Seven feelings hold the key to success
3 minute read
1st June 2023
A vital part of starting a business is to make it appealing to other people. Of course, customers will be crucial to your success, but they are not the only audience you’re going to have to win over. As you grow, you’re going to need people to come and work at the business. And they won’t necessarily come with the ready-made enthusiasms of the founders.
It used to be that businesses could get away with focusing most of their energies on developing the product, managing the operation, feeding the pipeline, and securing the financials. It was just assumed that there’d be a queue of candidates for any job openings that needed to be filled along the way.
That is no longer the case. Work is now viewed as more than just a transactional exchange of labour for compensation. The emotional contract between employer and employee – the unwritten expectations that both parties have of one another – is now just as important as the financial one.
According to research carried out by employee engagement experts MindLode (www.mindlode.com), everything that really matters to people when it comes to their work boils down to seven core feelings. Effective management of these feelings helps determine how successful any employer is at getting the right people in, getting existing people to be good, and getting good people to stay.
Managing these feelings is a challenge for any employer, but it can be particularly tough for start-ups. Feeling excited may be easy at the outset, but there is a lot of schlock that just has to get done when you’re trying to get something off the ground. Many entrepreneurs are doing what they do because they are following their passion, but they need to be able to inspire others to believe like they do in ways that they previously never had to think about. It can be harder making people feel proud when nobody has heard of you and few seem to be taking you seriously. There may not always be time to think about nurturing talent and making people feel valuable when you’re so concentrated on just keeping the ship afloat. The money may not be there to make everyone feel rewarded, and the time may not be there to thank them enough to make up for it. Few people join early stage businesses because it makes them feel safe. And when it comes to feeling contented, the best days may be better than anything you experience as an employee, but the worst days can be far darker.
Success is not about necessarily delivering strongly against all these feelings. Not all organizations and not all individuals are the same. The stuff that matters most varies in different situations. While it may be wise to try to avoid slipping deeply into negative territory against any particular ones, the feelings you focus on will help define your culture. Your success into the future will depend upon your ability to attract the best people for the type of organization you are trying to build.
There is nothing more powerful than people who are doing something because they actively want to be doing it. Having a belief and purpose builds momentum for the business that can be unstoppable. Understanding and managing the core feelings of your people will be key to achieving that.
Much of the journey of the entrepreneur involves dealing with the unforeseeable, but creating a story that will make people want to be with you can be anticipated. Like all stories, it shouldn’t be so much about what you want to say as what will make the audience want to listen. The thing that makes people listen more than anything is when they believe you understand what they are feeling.
Despite our technological advances, the work people continue to be needed for is crucial because it is the very stuff that can’t yet be automated. So getting this right is more important than ever. Your success will come from attracting the best people you can, getting them to be as good as they can be, and making the best of them want to stay with you. But you can only do that if you understand the way they are feeling.
The Seven Feelings
Feeling Excited is the anticipation that something good and perhaps unexpected is about to happen. It is driven by the freshness and surprise in the work: a variety of tasks, new and inspiring challenges, an embrace of risk, the calibre of the people who work there, and cutting-edge infrastructure and technology. When people aren’t feeling excited, they can easily start to feel bored.
Feeling Fulfilled is knowing that you’re achieving goals that are meaningful to you. This is driven by a sense of purpose in the work: how much it matters to the company, the good that it does in the world, the difference made by the individual, the use of personal skills, and the values of the company. Managed badly, feeling fulfilled can quickly turn into feeling pointless.
Feeling Proud is the belief that others are impressed by your work and that you can feel justified in thinking the same thing. It is driven by the prestige of the work: how much the industry or sector is admired, the reputation or fame of the company, the prominence and style of leadership, a sense of tribal causality within the team, and seeing that your friends envy your job. The opposite of feeling proud is feeling embarrassed.
Feeling Valuable is seeing that your own capability and potential is being nurtured and that your intrinsic value is growing. This is driven by the benefit of the work to you personally: the opportunity to learn, being trusted to take initiative, doing things properly rather than cutting corners or being complacent, and having room to grow. If you don’t feel valuable, you begin to feel stuck.
Feeling Rewarded is believing that your work is fairly compensated and that your contribution is recognized. It is driven by what you receive back from the work you do: the compensation and benefits, the perception of fairness around promotions, general courtesy, frequent acknowledgement, and evidence that the company cares about you as a person. Not feeling rewarded leaves people feeling disdained.
Feeling Safe comes from having a stable company which is forgiving of mistakes and encourages different viewpoints. This is driven by the company’s financial standing and longevity, the degree of staff turnover, the frequency of restructuring, clear and open communication from management, and an overall supportive culture. If you’re not feeling safe, then you’re probably feeling threatened.
Feeling Contented is just enjoying being at work regardless of what is happening with the actual work. This is driven by the general niceness of the working environment and how the company is set up: friendly relationships with team members and immediate managers, pleasant and well-appointed workspaces, unexpected perks, good work/life balance, flexible working arrangements, and the freedom to be yourself. When people don’t feel contented, they end up feeling despondent.