Speaker 1: 0:11

Welcome to another episode of transformative change. Today we're gonna delve a little bit into both leadership and your private life. I'd like to start this episode with reflecting a little bit on my own experiences with the topic we're gonna look into today. Have you ever had a job or a position you might be in one right now where you don't feel appreciated, where you feel like your manager or your peers never check in, they don't give you any recognition, they don't even acknowledge sometimes that you're doing things right or even wrong. There is no feedback. This episode isn't about feedback, even though that's also an important topic.

Speaker 1: 1:04

I can, when I look back into my 17 year long career so far, identify quite many of these. One of the first examples I want to highlight is my initial interview for H&M with the person and later on became my manager. The first interview wasn't about going through my CV, as many of other interviews I've been going through. It was rather him explaining almost convincing, inspiring towards what he wanted to accomplish. He was building a connection and he was telling about his own personal journey. But throughout that story he also connected quite heavily to me and my journey and asked me questions that could align with the potential journey. It made me feel like I could matter in this journey. The majority of our conversations when I later joined was about how I connected to this larger purpose. When we had check-ins Throughout my career, the managers I remember isn't usually the most brilliant one.

Speaker 1: 2:26

I worked with quite many brilliant technical leaders in the field. It was those that asked me questions that felt like I belonged, that gave recognition to the work that I was doing. It made me feel like I had a place and that's usually when I stayed the longest, when I felt like I had meaningful work in front of me, that my contributions were actually doing something and I was being heard. I felt like I had a good place Throughout my career. I think when I reflect quite heavily on my own progress is I had a lot of unhealthy performance, and unhealthy performance isn't that the performance was bad in itself. I liked working. I liked seeing the result. I liked ticking the boxes. I liked exceeding them. I liked working 60-80 hours a week, producing even when nobody had asked me to, and reflecting over my journey. I always connected back to my childhood, where a lot of my recognition as a child was connected to when I did something. That's when I got the good recognition. That in itself forced me, almost when I was older, to connect to the performance at work, because that's where you have a lot of performance Ticking the boxes, being the superhero, exceeding expectations and we see that constantly.

Speaker 1: 3:59

And I was reading this book the other day by Jenny Volens, which is called Never Enough, and we're going to discuss and delve into that content throughout this podcast. But before we get started, welcome to transformative change. We're a podcast aimed at delivering and giving you tools to drive transformative change in this world. This is a cross-cutting podcast, and what does a cross-cutting do? Well, we don't draw a clear line between technology and social sciences. We try to make sense of where we can make sense, to equip you with real, practical tools for your own self-development, so that we can strive towards a better society. Aim that your personal life, aim that your professional life organization, ngos, private we are here to make sure we leave this world in a better state than when we entered it.

Speaker 1: 4:59

So, when it comes to performance and when it comes to these topics, there are studies on this. The studies have primarily been done in the 50s. What Jennifer Wallace did in her book was that she interviewed a lot of parents in the US, together with a Harvard researcher, to try to understand the unhealthy performance topics related to schools. Because, especially in the US and, of course, other parts of the world as well, there is a lot of parenting being done that pushes kids to go above and beyond, and this is also then connected to unhealthy performance later on in life. People are not feeling fulfilled. They are basically just having a lot of unhealthy performance, and this unhealthy performance, compared to healthy performance, which is driven from a sense of feeling like you matter, is completely different, and you, as a driver of change, first of all need to acknowledge that the differences between these two different topics.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Why it's important with healthy performance is because performance-driven individuals. They often focus solely on achieving measurable goals or meeting external expectations, and this is, of course, perfect for an employer that just needs to tick the boxes, but it doesn't come from a place of having things that potentially are not measurable or looking towards yourself and driving a change in the world. This will most likely yield short-term success, but I often say that life is not about the short-term success. We live a long life and society is meant to be here for a very long time. It often leads to individual burnouts. We lack the long-term motivation to run this marathon and we treat it as sprints all the time.

Speaker 1: 7:13

The motivation, which is unhealthy, solely comes from meeting the goals that most likely somebody else has put in front of you. On the other hand, if you have more of a purpose-driven approach so somebody puts a purpose in front of you or you discover your own purpose and values you start feeling that the work you are doing is meaningful. And this is a big difference, especially if you're in a large organization, because if you don't have purpose, if you're just there turning a paper, you're just there for the paycheck you have a hard time motivating yourself. But if you have a meaningful delivery or a meaningful purpose and approach in all of this, you are creating sustainable motivation and this makes sure that you don't burn out in the long run. You have something that you're aiming for and you start seeing the work that you're doing it actually matters for the bigger picture. So when your motivation stems from feeling like your work matters, you're much more likely to weather challenges. And what does this mean? So if there's a large reorganization, you are not as worried about this.

