According to a recent survey conducted by BambooHR, most employees are unhappy at work (BambooHR report finds employee happiness has reached a 3-year low (axios.com). While there is no comparable study of business owners, personal observations suggest that small business owners are also not satisfied. Was Mick Jagger speaking for everyone when he sang, “I can’t get no satisfaction?”
There are several external factors contributing to a lack of workplace satisfaction such as the aftermath of COVID-19, inflation, and the ability to work from home. However, it’s important to delve into the personal side of satisfaction. After all, satisfaction or happiness is an internal pursuit.
The problem with workplace satisfaction is that it is often tied to the outcome. I call this the New York Yankees syndrome. When the Yankees were dominating in the late 1990s, they started believing anything less than a World Series championship was a failure. While setting lofty expectations and having competitive arrogance is not necessarily bad, tying success to only one of the best possible outcomes is not a successful long-term strategy.
Simon Sinek talks about The Infinite Game (The Infinite Game: Sinek, Simon: 9780735213500: Amazon.com: Books) is his best-selling book from 2019. A game of baseball is a finite game with a clear winner and loser after 9 (or more) innings and a champion is crowned every year. In sports, former New York Jets coach Herm Edwards told us, “You play to win the game.”
Business, on the other hand, is an infinite game. There are rules but they can change daily. Competitors can join the game at any time whether you like it or not. The goal should be to continue in business for as long as you have the will, desire, and resources.
All businesses need annual budgets, revenue goals and metrics to track on a quarterly and annual basis. There should be a roadmap and check-ins along the way without question. But I see too many businesses focusing solely on these metrics and losing sight of their purpose. Instead of focusing on winning or losing, businesses should focus on playing the infinite game by having a just cause that inspires them to come to work every day.
Success is not always about achieving a single outcome. Sometimes, it’s about surviving a global pandemic, overcoming the loss of a key client or employee, or simply being able to keep the doors open for another day.
When we tie our satisfaction to a single outcome, we set ourselves up for failure for two reasons. First, many great and satisfying moments are possible without achieving the outcome. We should still celebrate those moments and learn from the good and bad.
Second, it becomes difficult to stay satisfied. If our satisfaction is tied to the outcome, the only way to stay satisfied is by increasing the bar because eventually the status quo will get boring. In this case, satisfaction becomes fleeting, and it is hard to keep it.
Arthur Brooks, a writer and professor at the Harvard Business and the Harvard Kennedy School, runs the Leadership and Happiness Laboratory at the Center for Public Leadership. He explains why it is easier to lose weight than it is to keep weight off. When we are losing weight, we see progress every step of the way. Progress is motivating. When we reach our target weight, we lose the excitement and satisfaction of seeing the number on the scale decrease each week. Without the weekly satisfaction of looking at the scale, we lose motivation. We were too focused on the outcome of hitting a goal weight instead of focusing on the process of living a healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle for a lifetime is a far better goal than losing twenty pounds. A healthy lifestyle is playing the infinite game. Losing twenty pounds is playing a finite game.
Too many business owners tie their satisfaction to short-term goals rather than long-term vision. Satisfaction comes from a long-term vision that inspires us and brings us joy and satisfaction from the mere fact that we can continue to pursue it daily. True satisfaction and success are realized when we can go out on our terms.
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