Some Qualities Of Meaningful Work

My very first blog post was about the formula. One of the components was meaningful work (the other was meaningful community).

If you’re searching for meaningful work or wanting to create it for others (or both), here are some qualities to look out for:

(1) AGENCY. You get some say in the kind of work you do. And you have some decision-making autonomy.

(2) PROGRESS. You can see the fruits of your labor pay off.

(3) CONTRIBUTION. Your work makes things better for others.

(4) FUN. More often than not, you and others have fun. The work can still be hard and challenging (fun often stems from meeting these challenges) and have un-fun components, but on the whole, you really enjoy it.

(5) DEEP WORK/FLOW. You often find yourself fully engaged in what you’re doing. You reach a flow state.

(6) LEARNING. You’re constantly learning new skills. Growing. Getting better.

(7) PRIDE. You’re proud of your work, your organization and the contribution that you’re making. So much so, you enjoy talking about it with others.

Of course no job is perfect and not all of these categories will harmoniously line up, but the categories are worth thinking about. So…

Do you have this in your current job? If not, can you find it? Or find more of it? What are the opportunities to do so?

If you’re in any kind of leadership position, ask yourself how you can increase one or more of these categories for your team.

P.S. – If there are some other categories you think of, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!