Speaker 1: 8:30

We can put this in contrast to a performance-driven mindset. Performance-driven mindset can lead to increased stress levels, and a little bit of stress can, of course, be good because it keeps you on your toes. But when you're increasing your stress and you're having your stress levels on high levels all the time, when you're not meeting your goals or when you see setbacks, then the stress just keeps on rising and you can't really do much about that because it's externally driven. If you have purpose-driven motivation that fosters more resilience towards stress because it's not specifically tied to outcomes, because you have a purpose, it's okay not to meet the target because you still have a purpose and what we want to get to at the end of the day, because we work with people and people are individuals and what we know about individuals that they are primarily driven by a sense of purpose. And if you're driven by a sense of purpose, that will derive more personal satisfaction from the work. You will feel, let's say, a deeper connection to what you do and experience a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment beyond just meeting performance metrics. And this is a little bit tricky to put into all of these contrasts, because organizations are driven by performance metrics, but we need to connect it to something bigger and this is really the role of a leader, because if you are on the floor and being like a technical leader, or if you're a manager, your job is to instill some sort of purpose and I think from the top management, it boils down to why are we doing this? So it's the start with why type of motivation. But having this purpose is really about also instilling the deeper connection constantly. And if we look on the outcome from all of this because if we start measuring performance metrics, yeah, we see short term success, but what we do know about this as well is that purpose driven individuals often produce higher quality work.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Me and my colleagues, we always talk about the pride in craftsmanship. We believe in what we're doing. We're going to deliver the best AI solution or the technical implementations. We have a purpose in what we're doing. We want to distribute technology. We want to make it easier for organizations and individuals to work with AI. We have a very clear purpose, because when you believe in what you're doing and understand the significance, you are much more likely to also invest effort, creativity and attention to detail. It's the pride of craftsmanship. So if organizations believe, oh, why do we need to talk about purpose? Why do we need to make people understand this.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Why is it connected to something and your own values, which I received feedback sometimes seems a little bit out there. It's not so tangible. Do I need to work on myself in order to be better at work? Yeah, we do now, because when you do and when you instill this, you feel more fulfilled. You don't feel like just another and working in the system and then you go home and live your life. Your life is every second of every day, and when you feel like you have this purpose and you are fulfilled, you want to spend time with these things. I mean, it's not like we don't think of work when we're off work, but we put in and we feel happy doing so because we're motivated and it can be. I start up to set up yourself. You can work for a large organization and NGO, but connecting you to some sort of purpose and releases the creativity, you start thinking out of the box and you want to make it as good as possible, not just Performance based, which is sticking the box and being motivated by, by, by a purpose really contributes positively to mental health, and mental health is so many things Distress levels, for instance.

Speaker 1: 13:01

We need to reduce them to a level that's manageable long term. Making sure individuals want to come to the office, not because we take away the work from home policy, but they actually want to do, because they want to connect with their colleagues, they want to connect with the customers, they want to go above and beyond, because they're driving towards something it will foster a more balanced life. I don't think it's just about work life balance, which I see a lot of companies focus on, because work life balance is having a clear, distinct line. When you go home, then you don't work. We are humans, we don't work that way. And more balance life is reduced stress levels, making sure you can do all of your commitments within A reasonable timeline.

Speaker 1: 13:47

A performance driven organization or individual Will most likely lead to neglecting your personal well being, and I keep seeing this over and over again because you are just trying to do those goals and an organization can always come up with new KPIs, new deliverables, but you're not connecting them to anything. So you'll come home and you feel like this is too much. Why am I doing this? This is Constant dialogue that I see people are having. Why am I doing this? And while performance driven motivations yields short term gains which are extremely tangible. And you see this in the quarterly driven economy where you need to do the report every quarter and you need to fulfill those targets. Yeah, sure you can measure it short term, but the purpose driven individuals they often experience a sustained success.

