Mar 5, 2019
There’s job satisfaction, and then there’s the real happiness that comes from working at a company whose purpose aligns with yours AND where your job has meaning. We continue our HumansFirst series with Brooke Erol, the founder of Purposeful Business, and she shares how we can become more engaged at work, so we can become more engaged in life.
Reflections from a HumansFirst Club meeting
What stays with Brooke the most are the conversations they have with their attendees. They opened up their hearts, called the group their ‘tribe,’ and immediately felt like this was a place they belonged to. Not only is this heartwarming to see, but it verifies what we already know: there’s a lot of hunger for ‘HumansFirst’ workplaces.
The hunger and the thirst for work to be HumansFirst
Our level of consciousness increases over time, and every time it does, the way we lead organizations changes. The concept of purpose is nothing new, but now we’re more aware of it and intrinsically yearn for it. We understand even more now that we can’t separate our work selves and our personal selves. The mindset from the industrial age definitely isn’t working anymore, especially with the new generation. Something’s gotta change.
Brooke’s path to HumansFirst
Brooke applied the formula given to all of us: good grades, good school, good job. She landed a great job at IBM and she was supposed to be happy. Everything looked great on paper. But in her early 20s, she began to question her purpose. Why was she working there? Was it really what she wanted to do for the rest of her life?
With the help of a coach, she realized her purpose was to make people happier at work, and now she has a tribe of amazing people she’s able to talk to about this every day.
On expressing her purpose today
Brooke runs Purposeful Business to help organizations reinvent themselves and grow based on a foundation of purpose. When that’s the case, profit becomes the byproduct, not the end goal, and everyone wins.
Making work more human is the answer — so what’s the problem?
Many workplaces don’t know how to motivate, attract, and retain the new generation. We now value different things than the generation before us, which leads to high turnover at a significant cost.
Many employers are also asking how they can get their employees more engaged. It’s an important question, too: when you’re disengaged at work, you’re disengaged from the rest of your life, and you bring that bad energy wherever you go.
The awakening
This movement is slowly but surely happening on a global scale. It’s getting much more attention than it used to. But many business leaders are trying to make people happy using the old tools: a good compensation plan, bonuses, free coffee, a ping pong table at work. Not that these aren’t great — they are! — but that’s not sustainable happiness.
Real happiness at work comes from more intrinsic things that we need as human beings, like relationships, and whether we find meaning and purpose in what we do. And that’s what helps with things like engagement, creativity, and innovation.
And if you don’t work for a company who’s had the awakening yet, Brooke shares some advice on finding meaning in what you do.
Final thoughts
It all boils down to our belief system. If you believe that it’s possible to treat people with the dignity and respect they deserve, and make them feel like they matter whatever their job is and that what they do contributes to a bigger purpose, that will bring the best results for your organization and for everyone.
Wanting to grow as a HumansFirst leader and connect in meaningful conversations with other HumansFirst leaders?
Join me for HumansFirst Book Club where we do a deep dive into a book a month and often engage the authors in conversation.
Resources
Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family (Amazon)
HPP Episode 33 – Explore, Discover and Transform Work with Gary Adamson
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success (Amazon)