Your Life's Work
It's crucial to link your goals to your company's mission
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Bob D. Mcdonald & Don Hutcheson
If there is one attitude that makes a real difference in how profitable a company is, it is that employees feel a direct connection between what they do and the company's mission.
This is not the same as paying lip service to the vague, general, feel-good slogans on the walls of many corporate break rooms. Instead, workers in the most profitable companies have directly linked their own values, abilities, goals, personalities and interests to what they perceive are the values, abilities, goals, personalities and interests of the companies for which they work.
How does it happen? Is it some accidental link-up of a charismatic leader with a good PR firm? Is there something you could actually do to help people in your company link up with your company's mission, other than issue another beautifully worded mission statement?
We have championed the notion that people are not just functions, and that when they come to work they not only bring their skills and experiences, they also bring their hearts, values, personalities, interests and natural talents.
They even bring the most basic understandings of work, organizations and how to get along with peers and authority that they learned in their families. Our idea was that real enthusiasm, commitment and even passion for one's work was not handed down from on high.
It starts with the individual
Our experience with clients all over the United States has shown this idea to be true. Now research backs up that experience. Companies in which workers feel that what they stand for, who they are and what they do match up are more profitable, by almost 2 to 1 in return on investment.
It only makes sense. Workers in these companies are not only more enthusiastic, they also tend to stay longer and feel more optimistic and in control of their own lives -- all attitudes that translate directly to a company's profitability.
We got a call from an executive, Carter, who was scheduled to go through one of our executive seminars. He called to tell us he was on the point of quitting his company because he was bored. He thought he might like to work for his church. He didn't see any point of going through the corporate seminar.
Quitting may not be the answer
Carter went through the seminar after all. What he found out profoundly affected him. He did the work of carefully constructing and creating his personal vision -- that integration of abilities, interests, personality, values, goals, stage of development, family of origin, and skills and experience that is more predictive of either success or satisfaction than any other factor. But he didn't stop there.
He went on to create a career vision -- how his personal vision plays out in the kinds of roles, tasks, responsibilities and assignments he undertakes. With that he could then think about a focused vision -- the linkup between his personal vision and his career vision.
What Carter discovered was that a lot about his job fit him well. He found that there was a lot to interest him at work, and that a large part of the work he had been doing was right up his alley. But his abilities, interests and personality did not fit with his role as a manager.
Carter prepared a short presentation and went to see his immediate superiors. In his presentation, Carter explained why the company was not getting the full benefit of what he could do, even though he had been successful by almost any standard. He also showed that his real talents lie in strategic planning and how those talents could be much more useful and profitable for the company to use.
Carter's bosses were so impressed that they created a director-level position in strategic planning for him.
Making the connection
Was this an accident? No. Did the company change? Not really. Carter changed: He became much more enthusiastic, much more involved and much more energetic about what he was doing at work. How does a change like this happen? What are the steps?
1. Create a personal vision. You have to start with the individual. The reason so many corporate mission statements end up being fairly meaningless is that the individuals in the company cannot personally connect to them. Why? Because they have never done the work of creating their own personal visions. Before you can buy in to what your company is doing, you have to have a clear vision for your own career, otherwise all you're doing is paying lip service to the corporate idea.
Carter could not do the work of linking himself to his company's mission because he didn't have a vision for his own career. He just knew he was bored.
A personal vision has a clear structure. It must include natural abilities and talents, personality, interests, values, goals, stage of development, skills and experiences, and family of origin. Once Carter had a clear picture of who he was, where his talents lay, and how his values and interests impacted things, he was ready to begin the process of hooking up.
2. Figure out a career vision. Once you have your personal vision in mind, the stage is set to figure out how that vision plays out in the corporation. You can figure out the roles, tasks, responsibilities and relationships that fit you and make sense.
When Carter did this kind of detailed work, he realized it was possible to create a position that would use his talents most effectively, that would be fun, and that would help his company immeasurably.
3. Link your personal vision and career vision to the company mission. Only after Carter had done the work creating his personal and career visions was he able to clearly link himself to his company. It might seem that this task of hooking up one's personal vision to the company mission is quite formidable. Actually, the hard part is creating the personal vision in the first place. Our experience is that once a person has done this, the process of linking that vision up to the company mission is fairly straightforward.
When we start with individuals, and help them figure out what they really want with their careers, working from the inside out, then the hookup to the company mission falls out naturally.
Hutcheson and McDonald are the founders of The Highlands Program, a nationwide life and career planning service based in Atlanta, and the authors of "The Lemming Conspiracy: How to Redirect Your Life from Stress to Balance." Write, fax or e-mail (strategies@businesschronicle.com) Your Life's Work c/o Atlanta Business Chronicle. Their column appears twice-monthly.
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