Meaningful Work How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee

A powerful argument that finding meaning at work is the most powerful driver for employee happiness, talent retention, and profit, and a roadmap for exceptional leaders to make it the cornerstone of their management approach.

For employees, finding meaning in the work they do is not only important to them, it's tangibly beneficial to the bottom line of any company. When people value the work they do, they operate at their highest potential while delivering outsized business results. 

Based on years of academic study and business application, More than a Paycheck argues that work that has real purpose comes from the combination of community, contribution, and challenge. But when any one of the three pillars is missing, there’s disengagement, burnout, and turnover. And it’s up to an organization’s leaders to provide the tools to help their workers.

Global consultant Wes Adams and positive psychology professor Tamara Myles draw on decades of research and data from companies including KPMG, Zappos, and Marriott, to outline how leaders can successfully apply their proprietary "Three Cs" Framework to help employees connect with their work. With evidence-backed tools, including a Leadership Assessment, you'll learn: 

• How the power of beginnings shapes each employee’s experience, with suggestions for updating the onboarding process for new hires;
• How to leverage stories of impact to make work meaningful;
• The surprising power of gratitude in fostering meaning for employees;
• Practices for keeping your teams in the Zone of Possibility and providing the autonomy they need to stay engaged and motivated.

Meaningful work is the key to building a culture that becomes the fuel for innovation, creativity, performance, and engagement. It is a core value of leadership and the next frontier in a new work landscape.

Wes Adams is founder and CEO of SV Consulting Group, where he works with high-performing companies to develop leadership excellence, build organizational resilience, and deepen employee engagement through a meaningful work lens. He has more than two decades of experience as a successful entrepreneur and strategic partner for Fortune 500s, startups, and NGOs. Prior to founding SV, Wes advised brands such as Google, Audi, Starbucks, and the United Nations at Purpose, the world’s leading social impact agency. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds a Master’s from University of Pennsylvania in Applied Positive Psychology.
 
Tamara Myles is an accomplished consultant, author, and international speaker with over two decades of experience helping leaders improve business performance. She is the author of The Secret to Peak Productivity: A Simple Guide to Reaching Your Personal Best (AMACOM, 2014), based on her proprietary Peak Productivity Pyramid. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, Fast Company, USA Today, SUCCESS, Business Insider, The Boston Globe, and the New York Post, among others. Tamara is an instructor of Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology. She is also a Senior Trainer for the Penn Resilience Program, the world’s leading organization for state-of-the-art, evidence-based resilience and positive psychology programs.