Consider, for example, how progress relates to one component of inner work life: overall mood ratings. Progress—even a small step forward—occurs on many of the days people report being in a good mood. Two other types of inner work life triggers also occur frequently on best days: Catalysts , actions that directly support work, including help from a person or group, and nourishers , events such as shows of respect and words of encouragement. Each has an opposite: Inhibitors , actions that fail to support or actively hinder work, and toxins , discouraging or undermining events.
Whereas catalysts and inhibitors are directed at the project, nourishers and toxins are directed at the person. Like setbacks, inhibitors and toxins are rare on days of great inner work life. Inhibitors and toxins also marked many worst-mood days, and catalysts and nourishers were rare.
Events on bad days—setbacks and other hindrances—are nearly the mirror image of those on good days. If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is most likely to blame. When we analyzed all 12, daily surveys filled out by our participants, we discovered that progress and setbacks influence all three aspects of inner work life.
On days when they made progress, our participants reported more positive emotions. They not only were in a more upbeat mood in general but also expressed more joy, warmth, and pride. When they suffered setbacks, they experienced more frustration, fear, and sadness.
Motivations were also affected: On progress days, people were more intrinsically motivated—by interest in and enjoyment of the work itself. On setback days, they were not only less intrinsically motivated but also less extrinsically motivated by recognition. Apparently, setbacks can lead a person to feel generally apathetic and disinclined to do the work at all.
Perceptions differed in many ways, too. On progress days, people perceived significantly more positive challenge in their work. They saw their teams as more mutually supportive and reported more positive interactions between the teams and their supervisors. On a number of dimensions, perceptions suffered when people encountered setbacks.
They found less positive challenge in the work, felt that they had less freedom in carrying it out, and reported that they had insufficient resources. On setback days, participants perceived both their teams and their supervisors as less supportive. To be sure, our analyses establish correlations but do not prove causality. Were these changes in inner work life the result of progress and setbacks, or was the effect the other way around?
The numbers alone cannot answer that. However, we do know, from reading thousands of diary entries, that more-positive perceptions, a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, happiness, and even elation often followed progress. Likewise, we saw that deteriorating perceptions, frustration, sadness, and even disgust often followed setbacks.
It is discouraging to not be able to hit it after all the time spent and hard work. Almost certainly, the causality goes both ways, and managers can use this feedback loop between progress and inner work life to support both. When we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough.
These big wins are great—but they are relatively rare. The good news is that even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously. Many of the progress events our research participants reported represented only minor steps forward.
Yet they often evoked outsize positive reactions. I felt relieved and happy because this was a minor milestone for me. Because inner work life has such a potent effect on creativity and productivity, and because small but consistent steps forward, shared by many people, can accumulate into excellent execution, progress events that often go unnoticed are critical to the overall performance of organizations.
Unfortunately, there is a flip side. Small losses or setbacks can have an extremely negative effect on inner work life. In fact, our study and research by others show that negative events can have a more powerful impact than positive ones.
Consequently, it is especially important for managers to minimize daily hassles. Making headway boosts your inner work life, but only if the work matters to you. Many people nominate their first job as a teenager—washing pots and pans in a restaurant kitchen, for example, or checking coats at a museum. In jobs like those, the power of progress seems elusive.
No matter how hard you work, there are always more pots to wash and coats to check; only punching the time clock at the end of the day or getting the paycheck at the end of the week yields a sense of accomplishment. You may have experienced this rude fact in your own job, on days or in projects when you felt demotivated, devalued, and frustrated, even though you worked hard and got things done.
The likely cause is your perception of the completed tasks as peripheral or irrelevant. For the progress principle to operate, the work must be meaningful to the person doing it. Work with less profound importance to society can matter if it contributes value to something or someone important to the worker. Meaning can be as simple as making a useful and high-quality product for a customer or providing a genuine service for a community.
Whether the goals are lofty or modest, as long as they are meaningful to the worker and it is clear how his or her efforts contribute to them, progress toward them can galvanize inner work life. Managers can help employees see how their work is contributing. Most important, they can avoid actions that negate its value. Most jobs in modern organizations are potentially meaningful for the people doing them.
However, managers can make sure that employees know just how their work is contributing. And, most important, they can avoid actions that negate its value. Shockingly often, however, we saw potentially important, challenging work losing its power to inspire.
Diary entries from knowledge workers who were members of creative project teams revealed four primary ways in which managers unwittingly drain work of its meaning. Consider the case of Richard, a senior lab technician at a chemical company, who found meaning in helping his new-product development team solve complex technical problems.
However, in team meetings over the course of a three-week period, Richard perceived that his team leader was ignoring his suggestions and those of his teammates. As a result, he felt that his contributions were not meaningful, and his spirits flagged. When at last he believed that he was again making a substantive contribution to the success of the project, his mood improved dramatically:. I felt that my opinions and information were important to the project and that we have made some progress.
Frequent and abrupt reassignments often have this effect. This happened repeatedly to the members of a product development team in a giant consumer products company, as described by team member Bruce:.
Especially when you have been with them from the start and are nearly to the end. You lose ownership. This happens to us way too often. Managers may send the message that the work employees are doing will never see the light of day.
They can signal this—unintentionally—by shifting their priorities or changing their minds about how something should be done. Like a lunch or a party, a happy hour could be arranged with your employer or it could be something you do on your own to celebrate a win. If your company is involved in the happy hour, you may be able to host it at the office, or you can go to a local bar or restaurant.
If your win was a team effort, you can recognize your team's accomplishment by getting T-shirts made.
You can pay for them all yourself as a gift, see if your company will pay for them or ask your team if they want to contribute to the cost. If your work requires attending events where T-shirts are appropriate, you could even wear them there to show off your accomplishment. If you want to recognize someone else's win or your team's win, you can plan a surprise celebration for them.
If you decide on this option, it's generally best to plan it for a quiet celebration during the workday that doesn't disrupt others' schedules too much. A simple treat and celebration over anywhere from a few minutes to an hour can give those involved time to relax. If you were instrumental in a win, you might be able to arrange with your employer to attend a relevant conference as a reward.
A good way to approach this is to mention your achievement and that you would like to continue to build your skills by attending the conference you have in mind. Attending a conference allows you to learn new things about your field and grow your network. Some wins may even be an award that is presented at a conference, giving you a great reason to attend. Related: How To Prepare for a Conference. If you've experienced a win for your company and it's something you'd like your community to know about, you can coordinate with leadership to use advertising to share.
This is a way to celebrate the win but also hopefully increase business, which is an added benefit. This might range from a small newspaper or magazine ad to a billboard, depending on your budget and industry. If part of the win is that you have a lot of happy customers, you can share those customer comments with anyone you'd like. You may want to share those comments with management, your team or even the public. If the customer directs their comments to a particular project or employee, be sure to spotlight the employees involved.
You can even use a gift exchange as a way to celebrate a win. You can organize a gift exchange with your team and do it in a variety of ways, including each person selecting one co-worker to give a gift to or bringing in random gifts and each person selecting a wrapped package. If you want to recognize a particular co-worker with a gift, you can do this as well. When your team experiences success, sometimes the simplest way to celebrate is to talk about it.
You can speak with an individual or group who made the win possible and let them know how you appreciate their contributions. You can do this in person, over a video call or on the phone. If you want to celebrate a win for yourself or your team, you can always bring in a snack or some other food to share.
Maybe you're excited about your own personal achievement and want to share that excitement, or maybe you want to reward your coworkers for their help. Either way, it can be an exciting break.
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