How Do Workers Establish a Sense of Purpose
In reaching a state of thriving, Microsoft focuses on How Do Workers Establish a Sense of Purpose. They have said their goal is for workers “to be energized and empowered to do meaningful work”.
Workers in the modern era and even more since the Pandemic have been more concerned about the role of work in their lives and the objective of feeling purposeful in both work and life to give them a sense of balance and their lives recognizable meaning.
How Do We Find Out Who We Are?
This search begins with finding out who we are. We find out who we are by what we believe in and the behaviors our values direct us to follow. Following the right daily behaviors can result in stimulating happiness brain chemicals and gratitude. What a great way to feel at the end of each day.
Nature has gifted our DNA with happiness hormones and neurotransmitters for the right thoughts, intentions, and behaviors. They include dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Nature’s goal cannot be divorced from the circumstances we find ourselves in with modern life. Nature does not know yet we are not still early man.
These happiness chemicals are stimulated with learning, creating, caring, protecting, contributing, and exercising to name a few behaviors. Each signals the brain we are working to survive and thrive and make our gene pool more adaptable for the next generation to thrive. Including these behaviors in our daily life will help create a sense of purpose and satisfaction.
A worker must recognize for themselves the behaviors necessary to feel they are thriving. Their work must give them an opportunity to find out who they are. This is a process of self-actualization placed at the top spot in Maslow’s pyramid of man’s ascension.
Man must have food and shelter but the top workers in business organizations are beyond that. They are beyond struggling for survival. They are now struggling to find meaning in their lives. They want to feel purposeful in their work and personal life and know why they are here.
Is the Entrepreneurial Spirit Possible for the Corporate Worker?
One formula is the path of the entrepreneur which includes challenge and risk. The entrepreneur is striving to make a contribution with his talents, ingenuity, and persistence. He wants to create products or processes that improve how we live. Wouldn’t workers feel accomplished if they could be successful on this same path.
This would mean the worker has to be given some leniency in their pursuits to accomplish their tasks. The organization has to have faith in the worker to understand the goal and find a way to best achieve it within the confines of sticking to company policies and in alignment with the company Mission. There has to be a mutual benefit of challenge and risk for both the worker and the organization in the process of achieving goals.
How much risk is the organization willing to take to give the worker some leeway in how he achieves his tasks? Will mistakes be made? Yes. Will making mistakes and learning from them benefit both parties? Most likely. Start ups want to fail faster so they learn faster. Is this too bold for the established business organization?
Can the Organization and the Worker Engage in Challenge and Risk Together?
The question might be whether the organization can empower the worker to be bold and also stay on Mission. Can the worker find his passion in working on the organizational goals? Passion is certainly a sign of thriving. Can an organization empower workers to be passionate? Can workers and the organization be passionate about achieving the Mission in a framework that has everyone working together. Everyone can’t be a maverick and hold any type of structure together.
Stephen Kotler describes the mind set of the extreme athlete who risks his life for the feelings he experiences in his engagement. He prepares, he executes, he drops into a state of flow where he trusts his brain, body, and instincts to keep him alive. Can the worker be empowered without mortal danger and upsetting the corporate Mission?
The extreme athlete thrives because he reaches flow in his engagement. Flow is the state achieved from challenging activities that are not beyond the actors capabilities but just slightly above what he has achieved in the past. He is able to shut down the prefrontal cortex where self-judgement and self-criticism reside. A gifted speaker is witnessed as a person in flow. So is a talented entertainer or quarterback having an outstanding day. They are performing with confidence and having peak performances. They are not worried about judgement.
A worker has to have challenge and risk in their lives to stretch their capabilities, soar beyond boredom or languishing, feel their power, and know their efforts will be a contribution to make life better. Can the business organization support this endeavor?
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