions and choices we make every day, of how we choose to show up to lead those under our care and of what we contribute of our talents, creativity, and insights towards a common goal.

Granted, many workplaces do not empower their employees to use their genius, creativity, and insights in order to help their organizations achieve their shared purpose. However, as technology continues to lower the competitive threshold, there can be no denying the reality that the key differentiator in the years ahead will be how much an organization’s leadership is capable of facilitating and empowering their employees to bring their full selves to work.

The only question that remains is how willing will we be to accept our ownership of our own power and of committing like those trailblazers we all admire to using that power within us to contribute meaningfully to a purpose that’s greater than ourselves.

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Have you ever noticed how when someone tells us how they’ve been really busy with work, we automatically interpret this as being a bad thing? Certainly, no one associates having a lot of work to do with sunshine, love, happiness or any other positive experience.

In many ways, this is a natural product of both our schooling and work experiences, where we’re not guided and supported to use our genius, creativity, and talents in order to do the work we should do. Rather, what is the more common experience is being funnelled through a system that puts us into neat slots like gears in a complex piece of machinery.

When it comes to work, we’ve come to accept the concept of ‘no pain, no gain’ as being the proper route to success and prosperity. That we need to tough it out in the hopes that – someday – we might finally be able to do what we want to do because we’ve ‘paid our dues’.

To make matters worse, even if we are lucky enough to do work we enjoy, that sense of satisfaction tends to be short-lived as we’re rarely given the space to grow and evolve, with the freedom to make mistakes without being blackballed a failure and someone no longer worthy of development or the attention of those in charge.

And so, we inevitably hunker down, hoping that someday our ship will come in as a reward for all the sacrifices we’ve made, and we’ll finally get to live the life we always wanted and do the work that we’ve dreamed about doing all those many years ago.

No doubt this is why so many insurance and retirement planning companies rely on images of retired couples lounging on a boat off some tropical island, or taking up salsa dancing lessons before enjoying a night on the town.

In each instance the message is clear – we can live the life we really want . . . but only after we’ve committed to giving the best part of our lives today to doing work that might not be what we had planned or should be doing.

In this light, it’s not too surprising why we’ve created a negative connotation around the word ‘work’, whether it’s as a verb or a noun.

Of course, there’s a truth that we need to come to terms with if we are to truly succeed and thrive – both professionally and personally – and that is that we’re not making sacrifices. We’re making choices. Bad choices. Safe choices. Choices that those around us tell us are the ‘smart’ ones to make, but are often not the best ones for us to choose.

I know I’ve made a few of those in my past – choices I made to help pay the bills while waiting for that opportunity that I really wanted to show up. And that’s where we fall into the trap, because while we may have accepted these choices as temporary, they soon become the work we do and the life we live because we stop looking for that path that we were meant to take; of reconnecting with the work we were meant to do. We give up on such dreams in favour of pragmatism and familiarity of sticking to what we know instead of what we need.

To be clear, this isn’t about simply ‘doing what we love’. It’s about learning to love what we do because it provides us with a sense of fulfilment. That our work becomes more than simply a means of survival and living, but a way for us to employ our talents, our genius, and our creativity and drive towards something meaningful and purpose-driven.

While the growing levels of anxiety, fear and stress we see in today’s workplaces are partly due to the prevailing uncertainties surrounding the global economy, it is also a manifestation of that disconnect between what we do and why we do it.

And it’s becoming clear as we move further into this century that this approach to our careers and lives is no longer sustainable; that we’ve reached a tipping point where people can no longer be expected to feel happy or fulfilled by working to live. Instead, we need to shift the paradigm to one where people live to work.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the sole reason for our lives is our work; that answering the typical question ‘what do you do for a living’ serves to define the sum total of our existence. Rather, it means that we need to be more mindful in ensuring that the work we do is aligned with our internal compass that guides us to finding our purpose and our ability to contribute meaningfully.

That as much as we’re helping our organization to attain its shared goals, we’re also performing work that helps us to achieve a sense of purpose – that what we contribute matters and is meaningful beyond our sphere of influence.

In the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egyptologists have found carved in the stone blocks the names of some of the work teams that helped to build this monument. The carvings were never meant to be seen by others. Instead, they were made simply to demonstrate the workers sense of accomplishment and purpose that they derived from the simple, but back-breaking work of hauling these large stones into place.

