We've learned about how to accomplish objectives and lead people in
a direction that is sensible but it isn't
all about just a series of tasks that we go from one day to another sort of,
accomplishing in a short term kind of view of the world is it?
No, I mean that's I think important to remember as a leader
that yes we want to make decisions and implement them together,
in person and virtually but we also have to have some larger objective or purpose.
I think it's probably useful to step all the way back
and think about what are the largest and most important purposes we can have.
Right.
As not just sort of the leaders of this team but as human beings.
And as leaders our responsibility is
to provide meaning for people who are working with us.
Exactly. Which goes beyond,
"Did you get this task done today?" And so forth.
I often fall back and talk about the list of predictors of life satisfaction.
Our colleague in the field Martin Seligman has
this nice book where he talks about organizes the data this way.
What are the major contributors to life satisfaction while experiencing positive emotion?
Do you get to experience happiness and joy and awe and et cetera in your day?
Do you have positive relationships?
Do you get to meet with people you enjoy being with?
Are you engaged in the tasks and activities of your work?
That's another contributor.
Are you making meaningful products and services?
Are you delivering something that you care about and find worthwhile?
And then do you make achievements?
I mean do you get to produce something that others recognize as being truly worthy?
If you put those five things together and can say,
you've been able to do those things,
you're probably a pretty happy person with your life.
The obvious question is as a leader are you allowing
your people on your team and organization to accomplish those things?
Thinking about the big picture it's more than just narrow task objectives.
It's about deriving meaning and building
relationships and being satisfied with your work which is really important as well.
You're even more concise than Seligman.
That's fabulous.
Why are we making this decision?
What motivation do we have?These are reasons why people would be
satisfied with their lives but we can think
of other kinds of ways in which values and purpose,
drive what we do as leaders.
Why we want to make people's lives better?
You think about the mission statements and some of that of course is writing on the wall.
It's cynical all right.
Some of that is deeply meaningful and motivates people
to engage in incredible efforts on behalf of each other and the larger.
Sometimes there may be a larger mission and purpose but
your job as a leader is to make people who work with you aware of
what that is and what the big picture is and not just see their life as
an endless flow of simple tasks that are accomplished narrowly.
And that means you have to connect it.
You have to connect that larger purpose with the individual tasks.
We are here to enable people to lead
healthier lives and that's why we're doing the particular task.
We're enabling people to reach
their full potential and that's why we're doing what we're doing.
Health care and education could be framed in those two ways.
I'm sure every organization could make that connection to
a larger purpose and set of values that could then drive
that sequence of decisions and
implementation decisions so that the everyday work connects to a larger purpose,
a greater set of values and we're leading people
in meaningful activity towards satisfying lives.