We all of us want to feel good about ourselves at home, or at work – whatever we’re doing. Good stress pushes us and enables us to grow. It takes the form of challenges that force us to draw on strength – maybe strength we didn’t know we had – but then it affords us time to recover.

Bad stress produces the opposite results. It pushes and pushes and pushes, but doesn’t stop. Instead it wears us out physically, mentally, and emotionally; and eventually we stop feeling good about most things; especially out work.

The majority of people at work want to get good results, but bad stress prevents them from achieving it because as far as they’re concerned, it interferes with their ability to do a good job.

What makes us feel good about ourselves at work?

Competence

The first thing is competence. When we have the skills necessary to do what we do to a high standard, then it’s more likely that we’ll enjoy what we do. We’ll have the confidence we need to give it our all; and in so doing, we’re much more likely to excel. Conversely, if you don’t feel up to the task, then you’ll find that it’s easy to be hesitant and to hold back.

Think about anything that you do well, whether it’s at work or for pleasure. If you have to struggle every step of the way, then it’s less enjoyable to do it than if you are adept at it. You may tell yourself that the rewards will be worth the effort, but there have to be even small encouragements along the way before you’re likely to stick it out.

It’s possible that the absence of what most people consider to be rewarding is actually rewarding in itself. Take suffering, for instance. Most people try to avoid it. There are some, however, who consider it to be ample compensation – well worth the experience in light of the end goal.

Make a difference

The second thing is that people want to make a difference. In other words, they want there to be a positive outcome as a direct result of their being there to do the job. It isn’t enough that there was a positive result. It needs to be because they were there to get it. It’s because they did it that the result was positive. In other words, not just anyone could have done it.

It has to matter

The third thing is that what they do has to matter. It’s entirely possible to do something well, better than anyone else in fact, make a difference personally to the outcome, but for the activity itself to be an utter waste of time; to make no difference whatsoever.

Think about what it would have been like to be sentenced to hard labour in a maximum security prison. After 20 years of breaking rocks, you might be the most competent of all rock-breakers. Your skill could be such that had you not done it, there would have been many more large rocks than small ones. But the truth of the matter is that the task of breaking up rocks doesn’t matter. That’s because if material like that is really needed, there is equipment available that will do a much better job in far less time than a group of men with nothing but time on their hands.

In organizations, we sometimes hear the term “busy work”. No one should be doing that. Why? Because it doesn’t matter. There’s no difference between it and breaking rocks. It does nothing more than pass the time.

Organizations suffer from negative consequences when their employees feel that what they do doesn’t matter. Turnover among personnel tends to be higher, which adds to the cost of finding new people and retaining the ones you have. Productivity is lost because you’re always trying to get new people up to speed.

Absenteeism will be higher. That’s because when people feel that you won’t miss them, they tend to call in sick more often.

Of those who do come to work, some are likely to perform at a substandard level. That’s because they feel that there’s no point in doing something well which, at the end of the day, doesn’t matter. Mediocre is good enough.

Who decides what matters? Managers decide for organizations, but employees decide for themselves. Your job is to make sure that it does for both groups. It’s demotivating to come to work every day knowing before you even get there that what you do is of no consequence to you.

We have another name for the idea of what matters. It is purpose. People need to have purpose in their lives.

How individual purpose at work can benefit organizations

When organizations pay close attention to their employees’ purpose, they give them a reason to work for them as opposed to someone else. This creates loyalty among workers, turnover decreases and the workforce stabilizes. They become more committed to what they do. That’s because not only what they do matters, but the fact that they’re doing it also is important. This makes them feel indispensable; that the organization couldn’t get along as well without them. This strengthens their purpose. They start to look for ways to help that are outside of their job description. This increases their desire for greater responsibility. Productivity increases and morale goes up!

So it’s really up to you. If you constantly demand more and more out of your employees, then there will come a time when they run out of steam. Their reserves will be expended, and it will take more than a few weeks holiday to recharge their batteries. Those who can find jobs elsewhere will; and those who can’t or won’t, will simply feed the lethargy that sets in.

On the other hand, if you learn to regulate the stress that’s placed on people, if do all that you can to make sure that most of the stress that they experience is good, rather than bad, then you will obtain greater returns from your workers than you ever thought possible. Make sure that the work you give them draws on the skills that they have, enables them to make a difference in the workplace or the organization, and that it matters to them.

They’ll take care of the rest.

If you want to learn more about the topics discussed in this blog, get in touch with us here.