Their example serves as a testimony that we don’t need to ‘have it all’ to feel a sense of fulfilment or achievement. Rather, all that’s required is our willingness to no longer play it safe or waiting until later to commit our creativity, our passions and our dreams to that which not only creates meaning for others, but which also instills a sense of purpose and fulfilment within ourselves.

This piece was originally published on Deb-Mills Scofield’s blog.

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Most of us understand that to be successful in leadership, we need to be aware of what and how we communicate. Of ensuring that we actively listen to what those around us are saying, and sometimes what they’re not saying. And yet, how many of us are also mindful of how we show up in these moments, of how present and engaged we are in those conversations with those we lead?

It’s a thought that came to mind after attending the HCI Human Capital Summit last week. Although the focus of the conference was on HR practitioners, there were some interesting insights shared on leadership and understanding how we interact, engage and empower those under our care in this increasingly complex and uncertain global economy.

1. Getting out of your own head to see the perspective of others
With the release of his latest book, “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others”, the theme of Dan Pink’s presentation was on getting us to rethink our understanding of selling and with it, the recognition that this is now a function of everyone’s job in this age of “information parity”.

What was particularly noteworthy about Dan’s talk was his discussion on perspective taking – where “you get out of your own head and see the perspective of others”. Although Dan’s focus was on how this can help us to do a better job selling an idea, product or service, this concept also plays a key role in how we show up in those interactions with those we lead.

For example, Dan shared research findings which has shown that the correlation between power and perspective taking is inversely related. In other words, the more power we have, the less we look out to see and understand the perspective of others.

Additionally, researchers have also found that when someone is made to feel more powerful by getting them to focus on themselves – on their accomplishments and/or their responsibilities – their perspective taking is significantly lowered. Experiments have shown that all it takes is 90 seconds of increasing someone’s perception of their own power to dramatically reduce their ability to take into consideration the perspective of others.

So with this in mind, how can leaders ensure that in these conversation moments, they’re not only focusing on their perspective, but that they’re being open to seeing the perspectives of those they lead? Ironically, one of the ways leaders can increase their effectiveness in perspective taking is by reducing their power.

Specifically, you can increase your perspective taking capability by decreasing your feelings of power – by not going into the conversation saying ‘We don’t have time to discuss this. I just need you to get this done’. Instead, you need to involve your employees in the process, asking them for their insights to reveal what they will gain from the action, instead of simply looking at it in terms of what you will gain.

Indeed, another research finding Dan shared was how negotiators who kept in mind the thoughts and interests of the other party ended up with a much better, mutually beneficial deal than those who didn’t.

So while the fast-changing and increasingly competitive environment might seem to demand a greater urgency on most fronts, these findings make it clear that we need to be mindful of how our power – whether real or perceived – can impact how we show up in those interactions with those we lead and with it, our ability to see beyond ourselves to understand the needs and perspectives of those we serve.

2. How leaders unconsciously create stress in their employees
One of the speakers I was looking forward to hearing from was Liz Wiseman, who was a recent guest on my show “Leadership Biz Cafe”. During her talk, she got two volunteers from the audience to re-enact the famous story of the Swiss folk hero William Tell, who had to shoot an apple off the head of his son with a crossbow to save both of their lives. One participant was told to stand still as though they had an apple on their head while the other was positioned as though she was aiming a crossbow.

At this point, Liz polled the audience to ask what they thought these two characters must have been feeling at this moment. For William Tell, the consensus was that he must have felt pressured to live up to his reputation as a top marksman for fear that his son would die, either at his hands or at the hands of those who put the father and son in this situation.

But what was interesting was what Liz revealed through this exercise about what William Tell’s son must have felt – stress, brought on by the fact that he had no control over his fate. While his dad could at least be responsible for his ability to summon his courage to focus on hitting the target and saving both of their lives, his son was nothing more than a passive participant waiting to see what the outcome will be.

At the end of this exercise, Liz turned to the audience and asked how often do we as leaders put our employees in a stressful situation in response to our being pressured. Of course, most of us would like to think that it’s external factors like the economy that are creating stress for our employees.

And yet, as this exercise by Liz clearly illustrates, many times the stress we feel at work can arise from feeling a lack of control and with it, a lack of connection between our efforts, our organization’s goals and what matters to us personally.

That’s why creating a sense of ownership in your collective efforts, of demonstrating a shared purpose becomes key. Even though they can’t control or know everything, your employees can still be in control of something in their domain.

