During my years in the corporate world, a question that had often been on my mind was what makes people want to bring more of themselves to work?
Disengagement at work does not always look dramatic.
People do not always rebel. They do not argue. They do not resign in protest. More often, they simply retreat into the minimum. They do what is required, avoid what is optional, and leave the rest of themselves outside the workplace.
Many leaders respond to this with tighter reviews, sharper targets, better dashboards, and more frequent check-ins. All of which may have a role, but they alone don’t solve the problem.
What does?
Purpose. But not the kind that fits on a strategy slide.
The kind that makes someone feel that showing up today matters — to something larger than a quarterly number, and larger than themselves.
I came across a story recently, set in a nursing home of all places, that is the most vivid illustration of this I’ve ever found. A leader walked into a broken system, tried the conventional fix, watched it fail, and then did something so unconventional that management asked him if he’d lost his mind.
What followed was one of the more remarkable turnarounds I’ve encountered in years of collecting leadership stories.
If you lead a team, at any level, I think you’ll find it worth 6:32 minutes of your time.
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