Recently one of my team members gave me a visiting card holder which had card slots on both the sides implying you possibly could have two different cards for yourself or any other possible choices! Very few, if at all, professionals carry two different types of visiting cards. The moot point here is that should you as a professional carry two different cards- one which organization gives you and the other that truly represents you for who you are? The second one would be representing you as a person and what you stand for- your values, life purpose and your inner self!
I’ve been contemplating this thought for some times now that how leaders and organizations should inspire individuals to create their own visiting cards besides the one that announces their position in an organization! No, not for a moment, I am suggesting to hold two office bearing positions at any given time- a case of conflicting interests but rather a scenario where every employee of an organization has truly discovered a deeply congruent and coherent second (or should I say that it’s possibly the first and then comes the designated position) role which announces who he is and what he innately stands for?
The above scenario might sound utopian given the current workplace realities when it comes to employee engagement, motivation and discretionary efforts. If one googles Gallup Employee Engagement , he or she comes to the landing page which interestingly enough has a mosaic of reports that can make the heart of any seasoned business leader sink. A veritable graveyard of indices of employee engagement! Sample some of these,
“70% of US workers are not engaged!”
“Percentage of engaged employees US-32%; World- 13%”
“17% workers strongly agree that their company has open communication”
“82% time wrong person hired to manage”
And the writing on the tombstones goes grimmer and discouraging!
(Source: http://www.gallup.com/topic/employee_engagement.aspx accessed at 4:18pm 12-Mar-16)
There are annual employee engagement surveys and Pulse surveys carried out by organizations but the needle seems to have moved little. There could be differing notes on the factors behind poor state of engagement worldwide. Some cite this to be a result of non-scientific methodologies employed to carry out such surveys among others. Plausible explanations would go towards the usual suspects-
- Failing to integrate employee engagement with overall business & people goals and reducing it to just annual survey formalities
- Defining engagement as a percentage of employees who are not dissatisfied or are merely content with their employer instead of a state of strong employee involvement, commitment and enthusiasm
- Relying on measures that tell leaders and managers what they want to hear — “We’re doing great!”
- Building a culture where managers and leaders are developed to look into the minutest details and measures of employee engagement (such as an IRP program) rather than solely occupied with bigger initiatives with great fanfare but little efforts and commitment by executives and leaders to weave that into organizational fabric
Given the above gloomy scenario of employee engagement and its genesis, it would be honey to the ears of organizational leaders and CHROs to have measures where employees themselves are sensitized to search for the deeper meaning of their job- a way to connect their daily deliverables with larger canvass! For example, one medical device company dealing with cardiac surgeries exhorted its sales professionals to view their everyday job as a means to help a ‘distressed heart’ beat optimally and healthy thereby saving a precious life! I am sure the pitch is insurmountable in its purpose even for the most cynical of the employees.
This rekindles the memory of the NASA janitor who had a larger story unfolding around him; he was helping to make history. It happened that during a visit to the NASA space center in 1962, President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and said,
“Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?”
“Well, Mr. President,” the janitor responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
To most people, this janitor was just cleaning the building. An insight of epic proportions which brings forth the deeper sense of purpose which transcended way beyond what one does in literal sense!
In a recent gathering of entrepreneurs and start-up CEOs at TiECON, the largest entrepreneurship conference in Silicon Valley, legendary Welch likened the role of Chief Executive Officers as Chief Meaning Officer (CMO). Leaders across the organizational layers have this intrinsic responsibility to help their people find the true meaning of the work they do day in and day out. As leaders if we are able to paint a real sense of purpose of what one does and help him or her connect with larger scheme of things, living by the quarters would be a forgone thing! Today leaders and managers are uniquely challenged to balance their focus towards business deliverables and make an attempt to strike the right cord with the employee’s deeper sense of purpose. This sense of purpose often called ‘life purpose’, is the area in an employee’s life which makes him feel the real-happiness, see the connect with the larger canvass on an esoteric front while on a more visible side, gets his batteries recharged after a day’s hard work.
Do you as a leader know what make your employees tick? As a team leader, do you know what does an individual team member care the most about? Have you ever engaged with your people deliberating on the deeper meaning of their duties and jobs? Often organizations chart out lofty vision and mission statements to their people caring little if the employees are on board. Most often, such visioning exercises end up being all about ‘What’ (Vision) and ‘How’ (Mission) with a clear neglect to ‘Why’ (Belief or Meaning). Simon Sinek talks of ‘Golden Circle’ in his famous TED talk on ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action’ where he explains how great leaders motivate people by appealing to the ‘Why’ or ‘belief’ or ‘purpose’ and not just ‘What’ (akin to the job descriptions of an employee). Similarly, great companies like Apple builds in the communication of ‘Why’ (in its case, to challenge the status-quo and think different through its numerous products) in its marketing pitch rather than pitching solely on ‘What’ (the great products it churns out). People get aligned to a purpose they themselves strongly believe in. History has enough evidence to throw up- be it Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr! They built their followers by appealing to the deeper purpose of their respective constituencies.
Relevance of ‘deeper purpose’ or ‘golden circle’ in successfully leading people and organizations can never be overemphasized. When managers exhort their employees to do a delayering of ‘deeper purpose’ and get an alignment with the organizational goals, you have an army of engaged and motivated people who deliver their best not for any incentives and inducement but for what they truly believe in. However, it’s difficult for managers to accomplish this higher status of leading and influencing if they go by the rule-book alone or they are driven by growth numbers quarter-on-quarter. Interactions at this stage are mostly transactional and less of relational.
How can leaders get their own second visiting cards and those for the teams they lead?
The deeper meaning and the relevance of one’s job to the larger scheme of things (you can even explore it to any ‘superordinate goals’ that would require the employee to do a thorough ‘self-introspection’ often aided by a trained professional or a coach. Many a times, the managers themselves, might need assistance from a professional coach who are specifically trained to help them dig out the natural gifts and talents, anchors in life.
- Deeper interaction time with team members: Treating team members much beyond revenue vending machines and taking a genuine interests in her development would help managers look for those nuanced attributes which can be closer to their passion and life purposes. Structuring frequent one-on-ones with intent to deep listening is one such tool. Recently one manager confided that he could gain a completely new perspective of one of his team members after he started engaging through a dedicated one-on one with this team member even though they have been working together for almost four years.
- Activities that bring twinkles in your eyes: Managers and the people they lead would do a world of good to themselves if they recognize those activities and engagements which recharge their drained batteries lift your spirit even when chips are down. Often these are feeble signals which need to be captured and augmented, called it power of weal signal!
- Seek & provide feedback: Feedback could help overcome the blind-spots. Often our co-workers have those minute observations about us that are the precursors to our deeper calls and at times these are the things we might be oblivious to.
- Take time to be with ‘yourself’: ‘Beat the hurry, you’ve the time of the world’ was never so relevant than in today’s time of digital distraction and ever mounting performance pressure and social pulls and pushes. One can stumble upon those life purposes and deeper calls in life through such moment when you are truly connected with your deeper self. These moments of serendipity are the gateway to our life purposes. No wonder, even Siddhartha required the ‘moment of enlightenment’ before he could turn onto Lord Buddha.
If you already have found your second visiting card, you’re blessed, keep on pursuing its cause. This would bring karmic, spiritual and even material gains to you. If not found one, keep looking for…you and your heart would know when you meet this. Your heart will ring bells and eyes twinkle!
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