This sense of ownership in their contributions will open them up to committing their full selves to the process because it’s no longer a question of who will succeed – ‘us’ or ‘them’. Rather, the focus is on what do we need to do together in order to collectively succeed.

3. Understanding what your employees’ real strengths are
As part of his presentation, Stuart Crabb, Head of Learning at Facebook, shared a video Marcus Buckingham created for the employees at Facebook to explain how they should view their competencies and contributions. During this short video, Marcus makes this fascinating point:

Your strengths are not what you’re good at; your weaknesses are not what you’re bad at.”

Now, most of us understand the value of focusing on building our strengths instead of trying to continually compensate for our weaknesses. And yet, how many of us are truly aware of what our strengths are? In other words, how many of us confuse what our strengths are with what we’re good at? And conversely, how many of us assume that our weaknesses are what we don’t do well?

As Marcus elaborates in his video, our strengths are not simply what we’re good at; rather, it’s what strengthens us. It’s being able to do work which, while exhausting or challenging or even difficult, lights a fire within us. That it makes us feel like we’re contributing in a meaningful fashion; that we’re making a difference.

As leaders, what are you doing to understand what really matters to your employees? Of gaining greater clarity about the kinds of responsibilities, opportunities, or tasks that would stretch your employees, make them feel empowered and that they’re growing?

In other words, when you show up as a leader, do you play to the true strengths of your employees or do you simply assign them roles that reflect what you perceive them to be good at?

Throughout the conference, there was a common theme that looking forward, the biggest challenge organizations will face is finding and retaining people who have the talents and insights they require to grow and evolve. And in that vein, there was the understanding that employees recognize that the salary and perks that some organizations will use to attract them can be found just as easily elsewhere.

Consequently, the focus for employees becomes less about what an organization can offer them in terms of perks and financial compensation and more about what do they stand for – what are their values, what defines their culture and perhaps most importantly, why they do what they do and how they can contribute meaningfully to that purpose.

To that end, it becomes all the more critical that leaders are not only be able to communicate and exemplify those values and ideas, but that they also exhibit a greater sense of mindfulness about how they show up to empower and guide their employees’ collective talents, creativity, and insights towards achieving their shared purpose.

The post How Do You Show Up As A Leader In Your Organization? appeared first on TanveerNaseer.com.

The following is a guest piece by Megan Totka.

Great leadership is a necessity for any business that is striving for great success, especially during trying times. Without leadership that is effective, it’s nearly impossible for businesses to grow and expand, as is necessary in an ever-changing market.

While large corporations may be able to survive for short periods of time without great leadership in place, the opposite is often true for small businesses. Small businesses are often comprised of just a few employees, and could potentially fall apart if their leadership structure is in jeopardy.

So why exactly is it that great leadership is a must for small businesses? Here are a few reasons:

• To give direction – this can be taken in more than one way. A business needs direction in the sense of a goal, a bigger picture. This helps everyone who is involved with the company to feel like they are striving towards a goal, and likely will make everyone involved more productive. Giving direction on a daily basis is important as well. While many employees are self-starters and can get work done without much guidance that is not the case for everyone. A great leader can motivate employees that need a little more direction in their everyday work.

• To establish the “feel” of the business – the leader of a small business is also tasked with setting the “feel” of the company. Some companies may be more laid back or relaxed, while some may have strict deadlines and dress codes. The leader of the company needs to be the one who sets the standard for this, or discord can exist in the business. Image what would happen if a business team consisted of both laid-back employees and employees who were more rigid. Without a clear direction of where to go, no one would agree on how to get things done.

• To keep the company cohesive – this ties in somewhat with the other two reasons. It’s important for everyone in a company to be working towards a collective goal. The leader not only established this goal, but also helps employees in any way that he or she can, since everyone is working toward the so-called greater good.

The leader of a small business must possess great leadership qualities, as well. Some people really are born leaders, they are the ones that lead the pack on the playground from a very young age. But not everyone in the business world is like this.

Some people who want to lead their own company must learn what a successful leader is, and gain some important leadership qualities if they hope to become successful.

While there are many qualities that a great leader must possess, I think there is a more specific set that is especially important in the small business world. Here are a few of these qualities:

• The ability to think ahead – while in a larger business, thinking of what’s happening right now might be the most important, it’s critical that a small business owner/leader be able to envision where the company will be in five years. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to run a successful small business without a concrete, forward-thinking plan. Small businesses must always be looking for the next big thing, in order to stay afloat.

