Loving what you do

Today, we understand that motivation — and therefore engagement — comes from loving what you do. You love what you do when you are in the right job, feel valued and are given opportunities to grow. Get your people to love what they do, and they are yours — fully engaged.

- Terri Kabachnick

I’m going to take this discussion in a different direction than you might expect, given this quote.

The concept that Ms. Kabachnick conveys here is true, but … limited.  It’s true that loving what you do leads to engagement.

But that doesn’t mean that engagement is only driven from loving what you do.

The truth is that your engagement and motivation might stem from any number of factors, including:

• What you do
• The larger purpose behind your work
• Who you work with
• The WAY you do your work
• The challenge you experience
• The recognition and compensation you receive

It’s quite possible that you could lump all these things into a general category called “loving your work,” but that makes it harder to talk about.

As a leader, how is this a useful concept?  Several ways:

• Realize that each person is engaged in their work for different, sometimes very personal, reasons.  Just because you’re in love with the challenge of tough competition doesn’t mean that your employees like that aspect of the job.
• Find out from each individual what their priorities and desires are.  This may be tough to find out, because sometimes the person isn’t clear on it themselves.  But as you develop a relationship with each person and try different things, you’ll discover what works.  WATCH and LISTEN.
• Make the work and work environment attractive on as many dimensions that you can.  And if some dimensions are just inherently painful, admit it – and then make up for it elsewhere.  Everything is a balance of tradeoffs.

Yes, help your people to love what they do.  But move beyond just WHAT they do, and find out the other reasons why they might fall in love with the work, the group, and your organization.

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