“We are not human doings, we are human beings.”
~ Rick Warren
Sigh…
I wanted to start this week’s newsletter with some pithy story that would inspire curiosity and engagement about being more effective.
But then I read something that completely took my breath away.
And it made me sad.
Then angry.
Then sad again.
It was an article in Harvard Business Review titled “Let’s End Toxic Productivity.”
It was the phrase toxic productivity that sent a chill down my spine.
Because I knew what it was the moment I read it.
(And you do, too.)
It was then that the deluge of other data points just flooded my mind.
- Only half (49%) of companies actually design work for the well-being of their employees (Mercer, 2024)
- 42% of employees don’t feel cared for by their organizations (OC Tanner, 2024)
- About half (48%) of the GLOBAL workforce is struggling with burnout (BCG, 2024)
- 75% of all workers GLOBALLY are disengaged/actively disengaged with their job (Gallup, 2024)
- Those disengaged/actively disengaged workers are also more stressed and worried than their engaged co-workers (Gallup, 2024)
But that’s not the worst part of this.
Other data points come to mind as well…
- Only 2% of leaders are confident their organization can achieve 80-100% of their strategic goals (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2023)
- 85% of leadership teams spend less than one hour per month on strategy and 50% spend no time at all on strategy (BSI, 2023)
- 67% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution (BSI, 2023)
- The average executive vice president tenure is only 1-2 years (Zippia)
- Over half (56%) of managers are looking to leave their organizations (Gallup, 2024)
There’s a massive storm brewing in the workplace involving the leaders and the teams who work for them. And it genuinely worries me.
How did we get here? How did the workplace become so toxic?
What’s the Root Cause?
The common culprits that get labeled include:
- Hyper capitalism – pushing profits over well-being
- Poor leadership – setting unrealistic expectations without actually empowering the workforce
- Our addiction to technology – producing an “always on” dynamic that none of us can escape
While we can all see these dynamics at play, I believe that the underlying issue is simpler than that.
Please allow me a slight detour – which will describe exactly what I think the issue is.
As you know, I moved back to my home island of Hawai’i (aka “the Big Island”). When I returned, I renewed many old connections. One of my friends from high school told me a story that blew my mind. It went something like this…
“Tim, you won’t believe what I see all the time at the (very expensive, exclusive) resort that I work at. Families will come in for some “family time”, but the dads just play golf all day while the moms and kids entertain themselves – often separately once the kids hit their teen-aged years. I have to actually train my staff to engage the parents and ask them some very pointed questions. I have to give them permission to have the courage for these conversation, especially the dads:
“Why did you come to Hawai’i? Their answer is almost always “for some family time.”
“What will your kids do today? Their answer is almost always “I don’t know.”
“If they don’t know that answer, I tell my staff to ask, why don’t you? Isn’t that why you came to Hawai’i in the first place?
“Brah, I’m telling you, it’s so broken. These people have so much money. They have more than they’ve ever dreamed possible. But they’re miserable. Their families are hurting. And they don’t have a clue what to do about it.”
Pause.
Let me be very clear that this isn’t about criticizing the rich. It’s about holding up the mirror.
And I think we all need to look in that particular mirror from time to time.
You see, who we are at home is what we bring to work. Unfortunately, many of us have learned to live in the opposite way. We bring who we are at work into how we live at home.
For this group, somehow, we have lost something essential to our souls. And we have then taken that loss to the workplace and let the workplace fill our souls.
Empty Souls
I think this is the root cause issue. Many of us have taken the very essence of who we are and allowed it to become empty. And then we go to work. And for even those of us who work hard to protect our souls, we often “flip a switch” and turn them off when we walk in the front door/log into our computers. And then we hope that work will fill our souls with something meaningful.
But here’s the bigger question in the mirror… Do you know how to do it? Do you know how to fill your soul differently?
If you are one of the stressed/worried/disengaged people, may I gently tell you that you do not?
And if you are in a position of leadership – where the pressure is SO much more intense – and you are still stressed/worried/disengaged, may I gently tell you that it will NEVER get better?
Because what you are using to fill your soul has no soul. It’s just a machine that is not designed to “end”. It just keeps going and going and going until the human involved burns out or ejects. Then it finds someone else.
If this article touched something in you, let’s talk. Use my Calendly link: https://calendly.com/kupusolutions-tim/1-1-meeting
I have walked this journey and know it well. And I am confident that what I have learned will help you.
Holomua. Onward and upward.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-look-mirror-tim-ohai-gzw0c/
An extra thought:
“Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone, exhausted, or unfulfilled.”
~ Unknown
Recent Comments