Tag Archives: purpose

Middle Management Is Approaching A New Day

by on August 21, 2007 in Work

Once upon a time, I was a middle manager. It was something I aspired to. I saw it as a way to advance as a professional and grow as a leader. I also believed it was a way to help others connect the work they did to meaning and purpose. Then, somewhere along the way, I got lost. I got tired of mediating petty squabbles. I became frustrated by the idiotic political turf wars. I grew weary of being squeezed from top-side executives and board and bottom-side staff – not to mention from the members and customers at the sides. My passion was extinguished and I was happy to find new work here in Texas where I didn’t have to worry about managing anyone. I was content to merely be an employee.

Fast forward to today…I’m still not a manager, but the year-long respite seems to have recharged my batteries. At least I can again see the potential of great management and its importance in helping to connect people to purpose. And I absolutely know down to my core how damn hard it is to be a middle manager. It’s from this place that I connected with Lisa Haneberg’s recent post on how depressingly little the role of middle management has changed in the past three decades. If anything, many of the changes have been negative. Downsizing, busted bubbles, broken trust from executives…yeah, plenty of reasons to scoff at the suggestion that management is the place to be in order to do great things.

Yet, I sense some positive momentum which gives me hope that middle management will see a brighter future. We’re entering a time when we are beginning to demand more from our business leaders. We’re insisting that they start to aim higher than they have in the past. We’re not allowing them to squander our collective potential. As employees and managers, we now want more from our work. We seek meaning and purpose not just because it feels good and helps us get out of bed in the morning…we seek these things because our souls crave it. Middle management isn’t the only way there. The path to creating work that matters is unique to each of us. But to all the middle managers out there searching for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment – it’s still possible.

I’ll close as I closed my comment to Lisa: “Maybe this truly is our time to reach for what was promised decades ago. Maybe we needed these hard times of the 80s and 90s to show us the path we can only take now. Or maybe I’m just a starry-eyed idealist. Keep the faith.”

Happiness At Work Is Yours Now

by on July 22, 2007 in Career

Alexander Kjerulf at The Chief Happiness Officer blog has published his Happy At Work manifesto at ChangeThis.com. It’s not that long, but it has some powerful reminders in it.

His philosophy is the same as mine here at WorkPlay – we decide if we are happy. We choose this every single day. The choice does not belong to our managers, our coworkers, or our customers. They don’t get to decide our happiness unless we give them the power to do so. And that’s a choice, too.

Here’s an appetizer to what you’ll find:

5: Letting others know what makes me happy or unhappy at work is my responsibility.
It’s not up to my boss, my co-workers, my employees or my workplace to experiment to read my mind and find out what it takes to make me happy at work. It’s up to me to tell them.

16: I recognize that happiness at work doesn’t come from the absence of bad things in the workplace.
All workplaces can have unpleasant people, too much work, demanding customers, stress, red tape and other idiosyncrasies and annoyances. Though we strive to minimize these, I won’t waitbe happy at work until all of these have been eliminated. If I did wait, I would never be happy.

There are 23 other messages in the manifesto. Take them and savor each one.