I just started collaborating with an author on the subject of talent, management and tough economic times. As I read through her advice to companies on what they can do to keep performance at the top level -- a theme emerged for me reflecting what I believe is a current dynamic to be acknowledged, and leveraged.
Work is Personal.
PHOTO: Creative Commons, Reya
In the Leave it to Beaver days, where Ward came home from an anonymous place of work, it seemed "work" was someplace very different and far from the fresh-baked-apple-pie house he'd walk into shortly after 5 pm each evening.
Pre- 9-11, work, I believe for many of us, was still mostly emotionally far from home. I interfaced with Wall Street while working in my confident "no limits" high tech company during those days. People in those circles prided themselves on hours worked, stretch goals, getting the job done, promotions, and the stock price. It was a euphoric-adrenaline-pumped type of fuel that fired our flames.
In the week following 9-11, as I stayed in a hotel room alone in California with no way to get home, acknowledging fully the baby growing inside me, work got very personal. For me, and everyone else I engaged with. Hard-as-nails analysts cried on the phone to me. There was fear, depression, anger, anxiety, and self-doubt in the voices of professionals. This deeply personal side of people entered the workforce seemingly over night, and stayed for well over a year. People responded not to money or fame; but to listening, dialog, caring, understanding, and love.
In the 5 or so years it took to rebuild back our confidence in our companies and our nations, some of the old satisfiers started to come back into the workforce -- and it felt good. We were hitting stride again ... look out!
Transition in the Times.
I see work about to get more and more personal. People are going to need comfort, caring, dialog, respect, inspiration, connections, affinity and love to get through this productively. Their sense of balance will be off. Emotions will be high. Working with, and alongside, heart could be the fuel that fires our flames for a while to come.
---------------- Talk Back ---------------
Were you part of the go-go workforce of circa 2000/2001? What did you see happen when the bubble burst? Did you see the work environment suddenly get more personal? Is there anything we can learn from that recession and how things played out, to apply now?
What about today's prevalent social networks and the behavior norms within? Do you see this new dynamic having a growing role in how we manage and operate in tough times?
ShareThis