• Responsibility – the leader of a small business absolutely must be responsible. I know that this may seem silly to even have to mention, but it’s not always as obvious as some might think. Being responsible would include things like appropriate money management, timeliness, and professionalism. The leader of a small business must not only keep the business going, but also set a great, positive example for everyone else in the company as well.

• Communication – having great communication skills is an invaluable quality in the world of small business. In a larger company or corporation, you may be able to get by on less-than-stellar communication skills, because you may not have to interact with consumers (thus influencing their view of the company) as often. However, in a small business with just a handful of employees, the leader/owner often wears many, many hats. This can include anything from salesperson to marketing liaison and many, many more. The ability to communicate with people from all aspect of the business world is crucial.

• Be a motivator – another very important quality for a small business leader to have is the power to motivate people. Motivation is critical to small business, because if everyone doesn’t do their part, then your business will not be successful. Motivating people to keep striving for better things for the business is so important.A great leader is able to motivate people without being obnoxious about it, for lack of a better term. Making sure your employees are acknowledged as well as keeping them happy and engaged is so important.

Leadership in small business is a fine art, and if you are able to perfect it, the odds that your business will succeed increase drastically. If you don’t see yourself as the ideal leader for your business, consider taking on an employee or partner who has great leadership qualities.

Or, if you want to learn more about becoming a great leader, find someone in your business community who is clearly leading their business successfully, and ask them to mentor you. Leadership qualities are a great thing to learn.

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

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The following is a guest piece by author Dennis N.T. Perkins and Jillian B. Murphy.

In 1998, a tiny 35-foot boat called the AFR Midnight Rambler accomplished an amazing feat — winning one of the toughest ocean races in the world. The Sydney to Hobart is demanding every year, but in ’98, an unexpected “weather bomb” hit the fleet, creating 80-foot waves and 100-mile-per-hour winds.

While bigger, better-equipped boats tried to maneuver around the storm, the crew of the AFR Midnight Rambler chose to head directly into its path, and ultimately won the coveted Tattersall’s Cup — the smallest boat in ten years.

How did they do it? And what lessons can we learn from this team of “amateur” sailors to make our own teams more successful?

One of the keys to the Midnight Rambler‘s success was their ability to recover quickly from setbacks. Just as people vary in their ability to deal with stress, so do teams. And like individuals, teams can develop the capacity for rebounding from pressure and setbacks.

1. Anticipate problems as normal occurrences
By the time the crew of the AFR Midnight Rambler got to the 1998 race, they had overcome numerous obstacles as a team. They had capsized, torn sails, and dealt with a host of other problems that accompany ocean racing.

Some of the difficulties were totally unexpected, and some occurred because they were pressing the limits. But throughout their history one thing was clear: there would be problems.

Successful teams know that they will encounter problems. They anticipate setbacks with the confidence that, when things go wrong, they can deal with any challenge that comes their way.

2. Calmly put the pieces back together
When a boat broaches or is knocked down by a wave, anything can happen. Crew members on deck need to keep their heads down, because the boom can swing rapidly. Ropes and lines flap everywhere, and the mast is often submerged in the water. The challenge is to get the boat under control and to move quickly back into “racing mode.”

Some crews accomplish this better than others, and the Ramblers are one of the best. Samantha Byron – a relative newcomer to the Rambler team – had the advantage of observing their teamwork with fresh eyes. She was struck by their ability to execute a seamless recovery:

“The first offshore race I did with the Ramblers lit a fire as to why I wanted to join them as a team member. On our way back to Sydney after the Bird Island Race, we were hit by some really bad weather and very high winds. We had the wrong sails up for those conditions and the boat was flattened.

The reaction from the crew was so fast, and so quick. Equipment had failed, crew members were all over the place, yet we all managed to pick ourselves up. Within minutes everything was back under control. The old sails were down, we had new sails up, and we were off. In no time, we were powering off again to finish the race.”

Samantha had sailed on other boats, but she was taken aback by the speed and seamless recovery exhibited by the Ramblers. Winning teams start recovering while they’re still in the water, and then move quickly to finish the race.

3. Measure success in terms of recovery time
Once problems are accepted as inevitable, it follows that setbacks do not equal failure. To maximize performance, teams need to take risks – and some of those risks may flip the boat.

