Help Your Employees Find Purpose

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs

“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”

It’s a question we all get asked. Even if no one directly asks it of us society forces us to introspect and think it over. There is pressure from ourselves, family and co-workers to be able to answer the question satisfactorily. 

It’s not always easy to answer and can be intimidating. It’s an instant invitation to compare yourself to others and see where you stand in terms of goals. Everyone is different...but most people don’t feel good about where they are professionally and where they are headed. According to a study conducted on 6,600 different employees across the US, more than half of US workers are unhappy in their job.

A lot of this unhappiness comes from a constant fixation on the way things are, comparing self to others and then feeling bad about the differences.

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Asking an employee where they will be in 10 years doesn’t excite them. Often, it does the opposite and causes them to feel bad about where they are in life.

The best way to boost employee morale and get them into action at work is to focus on what drives them. What gives them purpose? Why do they wake up in the morning to come to work? Sure...work pays the bills, but locating the human element behind the production is vital to keeping employee morale high.

Helping your employees find purpose can be systematically broken down and their passions can be honed in on. Passions can be complimented with strengths and lastly, action plans can be written to ensure employees can do more of what they love and excel in.

Here are the 3 main tips to Help Your Employees Find Purpose:

One - Isolate What Excites Them

Isolating excitement and passion will give you the framework of an action plan that can help employees feel happier and do better in the workplace.

The key is to locate why they do the things they do. What about their actions brings them fulfillment? What gets them excited?

Sometimes, these bigger questions are too broad and smaller, simpler things can be asked. For instance: “What brings you joy?” “What do you like doing?”

A pad of paper and a ballpoint go a long way here. Simply posing these questions and inviting an employee to write down to freely write down his answers with the objective of really isolating the specific things that excites them goes a long way.  

Two - Where Do They Shine?

What excites a person is usually an area that they excel in. A compelling purpose lies in competence. Everyone is unique and everyone is born with natural skills that are unique to themselves. 

Ask your employee to list out their strengths. Write them down, make a long list. Often times, strengths are connected to areas of passion. 

Three - Sync passions and strengths to create an Action Plan

You’ve identified your passions and your strengths. Now what?

Have them take the following steps:

1.  Write — Journal about long-term, high-level dreams. Don’t worry about grammar, accuracy or organization. Just brainstorm and get those dreams down on paper.
2.  Write, again — Take a look at the lists of things that excite them from step one. Have them add to it if they wish. Again, the key is to get everything written down and not worry about organization.
3. Look for patterns - Then, they can review what they have documented in terms of their goals, dreams and passions. Have them try to write down what they want as an employee in one paragraph. Now, try to summarize the things they enjoy doing in one paragraph.
4. Assess resources and skills - Have them take a look at their skills. What are they good at? What skills are they missing that are vital to achieve the long term goals?
5. Fill in the gaps - Have them make a formal list of the skills they will want or need to develop in order to achieve that purpose.
6. Pick 2-3 first steps — At this point, they should have two or three ideas on where to get started. Perhaps it’s a new skill set they’d like to pick up or maybe it involves pursuing one of their passion points. Whatever they choose, again: document it. At this point, they need to get into action and they should have a decent plan on how to develop those needed skills. Focusing on growing in these areas will help them stay excited and move towards a more purposeful life as a person and employee.

In Summary:

To help your employees find a compelling purpose they can pursue:

• Isolate what they are excited about.
• Name their strengths.
• Work backwards to identify action steps and get started.

Mentor Resources can help any company to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics.

Reach out to us today for Free Demonstration of our software.