If the people on your team have to ask “Where is the meaning in my work?” something is wrong!
In his book Meaning, Inc. , Gurnek Bains ecourages leaders to bring the organization’s mission and vision to life through meaningful work. Between actual work time and digital connections people spend over half of their waking hours “at work.” Understanding how those work activities are making a contribution to customers (students at Minnesota State), the community or larger society will make work more meaningful.
While each person on your team has their own personal values and beliefs about what is important, there are actions that leaders can take to strengthen meaning at work. Bains identifies the following leadership activities that help create more meaningful work:
- Discussing and supporting personal stretch goals that are related to the vision.
- Focusing on the unique strengths and talents that each person brings to work.
- Documenting, evaluating, providing feedback and highlighting each person’s work and contribution to group efforts.
- Clearly linking individual and team work activities and accomplishments to wider issues.
- Ensuring that short-term goals don’t conflict with the deeper organizational purpose.
- Role modeling stated ideals.
Making sure your people know the difference their work makes in the lives of other people builds meaning. And meaning is powerful.
Todd Thorsgaard
Higher EDge 
Thank you for highlighting this concept. Meaningful work and purpose is one of the ways Higher Education can differentiate itself from other industries and appeal to the next generation of workers. We need to take this message to all of our employees so everyone from the President down understands how crucial their work is and how much they are valued and appreciated for who they are and what they contribute.
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