There’s something about spring that inspires hope. Maybe it’s watching the trees turn from gray to green and seeing buds form into flowers. There’s a sense of anticipation that occurs that we can count on happening each year. There’s a sense of new life that gives us hope; a renewed enthusiasm; a spring in our step.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have that feeling in our work on a regular basis? I began to wonder if it’s hope or inspiration that people seek in their jobs. Maybe it’s both. But what’s the difference?
My trusty Webster’s dictionary says that hope is “to want or wish with confident expectation.” Inspiration, on the other hand, is “the stimulation of the intellect or emotion to a high level.”
I saw a great example of hope in a recent singles ad in the newspaper that read, “single, white male, 78, seeks single white female between 60-80 interested in a long-term relationship.” How’s that for hope?
In the movie Jerry Maguire, Jerry wrote a “manifesto” that inspired Dorothy Boyd, a single mother, to leave the security of her job and take a chance with him and his new business. She said: “I care about the job; but mostly I want to be inspired.”
I shared these stories with friends, colleagues and clients, and there was resounding agreement that they want hope and inspiration in their work. I’m very clear that most people really want to do a good job at work. When a person starts a new job, there is a hope, or confident expectation, by both the boss and the employee that it’s a good fit or match. But somehow when the honeymoon is over and that bright new star with the fresh ideas has become the thorn who doesn’t fit in, those confident expectations become a distant memory.
For some reason, business leaders say and do the stupidest things that in one fell swoop can destroy any hope or inspiration. It reminds me of an executive who used to say: “We need to get rid of the bad people.”
As vice president of human resources, “getting rid of the bad people” was supposed to be my job. I remember thinking: “Well, were they ‘bad’ when you hired them? Or did they turn bad afterwards? And what made them become bad—on your watch, by the way? Doesn’t say much for your leadership, does it?”
Fortunately, those were private thoughts, because if I had expressed them, then I would have become one of the “bad people.” Then I started to look around at the “bad people” and wondered whether I really was one of them. Were we such a banished group after all? Or were we a group of people who had just lost hope? Had our expectations shifted from being confident and fulfilling to cynical and distrustful?
We create ridiculous titles like “Chief People Officer,” which seems to abdicate that responsibility to one person or department; then, we treat people poorly and turn it over to the Chief People Officer to handle the mess.
And while we’re at it, let’s look at inspiration…
Like Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire, many of us want to work in an inspiring workplace. It’s not like people are relying on their leaders to be a Martin Luther King Jr. or John Kennedy. But couldn’t there be a modicum of hope that there’s at least one leader in the organization who can inspire the troops? I remember one CEO who would proudly pronounce the annual “austerity program,” as a way to inspire people to reduce costs. Silly me, I told him that I didn’t think people would find austerity inspiring, nor would they jump out of bed in the morning and say: “Oh boy, how can I contribute to this austere environment?” I suggested creating a “profit maximization program” instead. I think that’s when I became one of the “bad people,” again. So here’s the coaching for the month: What are your hopes or confident expectations about your work and place of employment? And are you acting in a way that supports those beliefs? If you manage people, are you communicating in a way that creates hope? Are you providing feedback that fans the flames of people’s passion and commitment, rather than snuffs it out?
Napoleon said to the French army: “Gentlemen, as officers of the French army, you are all dealers of hope.” My question to you is, as business leaders, are you not all dealers of hope, as well? Marty Stanley is a certified business and life coach. She works with business leaders and their teams to put the structures in place to increase personal, professional and organizational effectiveness and get results. She can be reached at (816) 822-4047 or .