Speaker 1: 14:48

So it's not just about digging one hole and then another. It's about having a deep hole that can cover all of these things. The motivation and it's all about motivation getting people to do things. It is rooted in a deeper understanding of the role and the impact of what you're doing and that will lead to a more consistent effort and dedication. So that's what I figured out when I started to focus on having a purpose, having a motivation, feeling like you matter, connecting it to something else, you start connecting yourself and you're starting feeling better and that leads to a positive spiral. So a purpose driven mindset really fosters the resilience, personal satisfaction, higher quality work and an overall well-being. So work on creating that purpose, making people feel like they matter. In all of this.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Jenny Wall is booked, then. Never enough. It really explores the pursuit of fulfillment and contentment in a world driven by consumism and materialism. It's a super interesting book because it dwells into the psychological, social and cultural factors that drive people to constantly seek more, even when they already have plenty. She challenges the notion that accumulating wealth and possession leads to happiness, highlighting the importance of finding satisfaction beyond the material wealth. So if you want to understand the human psyche more and understand how people and why people feel unsatisfied despite having a lot of material goods, then you should definitely read this book. So some of the main conclusion is, of course, aligned with what I just said, but I've summarized them a little bit.

Speaker 1: 16:42

So why should we start focusing on these topics? Why is it important? Because the enhanced well-being is important for us of individuals. Look at yourself and then look at the people you want to motivate to drive some sort of change. Being valued and appreciated really contributes to individuals' sense of self-worth, sense of well-being, because when people feel like they matter, it positively impacts the mental health, self-esteem and overall happiness. If you ever felt lonely, that nobody sees you, you know that that can lead to a depression. You don't feel like you matter to anyone. But having a focus on these topics on the people you interact with, the fun and part with one of the conclusions that she has is if you make other people feel like they matter. That has a positive impact to you as well, and I think this is one of the changes I want to be a part of driving in the world.

Speaker 1: 17:45

She also emphasized a lot around motivation and engagement. So recognizing someone's contributions, even if they're just small, and making them feel valued will significantly and I can't underline this enough significantly boost their motivation and engagement, because when people feel like their work or actions are meaningful and appreciated, they are more likely to invest more effort and dedication. It's a positive spiral. And also, if you're driving an organization, you have people around you and you have a lot of targets to hit. People are stressed and people are starting to hit the wall and they get burnout, they ask for sick leave or they quit. We want to reduce that, not just because it's good for the organization you work for, but it creates a healthier environment for people to be in.

Speaker 1: 18:41

Acknowledging the importance of the individual's contributions help mitigate stress, reduce the likelihood of burnout. Being valued reduces the sense of being overworked. You're more likely to put in more hours, but you won't feel stressed about it because you will not feel like you're overworked or underappreciated, because you're contributing to something that matters. You matter contributing to better mental health and emotional health in everybody around you. You will also start building stronger relationships by acknowledging and making people feel like they matter. It fosters the stronger connections and relationships, enhances the trust.

Speaker 1: 19:23

In all of this, the communication becomes better and the collaboration. We can't force collaboration by putting a performance metric, that you need to talk to this amount of people or reach out. I even think Facebook at one time had as a bonus a part of the bonus that you have contributed to the contribution. Just by making people feel like they matter will increase the collaboration, creating a more positive and supportive environment both personally and professionally. So it's a win-win. But just making people feel like what they do matters Increase productivity and innovation and a sense of value and significance in one's work will lead to more productivity. So there's a time not just being overworked or working more. You're more productive and you contribute more to innovation because you think about the problem solving in a new way.

Speaker 1: 20:18

People that feel valued are more likely to share ideas, take initiative and contribute positivity to the environment. And if you're building a team and you have retention issues, this is also one of the outputs she highlights In various settings, whether it's in workplace or social circles. When individuals feel valued, they are more likely to stay committed and loyal, which is, of course, crucial for organizations aiming to retain the talented employees and foster a nice internal community, but also from the outside in perspective. If people like working at your workplace, they're going to talk about it and other people are going to want to join. Ultimately, making people feel like the matter isn't just about boosting their self-esteem. It's about creating an environment for personal growth, because if the individuals in your organization are growing both personally and professionally, they're going to be able to contribute more, fostering the positive relationship and enhancing the overall well-being.

Speaker 1: 21:22

So this will most likely well, I would like to say guaranteed reach to positive effects in different aspects of life. So that was a relatively quick introduction to the book and making people feel like the matter. This is a super interesting topic and I just stumble upon this book. I strongly recommend it and thank you so much for listening in and, if you liked it, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. We are coming out weekly and we will do a summary in a short blog post as well. Until next time, take care.