The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

We think this book can be incredibly useful even if you're not in a leadership position. All the tools and assessments can be used on a personal level, so if you're struggling to find meaning in your own work, this book can help you discover the passion and purpose you've been looking for.

Dave Ulrich is a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.

Wendy Ulrich is a licensed psychologist, who's held a private practice for 20 years. She focuses on helping leaders create meaning at work, to contribute real value to employees, customers and investors. She's also provided training and consulting for major global organizations such as General Electric, the U.S. Army, Johnson and Johnson, and the United Way.

So, keep listening to find out what questions you should be asking to find out what motivates your team, when watching may tell you more than talking, and why being humble can revolutionize your organization's office environment.

The "Why of Work" is broken down into 10 chapters. The first two cover the case for "meaning," and what the authors call "the making of abundance."

The next seven chapters each cover one question. These questions, so the authors say, are what we should all be asking ourselves, and our teams, to find meaning.

The last chapter covers the implications of working in a meaningful environment.

But first, let's look at why meaning is so important in the first place.

When you think about it, we spend more time at work then we do anywhere else. And it's the natural tendency of all human beings to find meaning in life. Since we're spending the majority of our life at work, it only makes sense that we, as people, strive to find meaning in what we do every day.

Employees who can find meaning in their work also add significant market value to their organizations. They're more productive. They work harder, smarter, and more passionately than anyone else. And, they're more creative. Sounds like the kind of people we'd love to have working for us, right?

The authors' goal is to create organizations that are "abundant" – full of people just like this. When this is the case, the organization doesn't focus on lack or competition. Instead it focuses on resourcefulness, creativity, hope and determination, not only for the people who work there, but for customers and society as well.

This is why it's so important that leaders really try to help their team find meaning in what they do. The ripple effects can go a long way here.

The authors provide some great statistics and examples to drive this point home. They also make the argument that pushing your team to find meaning isn't something you should focus on only when the times are good.

Even in recessionary times, leaders must spend the time and effort to reinforce the why of work. They need to remind people why they're doing what they're doing, and why it matters. If they don't, when times improve, these team members are likely to move on.

Chapter two is called The Making of Abundance. And it's here the authors start to tackle some difficult questions.

The good news is that no matter what your situation is, or how poorly your organization may be doing, you can inspire your team to find meaning. The reason is that it's people who put meaning into their situation.

The tricky part is that it's largely up to you, as the leader, to help them find this meaning.

There's a great example in this chapter that shows the impact this can have. One company was forced to make some serious cutbacks. Predictably, the employees were grousing about their limited budgets and were scrambling to protect their own jobs.

But then the leadership told them that for every $50,000 they saved, they'd protect one job. After that, the entire organization jumped on board. They found intense meaning in helping protect the people they cared about. So they came up with tons of ways the organization could save money.

This is the power of meaning.

In the rest of the book, the authors address seven questions, with one chapter covering each question. These seven questions drive abundance, and they provide a framework you can use to help your own team find meaning in their work.

What's great about these questions is they apply to several levels. You can use them on a personal level to find meaning in your own work. Or on an interpersonal level, organizational level, or even a societal level.

The first question is What Am I Known For? This question helps us figure out who we are, what we believe in, and what we're good at. This question will help you shape an organizational identity, and help your team use their personal strengths to foster that identity and succeed at work.

Another question is Where Am I Going? This question is going to help you define your employees' personal ambitions, and then match them to your organizational goals.

The other questions are Whom Do I Travel With? How Do I Build a Positive Work Environment? What Challenges Interest Me? How Do I Respond to Disposability and Change? And last, What Delights Me?

There's a very useful assessment tool in chapter two that helps you apply these questions to your own organization, and another that lets you apply them to your own working style. These assessments allow you to figure out the strengths and weaknesses already present in your organization, and yourself. This is a great tool for you to use before moving forward with the rest of the book, because it will help you discover where you're already succeeding, and where you might be lacking. So, don't skip this assessment!

Chapter three is when we start diving into the real meat of the "Why of Work." In this chapter, titled What Am I Known For?, we learn how to help our teams define their core identity and strengths, and how to help them see how those strengths fit with the goals and values of the organization.

There are plenty of online assessments your team can take, and you can also ask them to complete a time log of the kinds of activities they do every day. What do they spend the most time on, and who do they spend that time with? What business interests capture their quiet time?

You can also help team members discover their strengths by simply watching. Who speaks up first? Who is a natural leader? Who is bold, engaging or creative?

