Today’s top talent aspires to professional fulfillment. They no longer strive for greatness solely for a paycheck at the end of the month, good working conditions, a good boss, or an interesting job.
Currently, many professionals have deeper motivations, such as a meaningful work connected to their purpose, with a positive social impact where they can leave a personal mark. They seek to work for organizations with strong corporate social responsibility (including ambitious diversity policies) or an environment of deep psychological safety, work flexibility, and great autonomy.
They aim to advance towards eudaimonia, a personal prosperity linked not so much to economics, fame, or power, but to “human flourishing” and the valorization of their strengths and passions. This is a healthy life desire that is millennial, originating in the era of Aristotle.
These are new and exciting times for a talent that is opening new conversations with companies. A new framework is emerging in the historical psychological contract between employee and company, as reflected in Gartner’s reports.
Living in professional fulfillment involves effort and grit (passion and perseverance). Systematically and daily striving for it is a brave, valuable, and sometimes painful decision.
The zeroth phase of this self-analysis has a couple of main keys that we must clarify: what is my ikigai (strengths, passions, and employability) and what professional fulfillment means to me. Powerful questions with thousands of possible answers. Crucial issues to accurately guide our next steps. Dynamic reflections as our life priorities will likely evolve over time.
The great Peter Drucker wisely stated, “most people believe they know what they are really good at, but they are usually wrong because they lack deep self-knowledge. Any professional can only deliver great performance if they build on their strengths.”
The role of organizations
Organizations that genuinely want to promote the professional fulfillment of their employees must focus on satisfying the five essential emotional needs of human beings:
- Meaning, which can also be called purpose, contribution, or involvement.
- Contact, which can also be called bonding, affiliation, or intimacy.
- Community, which can also be called socialization or relationships.
- Acceptance, which includes approval, appreciation, and validation.
- Authenticity, which includes honesty, integrity, and sincerity.
These are needs that today are often still ignored in some of the dominant narratives in contemporary society. If satisfied, we know they have the power to lead people to professional fulfillment, well-being, and a better personal life, as everything is interconnected.
If not met, pathology emerges; there is no possible health or well-being. Professional fulfillment becomes an unattainable concept, and many problems we find in the professional environment daily arise, such as generalized anxiety, anguish, individualism and loneliness, lack of meaning or existential emptiness, addictions, distrust of others, chronic fear, helplessness or hopelessness, victimization, anger, resentment…
The most effective way to meet these essential needs in a company is to promote a culture of healthy and inspiring leadership. A work environment where people, especially those responsible for others, acquire the competence to meet these needs with their daily behavior. Always starting with the members of the management committee, in their relationships among themselves and with the people who report to them.
Striving for a fuller professional life requires a triple commitment: person (self-responsibility, reflection, focus, and resilience), organization (people management policies aimed at bringing out each person’s unique talent), and manager (a generous coach-leader). A magical trident that, if it enhances its synergies and works collaboratively and honestly, is unstoppable on this path of progress.
T.S. Eliot stated, “the fulfillment that the human heart longs for is always available.” This crystallizes every day as thousands of “green shoots” emerge in people and organizations worldwide, demonstrating how it is possible to advance to the next level in the world of work. They are pioneers who inspire us with their example not to get discouraged on the bad days we will experience on this journey.
Do you dare to explore this “revolution” of personal and professional growth? Do you dare to investigate new, more inspiring, and less traveled paths? Let’s all make this dream of professional fulfillment possible.
In collaboration with Pablo Tovar, CEO of AddVenture and Founder of the School of Eudaimonia.
This article has also been published in Do Better by ESADE, May 30, 2024
David Reyero Trapiello – Senior HR Business Partner – Sanofi Iberia
e-mail: David.reyero@sanofi.com / Twitter: @davidreyero73 / Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/davidreyerotrapiello/
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