Because a team’s focus should be on its ability to recover from mistakes, the amount of time needed for recovery is a key metric for judging performance. While recovery will never be instantaneous, teams can aspire to spending an ever decreasing amount of time putting the pieces back together.

4. Don’t break the boat
Once the Midnight Rambler made it through the storm, the crew started pushing the boat hard again. The winds were still blowing at gale force, and the seas were rough. They were determined to press the limits and make up for lost time.

But it was also critical to make sure that they stayed in one piece and finished the race. In spite of his passion to win, skipper Ed Psaltis understood that it was important to “never lose sight of the ultimate goal.” He said, “I had to avoid getting too excited, pushing too hard, and cracking something!”

As important as it is to seamlessly recover from setbacks and shift back into racing mode, it is equally important to avoid overcorrecting. Recovery needs to be rapid but also measured. Successful teams are able to put the pieces back together and then calmly push as hard as they can, without breaking the boat.

Dennis N.T. Perkins is the author of Into the Storm and Leading at the Edge. Dennis is also CEO of The Syncretics Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping leaders and teams thrive under conditions of adversity, uncertainty and change. You can follow Dennis on Twitter @DNTP.  Jillian B. Murphy is the director of client services at Syncretics. She works in the areas of leadership, executive coaching, and team effectiveness. You can follow her on Twitter @jbmurf.

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There’s been a lot discussion lately on the merits of telecommuting, in terms of fostering teamwork and innovation among disparate employees in an organization. While there’s certainly been a number of valid points made on both sides of this issue, one fundamental problem with this on-going discussion is the focus on how we work without any evaluation of how these strategies address the issue of why we work.

By now, all of us are familiar with the numerous studies that have unequivocally demonstrated that the ability to motivate employees through salary or other financial incentives has a very short shelf-life and is especially difficult to maintain when obstacles or challenges are placed in our way.

These studies have also shown that the most effective way to sustain our motivation and drive over the long run is being able to connect what we do with an internalized understanding and appreciation of the purpose behind why we do it; of why it matters both to ourselves, and to the organization and community we serve.

This is exactly the approach we see in many of today’s thriving organizations which have a clear connection between their collective efforts and the purpose behind their organization. These purpose-driven organizations don’t care about what their competition is doing because they don’t need to rely on others to define the value of what they do. That definition has already been created internally and collectively.

Our purpose tells us why what we do is so important that only we could do it, if not also why we have to do it. In the pursuit of profits and market share, it’s easy for an organization to lose that connection to why they started this journey in the first place and why others couldn’t address it as well as they could.

And this is what lies at the very heart of success and failure – how much we’ve reached or moved away from our shared purpose.

Consider, for example, the current obsession over innovation. It’s clear that to be truly innovative means that your organization has to be disruptive. That it has to change or challenge the status quo of how people operate or do things.

In today’s rapid-paced, interconnected world, making such a mark can seem daunting, not just in terms of our ability to achieve it, but also in the face of the reality that this requires that we first disrupt ourselves in the way we see and do things.

But this is where our sense of purpose truly begins to matter as it’s our shared purpose – our collective understanding of why we do what we do – that will serve as our compass and guide going forward. By focusing on our shared purpose, we no longer care about what the competition is doing. Instead, we care about how we can bring that shared purpose to life.

From this perspective, change becomes less fearsome because now it’s merely an instrument for how we’ll make our purpose real and tangible. And since we’re no longer focused on protecting the status quo, but on making our sense of purpose come alive, change becomes easier to manage and embrace.

Naturally, a clear thread running through all of this is communication. Namely, how well we as leaders communicate our vision of what that shared purpose is and why it matters, and then how well we continue to connect what our employees do with what matters to our organization and to them.

That’s why we can’t simply talk about this at an annual company meeting or worse, simply rely on a sheet of paper to communicate this idea. Rather, our employees need to see this vision, this purpose being communicated in everything we say and do. Our employees need to see it in every decision, every action and every word we speak.

When things are going wrong or a seemingly unavoidable obstacle crosses our path, we need to remind our employees of why this matters, of what our collective efforts are leading us towards, and why we’re the best ones to address and overcome this challenge.

And this also means that we need to demonstrate a level of care and trust in what our employees do. We have to demonstrate a sense of trust in their genius, their creativity, their ability to perceive issues we might not be aware of, and using those insights to guide and inform our decisions.

