The 7 deadly sins that make meaningful work meaningless

In our work with leaders, we regularly explore the importance and the challenge of creating a climate where people can thrive at work. We’ve often shared information about key factors that help drive engagement and contribute positively to motivating others. So any new research that sheds more light on these concepts always grabs our attention!

I recently came across an article from MIT Sloan written a few years ago that I had sitting in the in-tray and forgotten about! When I read it again, I thought it might be a good one to share the link to in our blogs.

It shares recent research that offers insights into “what gives work meaning — as well as into common management mistakes that can leave employees feeling that their work is meaningless.”

Click here to access to post by Catherine Bailey and Adrian Madden.

We’ve made a visual capturing the key points.

Of particular interest to me are the ‘7 deadly sins’!

Are you guilty of:

• disconnecting people from their values (even unintentionally)?
• taking your team for granted?
• giving people pointless work to do?
• treating people unfairly?
• overriding people’s better judgement?
• disconnecting people from supportive relationships?
• putting people at risk of unnecessary physical or emotional harm?

Leaders who appreciate the importance meaningful work need to clearly connect the dots between the organisational purpose, the values that underpin the way it does business, and the jobs and tasks people are performing – and work to create supportive, respectful and inclusive work climates.