Inner Work Life

I recently finished reading an article entitled Inner Work Life (Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, HBR, May 2007). This article detailed a research project that looked at what employees are actually thinking and feeling as they work. To accomplish this, the researchers asked a group of employees involved in a series of major projects or initiatives to keep journal entries each day in which they recorded their thoughts about the work day.

There are a couple of excellent conclusions that come out of this article:

“…our research shows that the most important managerial behaviors don’t involve giving people daily pats on the back or attempting to inject lighthearted fun into the workplace. Rather, they involve two fundamental things: enabling people to move forward in their work and treating them decently as human beings.“

This is not difficult to understand, but perhaps overlooked. Humans, in general, find value in achievement or accomplishment. There is usually great satisfaction in completing an important project or solving a problem or overcoming a challenge. When this can be done in a work environment that is fair, consistent, and rewarding, the sense of pride can be enormous.

On the other hand, even doing the impossible in a poisonous work environment may not be all that satisfying. It may feel empty, or worse, it may feel like a wasted effort. In the same way, doing menial or unchallenging work, even in a great work environment, may not produce enough individual challenge to be fulfilling.

It is important for managers to recognize that they need to create a fair and positive work environment, however, it is just as important to recognize that employees need to experience a consistent sense of accomplishment, or, of making measurable progress:

“When people are blocked from doing good, constructive work day by day, for instance, they form negative impressions of the organization, their co-workers, their managers, their work, and themselves; they feel frustrated and unhappy; and they become demotivated in their work. Performance suffers in the short run, and in the longer run, too. But when managers facilitate progress, every aspect of people’s inner work lives are enhanced, which leads to even greater progress. This positive spiral benefits the individual workers – and the entire organization.”

As you work with individual employees, continually assess their work and, where applicable, assign increasingly difficult tasks. If possible, provide new projects or cross-train in additional skills. If circumstances allow, create cross-functional or task-specific teams and coach a key employee to develop leadership skills.

The true hallmarks of a great manager are these: 1) consistently recognizes and hires talented employees, 2) engages and retains a very high percentage of employees, and 3) further develops the talent of those employees, improving their performance and contribution to the organization.