Trainer, Author, Consultant. I help companies develop high performance organisation cultures, so that their people can achieve business results.
How much is purpose worth? I recently read a comic strip in which the conversation went like this: Worker A: If your boss gives you a meaningful purpose at work, would you accept a lower pay? Worker B: No. Worker A: That goes to show how much meaning and purpose is worth at work. At first glance this sounds logical, but if we think deeper, this is thinking about the matter in a wrong way. If your boss tells you a purpose for the sake of cutting your pay, I would have serious doubts about that purpose and the intention behind sharing the purpose. So this comic isn't about purpose. It is about whether a leader treats their people fairly and respectfully. Think about these questions. Why do some people stay at a job despite being offered a higher pay elsewhere? Who do some people quit their jobs to take up lower-paying jobs in an unfamiliar industry? Ultimately people want more than money from their work life. How much is purpose worth? Everything. As leaders, how do we help our people find their purpose?
Personally I find that money is the minimum requirement that allows a person to do their work. After all, we pay people to work jobs that they wouldn't otherwise do for free. However, giving them a real sense of purpose in their work will motivate them further, potentially improving the quality of their output, satisfaction at work, and loyalty to the company.
Wuan Xin Teh
5mo
Agree with you Chok Sien HIEW, people look more than money and that's driving the employment nowadays.
Kenny Goh
5mo
I was working in London as an expatriate but things was not good. I was persuaded to transfer to HQ to assist and run part of the company. Only on arrival after a month did I realize that I am not on expart pay but even my basic salary was also cut by 10%! I was not happy, my boss told me that the best he can do besides giving me a yearly passage home! Was I angry, definitely! But I moved on and a year later I drilled a significant oil discovery & followed by several. Company was sold a couple of years later and I got my biggest reward at that time.
" ...... As leaders, how do we help our people find their purpose? ........" Personally I hate 'Nannying", and crossing of peoples personal boundaries. While I massively and actively support and have supported "leadership" in my 50+ working years experience in many diverse roles, risks, countries ... and even mind gogglingly boring positions ... I am known to have strong views and be vocal about the current cult of "The Leader". Consequently I would prefer that anyone in a leadership role (irrespective of what title they have), get on with and focus on their job, a strategic job and vision ... of "leading", and leave my life, my aspirations my sense of purpose TO ME. I am best qualified, experienced, and have the vision, knowledge, background, time and priority to know or find and own "my purpose". I cannot envisage how someone leading a team (a number of people) IN ADDITION to their primary strategic role and vision, can know, understand, and make relevant appropriate inputs to everyone on their purpose (which is far wider than work). And if for some reason I really cannot find my purpose .......