How the thrill of working from home will eventually catch up with you

One word ‘fulfilment’

Ever since the Ancient Greeks coined the philosophy of Eudaimonia humans have been searching for uplifting and purposeful living.

Do you have kids? If you could wish the perfect life for them what would you wish for? Chances are high that ‘fulfilment’ ‘happiness’ or ‘contentment’ would feature somewhere near the top of your list?

So what does ‘fulfilment’ mean in the context of remote / virtual working?

You have character qualities – we all do – everyone on the planet has qualities that shine brighter than others. Whether it’s your natural ability to make people laugh, the way you provide direction and support, your kindness and generosity to others, your sense of justice.

The really cool thing about how humans work is that deploying our Character Qualities results in a number of benefits:

-      We improve the lives of others (by giving & serving)

-      We feel like we’re adding value & making a difference (increasing our self esteem)

-      We get even better at deploying our qualities (we shine brighter)

Deploying your character qualities ‘lights you up’ and builds that sense of fulfilment, pleasure and purpose.

As an example, my business partner's strongest quality is Energy (Zest)

By giving energy, motivation, impetus, he feels uplifted. When he's talking about ideas, potential in people, a new project he's buzzing. And the coolest thing about this quality is that at the end of a long day of facilitating and speaking he feels fulfilled because he gave his energy. Instead of drained, he's on top of the world (almost energised).

The point I’m making is that being able to deploy your Top 3 Qualities every day is an essential piece of the fulfilment equation.

And that’s one of the reasons why people are struggling right now. On top of the more obvious pandemic-related impacts, one of the problems with virtual work is that it restricts the ability to deploy our qualities.

Which of the qualities can you REALLY leverage by communicating to a patchwork screen of floating heads? Or worse over Email / Chat?

Take 'Curiosity' – the passion for newness, variety, exploration and discovery? Possible through a screen? Not really.

Is your quality Humour & Playfulness? Good luck demonstrating that via a Team Quiz on Zoom. Humour relies on being present in the moment, in tune with the atmosphere in the room and the senses engaged.

Right now, some of you are thinking ‘YOU’RE WRONG, I’M SO MUCH MORE PRODUCTIVE’ and yes there are benefits to that – it means that you can get through more work (this isn’t a character quality) and your performance is going to be judged more favourably by the organisation / client / boss.

But let’s be honest, the work is un-ending, and will keep flowing at you.

Confusing productivity with fulfilment is one of life’s red herrings. And the business world prioritises cost saving, efficiency and PROFIT!  Very few organisations have your sense of fulfilment as their strategic objective, and yet that is what you wish for yourself and your kids. Organisations are likely to leap on virtual / remote working as a win-win - but is it really??

If you’re feeling flat after a day of Zoom calls, or wondering why work isn’t getting you fired up like it used to, could it be that you’re not deploying your character strengths?

Take this FREE QUESTIONNAIRE to discover your list of character qualities and ask yourself how well you're deploying your Top3 every day

If you'd like more insight into how humans work, please join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/peoplepowermasterclass/

To pick up some behaviour hacks and human insight to help you handle people better, watch our latest webinar HERE

Simon Thomas

(DHypPsych CMI. CIPD)

Director

www.optimusteamlearning.co.uk

www.coachforaday.co.uk