Some time ago, I noticed something during various conversations with employees.
The first person kept talking about "belonging."
He said: "I want to feel like I am really part of the team and I put in a lot of effort for that."
At first, I did not understand why that was so incredibly important to him. Is work not primarily a place where you use your talent to contribute to the common goal?
Later, I met someone who seemed to do exactly the opposite. He kept his distance deliberately. Fun moments with colleagues meant little to him. The learning opportunities together did not seem to interest him either.
Another person spoke about work as if it was mainly something from which you should extract as much benefit as possible. Quiet Vacationing, for example, was not seen as a last resort, but as an opportunity that you should not let slip.
A fourth employee spoke enthusiastically about her results, as if she did everything alone. She never mentioned the team she was part of or the contributions of colleagues.
And a fifth told me that he had always done everything he could to earn well so that he could maintain his comfortable standard of living once he retired.
These people differed in age, role and background. Yet they brought me to the same question.
Where do people find meaning in their work?
Here lies the key to having satisfaction, taking initiative, thinking along and being engaged, in other words, to someone's personal involvement in their work.
We often assume that involvement is a fixed trait. As if some people simply enjoy working and others do not. But involvement is more a result of how someone experiences meaning.
- For one, meaning arises from belonging to something.
- For another, from creating something.
- Or from taking responsibility.
- By continually learning.
- By helping others move forward.
- By striving for quality.
- Or by safeguarding justice.
When an organisation taps into exactly that source to which someone gives meaning, involvement seems to arise almost naturally.
Even more interesting is that most people are not driven by one source, but by a unique combination that can also evolve over time.
- For one, it is: quality + learning + responsibility.
- For another: connection + collaboration + helping others.
- And for yet another: autonomy + creating + innovation.
That may also explain why two people experience the same role completely differently.
One feels at home.
The other remains a passerby.
That does not automatically mean that the second is less professional. It does mean that the work apparently makes no or less appeal to those sources from which - for the person in question - meaning arises.
Recognising the level of engagement in the language that people use
Some refer to their employer as “our company.”
Others refer to “the company.”
One says: “We have realised that project.”
The other: “I have done that project.”
Some employees feel co-owners of problems. Others see problems mainly as something of the organisation. Some see colleagues as partners, others mainly as people they happen to work with.
None of those statements proves anything on its own. Everyone can have a bad period or carry a negative experience with them. But when such signals are repeated, they often tell something about the way someone connects with their work.
The essence of personal involvement
Where people recognise themselves in the contribution they make, more than just motivation grows.
There ownership grows.
There connection grows.
And there emerges an organisation in which people not only work but also truly feel involved.
For leaders, there lies an even more important question than:
“How do I motivate my employees?”
We should therefore ask a bit more often:
“When do you go home feeling that your work really mattered today?”
This last answer really says something about sustainable engagement.
Good HR policy
Good HR policy starts with a genuine curiosity about what truly gives people meaning.
Where work gains meaning, engagement grows. And where engagement grows, not only better performance often arises, but also stronger teams and more sustainable organisations.
For where people see themselves in the contribution they make, more than just motivation grows. There, ownership grows. There, connection grows. And there, an organisation emerges in which people also truly experience satisfaction in their work.
Curious about how you can make personal engagement within your organisation visible? We would be happy to think along with you.