What Sort of Year Are You Having? - By Steve Cabrera

You may be different, but here is a cross-section of answers from some of the people we've been talking to recently:

• "Frustrated - not achieved all that I wanted to, all I do is keep people and e-mails off my back"
• "Thinking of leaving - not doing the job I want to, not getting the recognition I need, not being managed properly"
• "Long hours - not seeing my family and friends"
• "Firefighting - too much to do, not enough resource"

It seems by no means everybody is in a position to say, "I'm having a great year, achieving what I want to and enjoying getting there" (If this is what you would say, please contact us; we'd be delighted to talk to you!)

Whilst there are of course things to celebrate, beneath the achievements some people feel a growing concern about work, the working environment and the quality of life.

So What's Going On?

Some are clearly unhappy about the way business life has encroached on the quality of their lives:

"...many people feel that their work lives and their personal lives are out of balance. In many jobs, for example, the average number of hours worked per week has increased, and in many families, both adults now have demanding jobs outside their home. The reasons for these changes are complex, but their result is that even many of the people that are most successful in their work organisations often find their lives increasingly unsatisfying."1

Effective communication about things that are important, quality of life for all, teamwork, partnership and inspiration are more important to people than ever. There is no lack of commitment to these important values; what there is, however, is general resignation about the way life seems to be. It seems impossible to do anything about it in a world in which the important metrics all seem to be about increasing shareholder value and keeping your head down to survive.

Would a ‘Stick' Work?

You could focus on changing employment law, enforcing ever more stringent monitoring procedures or restructuring, to 'force' business leaders to take greater accountability for the quality of business life. You could even try some good old-fashioned table-thumping or fire a few people. But tampering with these ‘external' factors doesn't change the way people feel about their work. The ‘internal' drivers controlling how people want to work, and how they feel about their work can't be legislated into existence. Any attempt to do so seems to suppose that an unhealthy mindset is inherent in business: something like, "Business is horrible, self serving and exploitative. Business leaders need to be controlled like rebellious teenagers, before they destroy people's lives!" All these ‘external' changes reinforce this myth about business and therefore miss the point.

A more relevant solution is to challenge business leaders and employees alike to engage themselves personally in the purpose of the business they work in.

What Might a ‘Carrot' Look Like?

Business exists to make money, but there is a lot more it exists for, just as we must eat to live, but don't live just to eat! For most people, ‘increasing shareholder return' alone isn't personally inspiring!

What's needed is something so attractive that it inspires people every minute of their working lives: a shared view of the organisation's ultimate purpose with which everybody can feel connected. This requires courage, commitment and a fundamental shift in everybody's mindset. Here are some of the essential elements:

• Each individual needs either to be part of the team creating the purpose of the organisation, or authentically to see that they are personally inspired by it
• All people in the business need to work in partnership to ensure that everyone feels a personal connection with its purpose
• Everybody needs to commit skill, space and time to build partnership and shared vision properly
• Leaders must give up exclusive control of the vision and its fulfilment, or it cannot be shared. This is the hardest element of all!

Doing this requires an expansion of accountability for people's wellbeing beyond the minimum legal responsibilities of the corporation. You might find this uncomfortable and sometimes even painfulto do, and you need to be ready for resistance and its consequences.

So why would you do this? Because quite apart from the personal consequences of doing nothing, businesses that don't take up the challenge will do far worse than fall foul of the law - they'll significantly limit the extent to which they can engage the hearts and minds of the people who work in them. Can you imagine that the people who made the comments above have been able to work 100% effectively this year, with at least half an ear out for other jobs and a different quality of life? In the longer term, the business will lose those valued leaders and employees. In short, it will fail.

How Can You Make a Start?

• Think about what you are really committed to, for yourself, your family, for the quality of life around you, and for the world in general. Refuse to settle for compromised health, self-expression and quality of life
• Encourage your organisation to confront this huge issue urgently
• Talk to others in your organisation about what you are all committed to providing and building through your work. Some may in the end not be inspired by the purpose that others are passionate about. This isn't a failure, but a measure of the thoroughness and effectiveness of the process - and of your own courage
• And if, after your best efforts, you cannot find a personal connection with the purpose of the organisation in which you work, leave it as soon as possible. Give yourself the opportunity to find authentic self-expression elsewhere, and the organisation the space to employ people who are inspired by its purpose

When you are personally connected with your organisation's purpose, partnership, accountability, leadership and teamwork are natural. Passion and enthusiasm are naturally present. You are more effective, and therefore need less time to accomplish things. You are energised at the end of the day for the time you spend with family and friends.

And, finally, we believe that when businesses embrace the personal commitments of the people who work in them their collective purpose, and economic power and weight, will increasingly and naturally include addressing and resolving the issues facing the world today.

Isn't that something worth working for?

==> for more information view the original newsletter article here <==

Steve Cabrera is an American Brit living in London and director of Shine Consulting, a partnership of business consultants committed that people and organisations produce a new standard of results through the passion, inspiration and commitment of people.