I was not flourishing at work. I woke up with a sense of dread. I felt that the work was not life giving, but rather it was life taking. I felt stuck and unsure of what to do. I hear this from clients, who are asking the tough questions and are pushing for something more with their work. It is a call to live with an untethered heart and who they are is embraced. Theorist pose that organizations flourish under the following conditions.
Positive Relationships
First, positive relationships exist within teams, clients and vendors. A positive relationship is one where mutual trust is the foundation and reliability permeates.
Meaningful Work
Second, meaningful work is experienced by all employees. Meaningful work means what I value and what I am good at is leveraged to add value to the business.
Autonomy and Choice
Thirdly, employees have the ability to choose what they work on and how they work on it. That does not mean that there are not performance expectations, it just means that an employee has a realm of control. This is commonly called autonomy.
Positive Emotional Experiences
Fourthly, the proportion of positive experiences outweighs the negative experiences for every employee. If employees are feeling demoralized, over managed, criticized vs. supported then it is quite likely that they are experiencing negative emotions.
Competence
Finally, when you feel that you are gaining competence and confidence at work this contributes to that sense of flourish. The reality is that all five of these factors stack up – it is not enough to just see one area improve we need to see movement in all five.
What can leaders do to build flourishing work environments? First, start with your own relationships at work. Give those relationships a trust score on a 1-5 scale. Start with the lowest and invest time in developing trust. Second, ask your employees what they find most meaningful in their work and what is most interesting. The answer will give you a clue on how to meet those unmet work needs. Third, offer as much autonomy as you can by stating your expectations and allow your team to find the path forward. Fourth, ask your employees to score the number of positive experiences in a day vs. the negative. Fifth, prompt questions to your team about how confident they are in their work and point out the great progress they are making in their role!
Good luck! You are not just leading a team. You are creating an environment where employees flourish and succeed!
