In business, there are many great organizational operating systems to choose from. They will help you define your mission, strategy, hiring process, and plenty of other crucial systems needed to run a successful business.
I have read, and continue to read, so many of them, and I love them all. As they sit on my shelf though, I am left with the sense that there is still something missing within their pages.
They all provide the components of an operating system, but not the why. Don’t get me wrong; they talk about vision, mission, and purpose of your business. But not the why of your operating system itself.
An operating system is all about how your business goes about fulfilling the objective of being profitable, which is the goal of any business. While this is the goal for every business, it should do so much more.
Every organizational operating system is more than just a theory. There’s a team that works within that system, the people. The people take care of the business. The business MUST take care of the people.
Hiring your first employee is a pretty important and personal moment in an entrepreneur’s journey. You’re asking someone to take a leap of faith and trust that you know what you’re doing. And if it’s your first business, you don’t. Not really. But the business is growing and you need help. So you hire one employee, then another and another. It doesn’t feel like an experiment anymore. This is a real business.
I still remember each and every interview and hire we made in those early days. As I listened to their stories, I kept hearing something very familiar. They were also missing something. It was at this time that I realized what I was looking for. I didn’t care about working for myself or being the boss. It wasn’t just about more money or less commuting. It definitely wasn’t that I wanted to work less. I was working harder than ever before. I had to. There were now other families counting on me. I was trying to create for myself the same thing these employees were looking for, fulfillment.
Fulfillment
At the end of the day, I believe fulfillment is what everyone really wants. Some may have stopped seeking it, and others may not even know it’s a thing they can aim for. But once you’ve had a taste, you know it’s the thing you’ve always wanted.
But what is fulfillment really?
That’s a great question. The dictionary defines it this way, “the achievement of something desired, promised, or predicted.” Well, duh.
The problem is that not everyone defines fulfillment the same way; every person is different. That may make fulfillment seem like an impossible goal, and though that does make it more challenging, it’s not completely out of reach.
I like to ask 3 questions to get to the truth of my own, or someone else’s, fulfillment. Since we are talking about businesses, I will phrase them as such, but really you can ask these questions about any area of a person’s life.
- Do I love the work I do?
- Do I believe the work I do matters?
- Do I see the impact my work has?
When I can answer yes to all three questions, I’ve found fulfillment through my work. I believe if you think about it you will discover the same. Try it out. Think about your current job or role. As you do, can you say the following sentence with complete honesty? How does your answer make you feel?
“I love the work I do and I can see that it’s having an impact on things that matter.”
Whether or not you or your team members are able to say that with total sincerity, let’s take a look at how we get there.
The 3 Motivational Drivers of Fulfillment
Now that we have identified that we all desire to achieve fulfillment and loosely defined what that looks like, it’s time to figure out how. Not just how to get it, but how to maintain it.
Remember those three questions we asked earlier? They are not only how we identify fulfillment, they reveal the drivers of fulfillment. We actually call these the motivational drivers. Motivational because we are all motivated by these three drivers to varying degrees. They get us out of bed each day by giving us something to work for.
The three motivational drivers are Passion, Purpose, and Progress. Let’s take a look at each question and see how they work.
Do I Love the Work I Do?
Passion. This driver is all about the joy you get from what you do. It’s the chef that only feels at home in the kitchen. It’s the engineer that can’t wait to dive into that new coding language.
People who can honestly say that they love their work don’t just love the work. They love all the components that make up the work. They consume content on their field and wrestle with how what they’re learning impacts their day to day.
When passion has been activated, the days are shorter. You reach the end of the day wondering where the time went, and you’re excited to do it all again tomorrow. It’s fun.
Being driven by passion doesn’t mean there aren’t hard days and the work never feels like work. Sometimes you still fail or things don’t work out the way you wanted. But passion driven people welcome the challenge. They see it as an opportunity to grow.
Do I Believe the Work I Do Matters?
Purpose. This driver is all about the meaning you derive from what you do. Serving people, solving problems, impacting important change, or overcoming a challenge is the name of the game.
Operating out of purpose is being more concerned with the why of your work than with the what or the how. Those are just a means to an end. What is really important is the pure objective or impact you can have.
