The world of work continues to face a rocky relationship with employee well-being. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, overall employee well-being declined in 2023, with 41 percent of global workers still experiencing daily stress. This continues to wreak havoc on productivity, as only 23 percent of workers are actively engaged globally, a miserable 10 percent in the UK.
Businesses have been trying hard to resolve this, introducing many initiatives to make staff happier and more motivated, from ‘duvet days’ to mindfulness classes and company-wide wellbeing apps. However, recent research from the University of Oxford finds that these initiatives have failed to improve employee mental health.
There is hope, however. Gallup’s report also found that employees who find their work meaningful have high levels of daily enjoyment and low levels of negative daily emotions. To repair the terrible relationship between staff and work, organisations must make work more meaningful.
What staff want from work – and their managers
We all yearn for meaningful work with an organisation we admire. We would like to be a part of something we can believe in and contribute to. Our work should matter, and we should be valued.
Unsurprisingly, there is a higher expectation for employee value and well-being. These days, when you come to work for an organisation, it is expected that your contribution will be recognised. So when that recognition isn’t present, and you aren’t valued, staff aren’t prepared to put up with it.
The secret is cultivating workplaces where people want to be and instilling a sense of trust and autonomy within teams. When staff feel trusted to get the job done and encouraged to take control over their work, their sense of fulfilment skyrockets and engagement increases. Easily said, but how can we create that sort of meaningful culture?
Our managers hold the key to achieving this. Managers account for 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement, and research has shown that they have the same impact on people’s mental health as their partners, doctors, or therapists. Staff happiness, perhaps unsurprisingly, is contingent on good management practices. And yet, in the UK alone, only 27 percent of workers rate their manager as effective, according to the Chartered Management Institute. What are managers doing wrong?
Let’s consider a typical work scenario: A team member comes to their manager with a problem. Born out of a desire to help, the manager’s immediate reaction is to fix or solve their staff’s problem by providing solutions and ‘telling’ them what to do based on the manager’s previous knowledge and experience.
The reality is that when the manager provides a ‘fix’, they’ve inadvertently taken the meaning out of work for the employee. This traditional ‘Command-and-Control’ approach to management leaves little room for staff to find solutions to problems themselves or develop their initiative and problem-solving skills. Staff lose ownership of their work, and without this autonomy, trust, opportunities for learning, happiness, engagement, and productivity inevitably wane.
So, what can managers do to make work more meaningful for their employees and boost their happiness and well-being?
STAR® – A manager’s guide to making work more meaningful
Managers can address this issue by becoming aware of how they usually respond to different situations. A new management model—STAR®— can help them do that:
- STOP—step back and change state.
- THINK—is this a coachable moment?
- ASK—powerful questions and actively listen.
- RESULT—agree on the next steps and an outcome from the conversation.
When a team member comes to you with a problem, STOP. Not every problem needs an overstressed manager doing all the thinking. Avoid providing all the answers or mentally trawling your mind for solutions. It is mentally taxing for you and also takes away a valuable moment to help the other person find the answer within themselves.
Learning to bite your tongue wins you a moment to THINK instead about whether the situation could be a coachable moment, i.e., a time when a deft prompt from you could help this person explore the problem and possible solutions themselves.
If you think the person might benefit from wrestling with the problem themselves (i.e., it is a coachable moment), adopt an enquiry-led approach. This involves learning to ASK authentic and powerful questions intended to stimulate the other person’s thinking, which will help them consider and reflect on the possible actions they can take to resolve the issue. A helpful tip here is to focus on what? Rather than why? questions, as the latter can imply criticism or blame, e.g., asking, “What do you think is the reason this is happening so often?” rather than “Why is this happening so often?”.
To secure a result, you need to ask a few more questions to agree on the appropriate follow-up. This will not only increase the likelihood that actions will be followed through but also provide an opportunity to give some appreciative feedback.
Conclusion
Following these steps invites managers to break old habits and adopt new behaviours, including situational awareness and new skills built around purposeful enquiry. Together, these help embed a coaching mindset.
Bringing coaching into the flow of work this way is the golden ticket for managers to give staff the trust and autonomy they need to feel happier and thrive at work. Managers will feel less stressed and pressured to have all the answers, and staff will have more confidence that their managers believe in their ability to succeed. This will inevitably boost wellbeing, paving the way to a culture of value, support, and fulfilment.