That’s why today’s successful leaders understand that they need to care for their employees because of the critical role they play in our ability to make the right choices, to be in the right frame of mind to see the best path for our organization to take.

While this might sound touchy-feely, the truth is that it’s the reality of doing business and leading organizations in today’s world. We can no longer expect to succeed and thrive, to learn from our failures and grow as an organization unless we recognize the key role leaders have to play in helping those they lead to not only be successful in their efforts, but to do work that creates a sense of meaning and purpose.

After all, how can we have the courage and determination to press ahead despite the fog of uncertainty in front of us if we lack a sense of clarity about why we should care about what we do? If those in leadership positions don’t consistently communicate why it matters to the degree that we need to see it through to the end despite the challenges we’ll have to face or endure?

Ultimately, what this comes down to is creating an environment where people want to work selflessly, instead of working selfishly. That our focus is on creating and promoting work that allows us to be present in the moment so that we can be appreciative, grateful, and celebratory of what we achieve through our collective efforts.

Over the last few years, there’s been much debate about whether organizations should be focusing on making work “fun”. If you love what you’re doing because it creates a sense of purpose and fulfilment, how can it not be fun? And why can’t work be fun if everyone involved benefits from our shared contributions? That in the process of achieving our shared goals, those around us feel honoured, respected, valued and needed?

To that end, it’s not about where people work or even when that should serve as the focus of our leadership and efforts to ensure our organization’s success. Rather, the question we should be asking ourselves in the face of uncertainty, change, failure or even success is what are we doing to create a sense of purpose within our organization? How are we instilling a sense of community and relatedness that binds us and compels us to press ahead regardless of what we might encounter tomorrow?

As we move further into a digital, relationship-based economy, it will be those organizations whose leadership focuses on these questions who will be best-equipped to not only address the evolving needs of the global economy, but who will also be able to provide the best opportunities for their employees – and consequently, their organization – to succeed and thrive.

The post What Organizations Really Need To Succeed And Thrive appeared first on TanveerNaseer.com.

Why is it that some leaders are able to stretch and build the intelligence, creativity and motivation of their employees, while other leaders seem only to disengage and drain the collective talent found within their teams? That’s the basis of my conversation with leadership researcher and best-selling author Liz Wiseman.

Liz is the president of The Wiseman Group, a research and development firm that conducts research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence. Some of her clients include Nike, Apple, PayPal, Genentech, Dubai Bank, Salesforce.com, and Twitter. Prior to founding her research firm, Liz worked for 17 years at Oracle as the Vice President of Oracle University and the global leaders for Human Resource Development.

In addition to writing for the Harvard Business Review, Liz co-wrote the Wall Street Journal bestseller, “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter”, which features some of the research she’s done looking at leadership and collective intelligence.

Over the course of our conversation, Liz shares a number of stories and research findings that help to illustrate:

• What’s the “dirty little secret of the corporate world” that we don’t talk about and how it’s impacting employee engagement.
• How “multiplier” leaders stretch and grow talent to increase team productivity, instead of relying on attaining more resources to achieve goals.
• Why leaders need to go “public” with their mistakes to engender team success and building community.
• How encouraging debate can improve both decision-making and employee engagement.
• What “multiplier” leaders do that motivates their employees to do their best work.
• What the research findings into “multiplier” leaders reveals about opportunities to improve our education system in order to create leaders and employees that organizations will need in the years ahead.

As I mentioned at the end of the show, I’d love to hear what you think about this episode, as well as what other topics you’d be interested in hearing more about in upcoming episodes of my show. You can share your thoughts/ideas by leaving a comment below or by filling out the contact form on my website.

Click on the player below to listen to the podcast:

[Running time: 51 minutes]

This episode, along with other episodes of this show, are also available on iTunes (please rate this show on iTunes if you listen/download the episode).

Noteworthy links:

• Buy Liz Wiseman’s book “Multipliers” on Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers).
• Buy Liz Wiseman’s new book “The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside our Schools” on Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers).
• Learn more about Liz’s work and speaking engagements at TheWisemanGroup.com.
• Take the “Are you an accidental diminisher” quiz on Multipliersbook.com

The post Leadership Biz Cafe Podcast #11 – Liz Wiseman On How Leaders Grow Intelligence appeared first on TanveerNaseer.com.