How does your workplace culture make you feel?
Bia Affonso
Photo taken by Bianca Tuckwell
Better work for a new world is Neu21’s purpose and I was asked to write about what our purpose means to me.
Personally, performance steams from your workplace culture.
My question to you is: does your environment zap or nourish your vital force?
A thriving culture is an environment where people feel expanded energetically.
What does it mean to feel expanded?, I hear you ask. You probably know already, but can’t put your finger on it. Do you become a better person for being at work? Experience more positive emotions than bad ones? Do you feel connected to the people and the mission in which you’re involved? Do you have this sense that you’re part of something bigger than a 9-5 that will have a lasting impact in your life and potentially the world? If you answered yes to most questions, your workplace is nourishing your energy. And nourishing energy equals fu***** great work.
Now let’s talk about the opposite. In the energy-sucking workplaces, taking is the modus operandi. You can’t see things clearly, it’s hard to engage and connect with people and find meaning in what you do. You feel deflated after most interactions and your contribution hits a ceiling. Here your energy is contracted, so it wouldn’t surprise me that your work is not your best.
If you find yourself stagnant in an energy-taking culture, you can still do good work, but your vitality will probably go down. It’s not easy, it doesn’t flow and it will take more out of you to regulate your nervous system to show your best self. And this creates a vicious cycle where the less expanded you feel, the harder it is to make work better, let alone influence the world to become a better place.
Speaking of vitality…What if burning out was a byproduct of a culture that takes energy and doesn’t give back? Or perhaps they give it back but you can’t connect the dots as to how your work supports your vision and meaning in life?
You’re either in a bad culture or a poor match for what your future self wants to create and leave behind.
My view is that doing great work is proportional to how expanded you feel in an environment…of course there might be other reasons for feeling contracted like your personality, past and present personal circumstances, health, how much you invest in yourself etc. But all things considered, your workplace should be uplifting in its various dimensions, even when you’re in your lowest moment. This doesn’t mean that you won’t have bad moments, after all you’re a human being.