How Harvard Got Work Wrong

I typically enjoy Harvard Business Review’s succinct, thoughtful insights. Not this week. Harvard messed up. 

Each weekday, I receive an email with the subject line: The Management Tip of the Day; content covers how to manage up, build a healthy feedback culture, inspire creativity among your team, and WFH best practices. Tuesday’s email, Find Meaning in Your Everyday Work, began: “It’s hard to feel inspired about much of anything these days — let alone your job.”

Did 2020 write this? With Debbie Downer as editor? 

This “tip” was adapted from Rebecca Knight’s How to Find Meaning When Your Job Feels Meaningless, which adopts the fear-based language of clickbait and tabloids. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “Rapidly spreading and deadly virus” . . . “global economic crisis” . . . “ripping at the fabric of society”. Well, good morning, and thanks for your optimism. 

I feel inspired everyday, especially because of my job. Here’s why:

• Purposeful work: At Gebeya, an online freelance marketplace for the Best of African Talent, we make businesses competitive, powered by the engine of Africa’s capable workforce. Not only are we connecting skilled freelancers to good-paying opportunities on-and-off the continent, but also we invest in individual growth and development. How? Through upskilling, coaching, mentoring, and offering constructive feedback during the application process to join our community.
• A collaborative culture: We have investors as diverse as Partech, Orange Digital Ventures, and Consonance Investment Managers. We have partnered with global corporations like Microsoft and the International Finance Corporation, as well as thriving startup communities like Metta and iHub. We have contributed thought-leadership to virtual panels about digital transformation, internet connectivity, and leveraging tech to build scalable solutions in Africa. I am so proud of the work we do.
• Impact and innovation: Short-term results ignite endorphins; long-term ones build legacy. We celebrate both. As a young, agile company, we fail fast, are encouraged to make mistakes—and learn from them. There is no status quo or bureaucracy to break through; our limitlessness is motivating. In fact: We just announced the launch of our app, Gebeya Talent.
• A hopeful narrative: As a half-Ethiopian raised in the U.S., I was privileged to attend elite private schools. But they taught me the same limiting stories Americans in most institutions learn about Africa and African-Americans: slavery and civil rights. And: that one time we had a black president. Now, having worked on the continent for two years, I’ve witnessed the ingenuity and resilience of Africans: entrepreneurs, women prime ministers and presidents, activists, singers, athletes, actors, investors, inventors . . . shall I continue? 

Hey, Harvard, here’s a management tip for you: tell the person who wrote that email to reach out to me. We have inspiration in abundance.