Just before Christmas I was sitting alone at a table in the large cafeteria at our corporate headquarters where I worked years ago, late in the day. Two workers were decorating the entire room with Christmas lights, hanging them high up at the ceiling. It was just an ordinary day, but something interesting happened when one of them asked me to move a bit, as they needed to cover the area right above the table I was at.
They looked exhausted as they approached my table. No wonder, I thought, as this task is not an easy one even for two strong men — the room is just huge. So I asked them, “What are you doing?”
“Well, we’ve been hanging these decorations all day long and we need to finish today,” one of them answered.
At that moment it struck me — no, they were not just hanging decorations, they were doing something bigger and more meaningful than that. So I responded, “Actually I don’t think you’re just hanging the decorations, I think you are creating a wonderful Christmas atmosphere for all the people who work here.”
They looked puzzled at first, but in a few seconds — if you could just see what I saw in their eyes — it seemed as if the lights were turned on and their faces lit up. Probably for the first time these men felt a sense of purpose in what they were doing. Now this long, hard day of doing something had meaning, and this new sense of purpose changed their motivation for the task, and I believe even beyond that. The rest of the room was finished at a different speed and quality, to their apparent surprise. But most importantly, it was finished with a different attitude and approach.
In my experience, it changes not just the task — but the person doing it.
I see the same thing in leadership teams and their teams. Often people executing priorities have never been told the reason behind. The work gets done, but something essential is missing — the sense that it matters, that it connects to something larger than the task itself.
How often are we all running around in life and business talking mostly about what and how, but forgetting the most important question — why?
Why are you doing what you’re doing in your life or in business? Why does your team do what they do — and do they know it? I encourage you to ask yourself these questions and discover your purpose. In my experience, the answer changes not just how people work — but who they become in the process.
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