The Importance of Loving What You Do
2003-09-01 email this article to a friend.
Natalie runs my front office, and does as good a job as anyone I’ve ever had. Funny thing is, she started as a temporary just a few months ago, filling in for a vacationing employee. I wasn’t looking for a permanent employee. But all that changed her second day on the job.
I still remember the conversation quite well. Natalie asked if she could see me for a moment. She came bouncing into my office with a huge grin on her face, sat down and said something like this:
“I was taught that if you love your work, it’s not like work at all. Well, that’s really true. I just wanted you to know how much I love what I’m doing here. This is such a great job that it doesn’t even feel like a job to me!”
About all I could do was sit there and grin back. As an employer, I knew that I had just struck gold. But it was more than that. This was a very special employee. What she said was obviously sincere, and coming from a temporary made it twice as amazing. She wasn’t a temporary for long.
Through some combination of good judgement and good fortune, I am blessed these days, with an entire staff of Natalies. People who love their work and reflect it in everything they do. They show it in their attitudes toward one another and the clients they serve. They show it in the quality of their work and the seriousness of their effort. They show it the sheer amount of work they are able to accomplish in a day – far exceeding what past employees used to say was “impossible.”
For reasons we all understand, most employers are skeptical – even cynical – at the prospect of finding workers like those I’ve just described. They’ve been burned too many times by “great” employees they’ve placed their trust in, who turned into sour experiences and failed experiments. In most cases, these people were perfectly capable of doing the job, but the attitude and commitment never showed up. The next thing you know, they were down the road, and the employer felt like he’d been punched in the gut. The costs to the business were immeasurable. We’ve all been there.
These experiences have led to a general conviction that loving one’s work is a very rare quality, unnatural to most people. Employers seem to have no expectation of finding these kinds of workers. If one “comes along”, it’s by sheer luck. They are probably some mutant strain of humanity that dropped out of a cloud somewhere.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this popular assessment is dead wrong. It might surprise you to know what changed my mind. It was kids. 9, 10, 12-year old kids. Observing them, hard at work, doing the things they loved, taught me that there’s a “Natalie” inside of all of us that gets lost somewhere along the way.
For some years now, I’ve been involved in community theater. Thanks to the dedicated work of John and Mary Jo Ludin, founders of Montana ThreatreWorks, people of every age can appear in highly professional musical productions. This includes, typically, 10 to 20 kids in each of their shows.
The Ludins set high standards. They expect the best from everyone -- the best effort, the best dedication, and the best performance you are capable of doing. As employers, we want the same from our workers. In the case of a stage show, however, the dedication and hard work goes well beyond the so-called “8 to 5 grind” of a regular job. It requires performers to carve out enormous amounts of time from their already busy lives, and to focus themselves with an intensity of effort that borders on obsession. All at no pay.
The adults with whom I’ve been privileged to work accomplish amazing results, while usually holding down full time jobs or carrying full loads at MSU. How are the able to do this? Through the sheer love of the stage and the performing arts. Yet it is the kids that blow me away. They are the examples that inspire the rest of us. The smiles on their faces. The determination in their eyes. The joy in their hearts.
If you think learning lines, musical numbers and dance routines is all “fun and games”, well think again! It involves a tremendous amount of hard work and lengthy rehearsals, night after night. (When these kids find time for homework I’ll never know!) Each child has his or her own challenges to face, but does so without a whimper or a whine. Their performances are always incredible, delighting an entire community. They are the stars of every MTW show.
The common belief is that you can’t expect an 11-year old to be that responsible and that dedicated – and yet they are. Why? Because they are loving what they do! It may involve extremely hard work, but it’s also a great joy to them, and a source of pride and fulfillment. My point? If elementary and middle school kids can demonstrate this kind of attitude and work ethic at their young ages, why should it be “unnatural” to adults?
The lesson these kids are teaching us is a simple one. The key to every successful employment relationship is for the employee to be working at something they truly want to do. Engage them in work they love, and they will exceed all your expectations. Tie them to a job description that offers them no real joy or satisfaction, and you can count the days leading up to their departure -- whether by your choice or theirs.
For this reason, I am a strong advocate of a pre-employment selection process that includes (1) third party professional screening that can reveal a job candidate’s true employment needs and desires, and (2) a reliable personality assessment survey that matches applicants to jobs that fit their unique profiles and career requirements. It should be noted that personality profiles can also be extremely helpful with existing employees, in adjusting job responsibilities to better fit each member of your team.
My advice to employees and job seekers? Be careful not to sell yourself short, by accepting or languishing in jobs that offer you no real sense of happiness. Doing so is neither fair to you nor your employer. Professional career guidance can often be a big help in setting your course. But whatever you do, make it count. 40 hours a week is a long time to spend in a meaningless job. Be happy. Love your work!
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