Seventy percent of American workers are unfulfilled by their jobs, according to Gallup’s 2013 State of the Workplace study. Research has shown that money doesn’t buy happiness at work. So what does?
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Nathaniel Koloc, CEO of ReWork, contributed a column to Harvard Business Review’s blog network that explored this issue. Among his excellent advice: Seek out work that offers legacy, mastery, and freedom — in that order.
1. Legacy – You should feel that your work leaves the world a better place. “Legacy” involves a sense of mission and purpose, as well as feeling that you’re contributing to something bigger than yourself.
2. Mastery – Your job should allow you to hone skills that you enjoy using.
3. Freedom – Your work should pay you enough to let you maintain a reasonable lifestyle, and allow you some control over the projects you work on and the people you work with.
“The order is important,” Koloc writes. “People are fulfilled most quickly when they first prioritize the impact that they want to have (legacy), then understand which skills and talents they need to have that impact (mastery), and finally ‘exchange’ those skills for higher pay and flexibility (freedom) as they develop and advance.”
It’s also important, he says, to be aware that your interests will change over time. Ideally, the last two stages will give you some degree of flexibility to pursue your goals — even when they evolve into something totally different.
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