Many times when we think of purpose, we think of phrases such as “higher calling” or “serving a just cause.” While those definitely qualify, purpose doesn’t have to be so lofty. Purpose can be as simple as serving with excellence, creating with quality, reducing stress, making life easier, and so much more.
Purpose isn’t about the meaning others ascribe to what you do. It’s about the meaning you get from it, internally. From the custodial engineer who finds purpose in maintaining exceptionally clean and safe environments for their patrons, to the scientist who finds purpose in making small discoveries that work with others and may one day save lives. Purpose can be found anywhere.
Do I See the Impact My Work has?
Progress. This driver is all about momentum and achievement. The thrill is in moving the needle or pushing the boulder over the hill. The size of the win doesn’t matter, as long as it’s better today than it was yesterday.
Progress is marked by the milestones. Those markers let you know that you accomplished something you were aiming for. It’s that feeling when you run a little longer than you were able to yesterday, or you break through your daily writing goal.
At the heart of progress is the right amount of better in the right amount of time. When those are in balance, you have real momentum and you feel unstoppable. It’s the kind of movement that isn’t effortless, but does somehow feel assisted. As if each new achievement fuels the next.
The common mistake is to confuse productivity with progress. They’re not the same thing. Progress is not about being busy or merely checking things off a list. It’s about improvement and change. It’s about growth and development.
You can do amazing things with even one of these motivational drivers. But think what you could accomplish in your business if all three drivers were being energized.
That can be a reality for you, but not without some intentionally. Not without actively reinforcing them with the three cornerstones of motivation.
The 3 Cornerstones of Motivation
Now that we have shined a light on the 3 motivational drivers, it’s time to look at what makes them possible. Each driver is actually the intersection of two of the three different cornerstones. These cornerstones, or the 3 Cs, are the major components needed to truly thrive.
Let’s first look at each of these 3 Cs.
The 3 Cs
Clarity
A lack of understanding or vital information might be one of the biggest demotivating factors I can think of, other than active obstruction I suppose. How can anyone accomplish anything without it?
Clarity encompasses a lot. What’s the vision, the mission, the values, or the goals? What are the requirements, the time constraints, or the budget? What’s important and what’s not? Do I know the systems, the processes, and the procedures? Is there anything else I don’t know?
Having clarity on the things that matter is crucial. When you are on a team, having a shared understanding is the difference between actually being a team or just several disjointed parts.
When you’re working solo, a lack of clarity means it’s time to do some research. When you are on a team, the problem is compounded. It can feel like everything is working against you.
It’s even more difficult when you realize that Clarity isn’t something that you achieve once and forget. It must be maintained. New information must be conveyed, new team members must be brought up to speed, and new business challenges must be overcome.
Collaboration
If pressed, I’d say that most people don’t really enjoy working on a team. Their experiences with group work, especially in school, often devolve into everyone working within a silo to complete a specific part. No one really talks to each other, and you just hope that everything turns out right. Sadly, that’s often the best-case scenario. At the worst, one person does all the work and feels taken advantage of.
Working with a team can be a very fulfilling experience. It can also be an excruciating exercise. Unfortunately, it often feels like the latter. Getting Collaboration right means that your team works together like a well-oiled machine. No one person is doing all of the work, and everyone is communicating where they are and what they need.
Collaborating well entails a lot of good communication, openness, and honesty. If team members aren’t willing to commit to those, the team will miss deadlines, produce inferior products, and, more importantly, hate working on a team.
Connection
If Collaboration is the how of teamwork, Connection is the why. Teams that have a real Connection go the extra mile, protect each other, and assume the best about their teammates. Feeling connected to others helps us push through challenges in Collaboration and teamwork. Without a connection, we might as well be working with complete strangers. Spending time getting to know and respect your teammates makes a solid foundation.
Lots of workplaces attempt to build this comradery through gimmicks, like the oft-derided “team building exercise.” Whether it’s an escape room, or playing paintball, or taking a whiskey tour, there are tons of examples, and horror stories.
I’m not saying that your team shouldn’t go through team building exercises, after all, shared experiences help us relate to each other. But, if all you do is shoot small, plastic covered paint balls at each other, what have you really accomplished? What I am saying is that there isn’t a good replacement for open and honest communication.
Connections are built when we’re open and honest with each other in the good times and the bad. Being vulnerable allows us to receive and express empathy towards others, and without that empathy, we can’t truly be connected.