Be Inspired to Inspire
Be Inspired to Inspire
By Mette Johansson
77%* of the workforce is not engaged, and productivity and business are suffering
Disengagement at the workplace has reached pandemic proportions, which is resulting in low productivity and under-happiness. The world today is safer and wealthier than ever before, and still, many of us are unable to reach the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: self-actualisation. In other words, we’re unfulfilled. Many people, mid-career, are fearful and thinking Is this it? Is this how I will spend the rest of my working life?
If you’d like to provide meaning for your staff and like your team to be more engaged – this talk is for you.
To achieve self-actualisation, we need to know what fulfils us
Surprisingly, most of us don’t know what fulfils us. Consequently, we may make big choices in life that are at odds with personal fulfilment. We go to school because it’s what our parents tell us to do. We go to university as the logical, and perhaps prestigious, next step. We enter a profession because it is the natural path after our degree, and it may be a very exciting prospect.
Novelty, progress and expectation of what’s still to come keeps us going until we’ve reached a certain point in our career where we know our profession inside out. That’s when, for many, emptiness sets in and they think "Is this it?" And they ask themselves: "What's the meaning of this?" In mild cases, it means low engagement at work. In more severe cases, it leads to burnout.
There is a way to change course.
Identify your values and build your life with purpose
Values are, very simply explained, the things that are the most important to us in our lives.
When you identify your values – for instance, courage and flexibility – it is easier to define your purpose. When your personal values and your purpose become the foundation of everything you do, you’ll unlock surplus energy to do extraordinary things.
In her talk, Mette will show how values and purpose are magical – they give you energy. These fuel passion, and we become inspired. When we’re inspired, we’re on autopilot to perform; and as an additional benefit, others with similar values are inspired to follow our cause. We become true leaders: leaders, who people follow because they want to, not because of title, hierarchy or wealth.
