Steve Jobs said to the 2005 graduating class at Stanford University “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Many companies’ executives are sincerely concerned about the levels of job satisfaction experienced by their employees, because they know satisfied staff are more productive, take less sick leave and remain with the company for longer periods, resulting in lower recruitment and disciplinary costs.
Firstly, the term “great work” must be understood. When we think of individuals who have conducted “great work” in the past we might think of Leonardo da Vinci or Pablo Picasso who revolutionised the arts, Sun Tzu or Marcus Aurelius for strategy and warfare, Ernest Hemingway or Oscar Wilde for enduring contributions to literature, or perhaps our thoughts fall to the more modern captains of industry like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs himself. When looking at the works of these individuals it seems evident that “great work” then, has some impact on the world. It inspires people, creates new technologies, it entertains and provokes thoughts and, most importantly, it becomes meaningful to a larger set of individuals than the person performing the work.
Truly “great individuals” performing “great work” is evidently not to be found in abundance either. With nearly eight billion people on the planet the question then arises of how one develops into an individual with all the traits required to deliver work worthy of awe and praise. This requires an excellent understanding of one’s own motivational drivers, which can only be achieved through serious introspection. Luckily, we have tools at our disposal to assist with gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Silver Line Executive Coaching can help you to gain that insight by helping you to understand your own personal behavioural motivators which will then help you to increase and drive your performance at work.
One of the analytical tools used is the iWAM (1) assessment: it identifies a person’s motivational and attitude preferences in the job context and predicts how this person will behave in various job types, such as administrative, customer contact or managerial tasks. The benefits to the individual include a deeper understanding of where he or she is likely to find satisfaction, fulfillment and, ultimately, love for the tasks required by the position.
The iWAM assessment further predicts key motivational preferences and development areas. This, in turn, allows the employer to create a more emotionally intelligent workplace, which increases the company’s ability to hire, manage and coach employees. For this reason, organisations find it tremendously rewarding to engage their managerial and executive teams on these types of assessments.
While this focused assessment can help to focus a person professionally, the importance of maintaining healthy work-life balance remains key.
Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritises the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life. It is less about dividing the hours in the day evenly between work and personal life and, instead, more about having the flexibility to get things done in one’s professional life, while still having time and energy to enjoy one’s personal life. The positive effects of having a good work-life balance include less stress, a lower risk of burnout and a greater sense of well-being. This is obviously beneficial for the individual employee as well as the employer.
The onus of ensuring a good work-life balance is as much that of the employer as of the individual employee.
At Silver Line Executive Coaching we focus on assisting our clients on both sides of the employment relationship to gain and maintain healthy working habits. We coach executive leaders and their teams on how to ensure that their staff have a balanced, healthy and productive working life while we take the individual employee on a journey of self-discovery and mastery over their own situation.
We encourage you to contemplate your own happiness in your professional life on this Valentine’s Day. Are you a cog in a larger wheel and are you able to appreciate the value of your daily contributions? Is there larger value in what you do and is that value appreciated? Are you able to leave your work at the office and fully enjoy personal time with your family and loved ones?
Silver Line Executive Coaching stands ready to assist anyone or their team in need of coaching to achieve the above, to unearth their own greatness, to do great work and to still have a healthy balance between their professional and personal lives.
Love yourself. Love your family. Love your work