Obviously, this is going to work best if you're leading a small team, rather than a large one. If you're a CEO, or in charge of a big department, this simply isn't going to work. So using the online assessments might be a smarter strategy.

The authors use the term identity a lot in this chapter, and they use it to mean a collection of strengths, weaknesses and actions, rather than who a person is. They point out that it's not our intentions that matter, only our performance, so from other people's point of view, we are what we do. The goal here is to discover what your team actually does, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. These factors help shape their "identity," by the authors' meaning of the word.

Once you start discovering the identities of your team, you next need to figure out the identity of your organization. The authors call this your capabilities. Capabilities like speed, talent, social responsibility or innovation are all good examples. There's a handy chart in this chapter which helps you identify the capabilities of your organization.

The next chapter focuses on the path. Where is your team, and your organization, going?

The authors focus on four types of motivation here. These are Insight, Achievement, Empowerment and Connection, and all of them can give meaning to your work.

For instance, imagine a key member of your team is particularly insightful. They're powerful communicators, highly creative, and they appreciate having plenty of time to think and imagine possibilities.

What can you do to help them find more meaning in their work?

Well, start by making sure this insightful employee isn't in a position that demands a different kind of achievement. Try to give them projects that fit with their insightful nature.

If you're wondering how you're going to know what truly motivates your team, or yourself for that matter, there's a practical writing exercise in this chapter to help you figure it out.

Another chapter worth highlighting is chapter six, which asks the question, How Do I Build A Positive Work Environment?

We loved this chapter because creating a positive work environment is something that almost all of us struggle with. It's so easy for your office environments to get wrapped up in in-fighting and politics, and this can have an incredibly damaging effect on everyone.

So how can we change things?

Well, we have to start by changing ourselves. Whether we realize it or not, our own actions have a significant impact on our organization's office culture.

First, we have to start by practicing humility. The authors say that, time and time again, leaders with big egos and superstar status almost always end up leading a firm in decline.

When leaders instead avoid arrogance and remain service-oriented towards their customers and team, organizations most often thrive. Office culture changes. And employees are more engaged.

Another change we have to make as leaders is we have to become more selfless. The authors say that when leaders consistently act out of self-interest, employees do the same.

The authors suggest we use what they call "gratitude enhancers." Gratitude enhancers help connect employees and make them feel closer not just to the leader, but to each other.

For instance, we can ask our team how they're doing on a scale of one to 10. Taking the time to show our team that we care how they're doing can lift them up and provide an opening for them to talk about their day. Or we can mention to the spouse or partner of someone on the team what a great job they're doing, if we happen to meet them. Spouses rarely interact with their partner's organization, so sharing positive feedback with them can really connect that employee with you.

Another chapter we really enjoyed was chapter nine, called What Delights Me?, which focuses on civility and happiness. These are things we don't often think about in connection with work, but the authors give us plenty of reasons why we should.

One of the best reasons is that when our team, and our customers, are delighted with their interaction with us, they're going to come back for more. Delight is found in simple pleasures, and we need a lot more of these simple pleasures at work. Delight is playful and fun, and makes people incredibly approachable.

How do you spread delight in your organization?

There are some excellent ideas in this chapter.

You can bake cookies and take them to work. You can tell jokes. You can do someone a favor or learn the names of everyone on your team and use them.

The authors say you can make the greatest impact simply by doing small things. They cover four sources of delight in this chapter: creativity, pleasure, humor and playfulness, and civility.
There are some wonderful stories here, including one about an accountant who turned his passion for oriental rugs into a way to look at his business, and his clients, entirely different. His first oriental rug gave his work new meaning that it never had before. This little story packs a great lesson, so don't miss it.

The suggestions in chapter six aren't just about bringing more delight into your office. There are plenty that focus on how to bring more delight into your life. This was, without a doubt, our favorite chapter in the book.

So, what's our last word on "The Why of Work"?

We think it's a brilliant book addressing questions so many leaders today are asking themselves. Finding meaning in our work is only going to get more essential the busier we get. If we can't define what motivates us, or our team can't, then we can expect burnout, low productivity, unhappiness, and high turnover.

The book is easy to use because the authors provide plenty of tools and assessments along the way. There are a few places in the book that were a bit lacking, but for the most part you walk away with a real sense of what's possible. The authors seem to genuinely care that we, and our teams, find meaning in what we're doing. And that sense of caring comes up again and again throughout the book.

"The Why of Work," by Dave and Wendy Ulrich, is published by McGraw Hill.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.