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" These comments and probably many more are heard every day by team members, managers, human resource departments and even those at the C-Suite level.
Given a report by the Conference Board in 2010, that 55% of employees dislike their jobs, there does appear a lot of people who truly do not enjoy their places of employment.
Enjoyment of the job is indeed an attitude, but it is even more than that.
This is truly a talent.
Years ago I heard this story (not sure if it was true or the source) about parents who had two sons.
One was always enthusiastic no matter the challenge.
The parents had concerned that this one son might be overly optimistic and did not want him to suffer disappointment later in life.
So they connected with a psychologist who constructed a test so to speak.
They placed one child in a room with a lot of toys while the overly positive boy was placed in a room with a pile of horse manure.
The parents and the doctor watched the behaviors of the two sons.
The one with the toys was sitting quietly playing while the other young lad was busily digging with a big smile on his face in the pile of stinky, messy manure.
Concerned, they opened the door and asked the energetic young man why he was so happy? He responded With all this horse manure there has to be a pony somewhere.
Team members who truly enjoy being at their stations, in their cubicles, working wherever see the rewards and positive benefits of their jobs.
(Much like looking for that pony in the pile of manure.
) The job means more than just an income because it has far greater value to themselves and to others.
As noted earlier, when people do not have this talent intelligence of enjoyment of the job they may be experiencing both internal and external pressures.
In some cases, people love their jobs, but may find management difficult to work with or other policies and systems holding them back.
This is one talent intelligence is affected by both internal and external influences and does require an objective analysis.
Remember, people do not leave organizations, they leave managers.
Observable behaviors for this talent intelligence could be:
- Smiling when coming into the workplace
- Volunteering for an office face-lift day
- Shadowing another person to learn more about the department or company
- Be willing to drive 6 hours to meet with a client for a one-hour meeting
- Coming in at least 5 minutes earlier and leaving 5 minutes after closing
- Making sincere remarks about the organization to others
- Recruiting others to work at the same organization
- Recommending the business to others to visit
Possibly if you are unhappy with the performance of your team members, this just be the place to start.
Of course, you as the small business owners, human resource manager or C-Suite Level executive must be open to forthcoming review of your external strategies, structures, systems, rewards and people to ensure alignment with this talent.
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