10 Questions Toward Meaningful Work
Last week on the podcast, we discussed the significance of a leader who sits down with people to talk through passion, purpose, and meaningfulness in their work. Leaders who take the time to connect with their employees and understand their motivations can create a more meaningful work experience, leading to more productive and passionate employees who engage more deeply with their work and stay within the organization.
In today's episode, I am bringing you a quick toolkit with ten essential questions you can ask your employee or co-worker.
Pick one or a few that resonate the most and start peeling off the layers of their work to learn why they do what they do. Let’s get into it!
On this episode you’ll hear…
Why people are passionate about their work
How people find purpose and meaning in their work
Wrapping up ten icebreaker questions about meaningful work
Ready for more?
Listen in:
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Chaili Trentham 00:00
Okay friends, I just wrapped a recording where I talked about the significance of a leader who sits down with people to talk through passion and purpose, specifically meaningfulness in the work that we do, which, ultimately for leaders has the potential to keep your employees engaged so that they stay within the organization. But tactically, which is what this podcast is all about, I wanted to give you a starting point for those purpose combos, because it's one thing to have me ramble on for 12 minutes on this past episode, if you listen to it, it's a good rambling, but ramble on about purpose and meaningfulness in your work and finding connection to the bigger mission and vision and values and how that drives motivation and productivity and efficiency, right? We know that's important. But for leaders who are in day in and day out work, also leading teams, it feels like there might not be time right to have conversations about meaning and purpose and bigger values and how those connect from an individual employee all the way up to the organizational level. But we want to create more of that, right?
So today, here is 10 questions that are icebreakers that you can ask your team members or coworkers in a one on one, or in passing or over lunch. That you can ask them to get to know why they're passionate about the work that they do and why and how they find purpose and meaning in that work.
Okay, so I'm going to run through these for you. So whether you're driving or listening to this on a walk, or over your cup of coffee, I want you to be thinking through which one stands out to you and pick one that you ask to an employee or a co worker, or even a friend to talk about this idea of meaning and purpose and to begin to peel back the layers of their work, why they do what they do.
Okay, question number one, what inspired you to pursue this career and or industry on day one? This is the question that you can ask to dig into. Like, oftentimes, when employees have been at a company for a while, it's good to remind them of how they were feeling in their interview, why they were so excited to go for this job, this role this company. Okay, so what inspired you to pursue this career and or industry on day one?
Question number two, what motivates you to come to work every day? And big picture? What do you hope to achieve in your role? When you show up at work?
Question three, what do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment in your current role? And why is that meaningful to you?
Question four, how do you see your everyday work contributing to the larger goals of our organization? Or how do you see your everyday work contributing to the greater mission of our organization? can go either way?
Now, question five. What do you think sets our organization apart from our competitors? And how do you feel that you contribute to that difference? Doesn't matter if it's a big or small contribution? But what sets us apart from others? And how do you feel that you're making an impact in that mission? Okay.
Question six, what skills or qualities do you bring to your work that make you the absolute best for this role?
And question number seven is kind of a follow up to this. And I when I was writing this out, I bolded this song because like, I think this is the question I would ask of the person I'm sitting across from this week. Is this Is there a skill set or quality or thing that you love about your work that you wish you did more of on a regular basis? I think this one helps us get down to the thing that we love the most thing that we allows us to do our work that has meaning or purpose that we maybe don't do enough of currently. And so on the last episode, I talked to leaders about being more aware and more in tune with what your employee may be looking for in connecting their passion or purpose, or meaningfulness to their work. And I think this is one where we could be more aware of like, what's the thing that is part of your work already that you do that you wish you did more of?
Question Eight, what are your long term career goals? And how do you see your current role as a stepping stone to achieve them? This is one that's related to career advancement, right and development.
Question Nine, how do you stay motivated and engaged in your work? And what do you do to get inspired or stay present?
And question 10 How do you think we can work together? To help you feel more connected to your purpose in your work,
make it a mission where you as the leader are involved. All of these questions show that you care, right? But then you have an opportunity to really listen and respond in a thoughtful way. Even if it's not in the moment, this can be a casual conversation over a cup of coffee. But after you've picked that question, and you've had that conversation, part of this is now being aware of opportunities to help your team or your employees connect this. And it might be connection to a project, it might be connection to a person it might be just calling out and recognizing when they're utilizing that skill set or that toolset that they love using. Right. But it's an awareness of how you can be a better leader to them based on their passions and their goals and their aspirations. These questions are designed to help you understand your team member, but also to encourage them to think more deeply about their work. And for you. In asking these questions. You can show them when you care about their personal and professional growth. But to that you're gonna invest in and helping them feel more connected to their purpose at work.
So start asking these questions truly pick one that you liked, go back, listen through, listen through to all 10 and pick one that feels good for a one on one this week. And then see if there's ways that you can respond as a leader to find points of connection or opportunities to draw motivation. And just remember, morning, meaningful work. And a sense of purpose means more productive and more passionate employees who engage more deeply. So let's be leaders who inspire more of that, right? Because successful companies prioritize their employee experience just as much as the customer or clients journey. They're paying attention internally as much as they are externally. So let's be leaders to do more of that. Cheers.