From where do your people draw their strength and inspiration? What provides the incentive to turn up and face the pressures and the problems of each working day? The experts and psychologists say that wages are just a small part of the real reward of work. Job satisfaction and self-esteem are high on the list. They say that praise for a job well done can be worth more to a person than a pay rise. So what do we work for?
I am sure we could all fill our days with activities closer to our hearts, if we had the money to do so. Therefore whatever any expert says, the bottom line is that everyone works for money. This fulfils our need, but what about our desire? Does money and status send you home each night with a glow in your heart and a feeling of achievement? Unfortunately it does not. Job satisfaction is the real success story.
Who do I work for?
For me the question has always been not what I work for but who I work for? Many years ago I worked in a small company where the managing director pressed us to work harder to achieve his business target; and that measure? – to ensure his personal pay exceeded half a million pounds for the year. He seriously believed that we were willing to buy into this concept, and live and breathe our working days at full effort and to ‘achieve great things’ in order to provide him with this money. Many left before the year ended, and I still do not know if the target was met. Nobody cared. No one wanted to work for him.
I never wanted to work for a bunch of Directors who are out of touch, out of reach and unknown. It is quite possible that these people deserve high rewards from a business where their investment was placed at risk, but it is hard to perceive anyone who would wish to see the gains their bosses make as an incentive or reason for their hard work! I never ever worked for my boss. He probably sees less than a tenth of my real efforts. I don’t work out of a sense of duty to those I am responsible for. We have already accepted they probably won’t appreciate it anyway! The key to achieving real job satisfaction is this: I work for no one else but myself.
I believe only I can obtain real satisfaction from what I accomplish each day. Only I know how hard I have worked, and how much real effort and concentration I committed to my work that day. My own conscience will tell me honestly whether I can be really satisfied with my achievements, and whether I have made a valuable contribution to the business. Who else would provide an honest appraisal? Not my customers, or colleagues, but myself – knowing deep inside that I have tried my hardest. I am my hardest critic. We all are. I hate myself when I let myself down. When I achieve my best, this is when I can justifiably feel satisfied with a job well done.
Why work hard for someone else when they don’t honestly know if you actually have made every conceivable effort to be successful. Yes they see your results, but to step out of the door and head home knowing that you are justifiably proud of your efforts makes everything worthwhile.
Encourage and engage your team to want to work for you, but accept that you will never fully engage everyone all the time. So take comfort in ensuring individuals may well retain a degree of independence, and want to work to their own satisfaction. They will feel better about it, and you will gain too. Individuals driven by their own personal goals and determination will always do a great day’s work, and take pride in their efforts. Wherever their loyalty lies, you cannot ask any more of people other than they try their best.
