Newsletter - August 2004
by Andrew Bryant

The Olympic games are upon us! For the next two weeks many of you will be glued to your television sets watching amazing men and women who have dedicated a portion of their lives to achieving sporting excellence. The Olympics is the pinnacle of their quest for speed, strength, skill or endurance, for them to achieve greatness they must have a goal, have a passion and truly love what they do - But what about the corporate athlete, who must run a marathon every week? What drives them?

Helen Keller said, "life is either a daring adventure or it's nothing". Our work is the biggest adventure there is.

For you to win as a corporate athlete your work must engage you, it should be absorbing, stretch your intellect and stir your passion - unless that is, you have not yet connected with your values, OR you are in the wrong job.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author and researcher on the psychology of engagement talks about the state of 'Flow', which athletes call being in the 'Zone'. We are in the closest state to happiness when we are in flow, when our skills and abilities are being fully stretched by the task. If the task is too great, we are overwhelmed, if the task too easy or menial we are bored. It is therefore a myth that we would be happy winning the lottery and sitting on a beach all day with nothing to do. In fact there are examples of lottery winners buying the business they used to work in just so that they could return to doing what gives them a sense of purpose.

What you do becomes part of your identity, it is the first or second question you get asked at a party, therefore what you do should reflect what you value. Doing what you value is more than your job title, it is the attitude with which you approach the tasks incorporated in that title. "I am a check-in clerk at the airport" does not convey the same passion and purpose, as "I am the smiling face that gets you started on your journey in a happy and stress free way".

Confucius said, "Man who loves what he does, never does a days work in his life", and this seems to be the crucial point - if work is an expression of ourselves then it doesn't seem like work at all. If however work is drudgery or slave labour then we spend our lives selling our time for enough money to buy food, shelter and whatever leisure we can afford.

If being at work gives us expression and the state of flow, why then is it that when workers are questioned they regularly report that they want more leisure time? This paradox comes from centuries of bad press, particularly in the last hundred years. God cursed Adam to live 'by the sweat of his brow'; Aristotle believed work was a curse best performed by slaves, and the industrial revolution created factories where men, women and children performed repetitive tasks with no sense of accomplishment other than just a pay packet.

The history of 'work' speaks volumes of our unconscious attitude to it. In contrast do you think artists work? Being creative and doing what you enjoy is not 'slave labour'. With the evolution of technology most jobs are no longer physical but are in some type of knowledge or service industry. We are paid for our creativity and 'soft skills'; we have the opportunity to see the results of our work and to take pride in it. And most importantly we can align our work to our values. When you do what you value and value what you do you are likely to be in 'flow' - even happy and most certainly productive.

External motivation such as a 'ra-ra' seminar is like taking a shower - the effects are not permanent (pretty soon you will stink again) but internal motivation such aligning your values will give you the energy to win the corporate Olympics.