Purpose

Photo by James Cridland

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I have been thinking a lot about purpose lately. It is not only the discussion around the new book Drive (which is already on my shelf, next in line to be read) and the three concepts in it: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. It is because I have started to realize that a big part of a manager’s job is to instill purpose.

There are no insignificant roles, just people who make the roles insignificant and it is a manager’s role to make employee realize that.

Really.

Imagine this. Starting tomorrow, there will be no people cleaning our streets. Ever. Garbage, foliage, random stuff that land in the street, will stay there forever. No one will take the garbage out of the streets. Would you like to live in such a reality? What kind of world would that be? Not a very nice one.

What’s my point? If you are that person cleaning the street – a job that many people will consider insignificant, what do you say to yourself? Do you wake up every morning and say – “hey, I am only a guy who cleans the street. This is a crappy job”. OR. Do you say to yourself – “hey, I am the guy who cleans the streets. Without me, society will crumble. I am doing something for the greater good. I make a difference”.

Today, I came across this quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. :

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’

You know what? This mentality is hard to keep. That is where managers should come in. This is where they need to instill purpose. To remind that worker, that his work matters. That he is not just a cog. That he is part of something bigger. That he makes a difference. That in every job you can make Art.

And I know what you are going to say – “So, you want us to lie to our employees? To tell them they are important when they are not?” Well, no. because if you believe that they are not important, then you would not be able to instill the purpose. I am talking about genuine respect for people and what they do. Genuine understanding that every work could be done masterfully and could have a real impact on our lives (and I invite you to watch Barry Schwartz’s talk at TED where he describes how great janitors describe their roles).

If you succeed in instilling that sense of purpose in your employees you are half-way on your way to noticing and recognizing them.  You are on the right way to explaining, everyday, how they made a difference. And that is a good path to be on.

Do your employees see themselves as cogs or do instill them a sense of purpose?

Elad

Managers’ responsibility – helping people overcome the resistance

Photo by The U.S. Army

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I did it. I finished reading Linchpin, Seth Godin’s new book. As I twitted a few days ago, I am still not sure if it is about management, education, philosophy or a self-help book, but is a very profound book that makes you think. The book touches on so many subjects that it will be hard to cover it in one post. So in the next few days (or hours, I might feel the desire) I will post my thoughts with some of the greatest quotes in the book.

Godin actually writes a manifesto for you. And me. And everybody. Trying to convince us that we should wake up and defeat the resistance, the small voice inside our head that tells us not to do remarkable things. He wants us to not only do our job but to do The Work, which is something meaningful, different, that changes the world, what he calls a gift of Art.

The thing is, a big part of the book is devoted to explaining exactly how hard it is to do just that. To describing how many mechanisms are present – some created by society and some are just part of natural evolution from pre-historic hunters – to prevent us from being indispensable and engaging with our Art. These resistance mechanisms have become such a big part of our culture and they are everywhere:

In every corporation in every country in the world, people are waiting to be told what to do. Sure, many of us pretend that we’d love to have control and authority and to bring our humanity to work. But given half a chance, we give it up, in a heartbeat. Like scared civilians eager to do whatever a despot tells them, we give up our freedoms and responsibilities in exchange for the certainty that comes from being told what to do.

I have written about this before:

The conventional wisdom that a manager needs to say to its employees how to do their work is already intertwined into people’s expectations.

And all I could think while reading the book is that we all need someone to help us help ourselves. Someone to nudge us in the right direction. Someone who will resist giving us the answers and will make us confront our fears and find our Art:

Your employee comes to you with a problem. He expects you to solve it for him, to tell him what to do. That is the conventional wisdom. But, that is exactly what you should not do in most cases. The famous creed: “don’t give a hungry man a fish, teach him how to fish” is on the spot but not implemented enough. We need to resist the temptation and try to give solution or answers and move to letting people find their own ways. So they will be able to do the job when you are not there. Tell them what the desired outcome is and let them find the solution. Give them the support and help, but not the solution. Resist the temptation.

And just like my initial thoughts after the presentation at the launch of the book, I point my fingers to managers.  I call our to them to start resisting the temptation to give answers. To stop with the rules. The let go of the mechanisms of control.

I know. It is hard. It is more than hard. It is terrifying. Trusting people is frightening. Letting go of our control is hard. Understanding that they are better than you in some respects, that they can do something you can’t is paralyzing. But it is worth it. Because that is the Art of great managers. That is the gift that they can give. And because In today’s world, there is no other choice. I will finish with the quote from the book:

Rick Wagoner lost his job at GM because he told everyone what to do (and he was wrong). Far better to build a team that figures out what to do instead.

What is your Art as a manager? What gift do you give your employees everyday? Who do you nudge them to find their Art?

We don’t only need indispensable people who can ignore the lizard brain and defeat the resistance. We need indispensable managers who will nudge people to become indispensable.

Elad