Love your work
by Tony Wilson
Would you willingly put your happiness and success in the hands of someone else? Of course you wouldn’t - sounds ridiculous, right? But that is what many people do every day at work.
I am baffled by the notion of HR practitioners and managers everywhere trying to ‘keep people engaged’. Surely it can’t be up to these people - HR, our bosses, our colleagues - to make sure we are happy and successful at work. But we look for these people to keep us engaged and when they don’t, we are unhappy and unsuccessful - and it’s their fault.
So how do we stay engaged and happy at work?
It’s not our job. I spent many days with professional athletes who had, arguably, the best jobs in the world. But some of them aren’t engaged. They turn up to training and say things like, “Here we go again. Man, I don’t feel like this today.” Most people would love to have those jobs - great money, travel the world, live your dream, spend every day with your best mates………good gig, huh?
So what is it? Research has shown that a happy professional life is a precedent for a happy life in general. It’s no wonder, given that we spend about half our waking hours from Monday to Friday at work and we spend more time with our work colleagues during the week than we do with our kids.
Here are some tips for helping you ‘Love Your Work’
1) Have goals and work with them in mind
Understand what you want to get out of work and, somehow, make an effort towards that every day. Even if it’s ‘just a job’, I bet it’s a job that’s paying for your next holiday. Or giving your kids a chance at a better education. Keep these things in mind and have reminders of them close at hand to refer to when you feel like things are dragging you down.
For those who want to achieve more and more at work, the trick is to understand the things that you have to do regularly - build networks, turn in quality work, contribute at meetings - and continually execute these with the end goal in mind.
2) Do something you like doing
This doesn’t mean that you need to quit what you are doing and find another job - though in some cases it might (sorry, HR managers!). But you need to find the things you enjoy about your job and engage in these regularly. Intersperse them throughout the day so they act like a light at the end of the tunnel when you invariably have to do the things you don’t like.
I once worked with a lady who was a great sales person and then got promoted, but found out it was all admin and meetings. What she really liked was the interaction she used to have with her clients. She hated the new job until she realised that her direct reports were her new clients. Apply the things you like doing and work to your strengths whenever possible.
3) Achieve
We all like to achieve something. Even the most cynical person likes to cross the last thing off their to-do-lists - it’s about accomplishment. Try to work on things until they are finished instead of doing bits and pieces of projects all the time. If you don’t have specific targets to achieve (or they are long-term or meaningless to you), then ask your boss what he/she expects of you and what would help them most. It also helps to ‘chunk things down’ into manageable parts so you are continually finishing something.
Achievement is different for different people. For some it’s small things, for some it’s large, and for others still, achievement is more about helping others. Understand what is important for you to achieve.
4) Understand where work fits into the big picture
This is the big one. For many people, work is not the be-all and end-all. It is merely a part of their life that helps facilitate the things that are most important to them. Keep reminding yourself of what is really important, and understand that the small things that drag us down are just that……small things.
It helps when we have ‘attitude anchors’ around us. These might be pictures of family, photos of your last (or next) holiday, anything really that helps you put things in perspective. When things get out of control, take a reality check and ask yourself “in the grand scheme of things, is this really something that should make me unhappy?”
Tony Wilson is the founder of Teamcorp Australia, and has spent over a decade working with elite performers in business and in sport. His ability to help athletes reach their potential and maintain motivation has been a large factor in their success, and many corporate leaders throughout Australia now also apply Tony’s philosophies with outstanding results. Tony’s practical background, coupled with an MBA, give him a unique perspective on personal and team performance.