There’s two pieces of data that I come back to time and time again, both from the Gallup Workplace Report. The first is that the biggest predictor of workplace engagement is whether we have a best friend at work.
I often use a bit of poetry if I present that. The poet David Whyte was on a podcast I was listening to and he said about friendship: friendship is the ‘privilege of having been seen by someone & the equal privilege of having been granted the sight of the essence of another’. And for me that explains why having a friend has such an impact. It’s about feeling seen. It’s about knowing that you matter.
Then there’s a second piece of data about our bosses. If we have received direct feedback from our managers this week we are 4 times more likely to be engaged in our jobs.
This is of course immediately relatable. The reason why you loved working for your old boss is because she seemed to really value the work you did. Perhaps you could even handle criticism from her because you knew it came from a good place. You felt like your performance and development mattered.
I’ve really believed this sense of feeling seen to be a vital part of workplace culture for a while, and so when Zach Mercurio’s new book, The Power of Mattering, arrived on my desk I devoured it. It’s the most essential book about workplace culture that I’ve read in a couple of years.
None of this is new, in the 1980s psychologists Morris Rosenberg and Claire McCullough studied a sample of 6500 adolescent teens. They found that a big predictor of wellbeing was whether the young people felt significant to their parents. When they felt that they mattered they had higher self-esteem, less anxiety and less depression.
Feeling valued has an impact at work too. In a study of 1700 working adults, 93% of those who felt valued said they were motivated to do their best. 88% were engaged at work. When we feel valued by our boss we do a better job, it’s hard to imagine a healthy culture where this isn’t the case.
In 2022 the US Surgeon General issued a note in response to rising levels of mental health issues (and as chat of ‘quiet quitting’ was taking hold).
Amongst the essentials for better working was ‘mattering’ to others.
I talked to Zach this week on Eat Sleep Work Repeat and I left convinced that this is where good culture needs to start in 2025. The website includes a full transcript of the conversation and key stats from the book.
Listen: Apple / Spotify / website
This week I’ve created a brand new resource to help you explore workplace culture – and how to build it. Eat Sleep Work Repeat has been running for eight years. In that time I’ve interviewed some of the biggest brains in culture. Today I’ve grouped all of the best podcasts into subjects.
Either dive into a topic – and choose a single episode – or click play on a playlist. You’ll find pages on
The Essentials of Culture – how to start thinking about improving workplace culture.
Sport – Sport is often one of our most vivid examples of culture. We can see when it’s working, and when it’s failing. From Barcelona to the All Blacks we have lots of examples to explore. Includes an Ange Postecoglou episode that I refuse to delete.
Case studies – over the course of 8 years I’ve gone deep on different organisations, from Amazon to Uber, from Microsoft to the NHS.
Psychology – going deep with multiple discussions with Robin Dunbar, reflections on the role that touch plays in the brain, explorations of collective intelligence and much more.
Happiness – my original obsession when I started the podcast was ‘can we be happier at work?’ I’ve explored what fun is, whether happiness is an objective or an outcome of work and what makes laughter such a bonding part of human behaviour?
Inspiration – sometimes sparks of inspiration come from looking afresh at the problem we’re facing. Each of these episodes invite you to rethink the way you’re looking at work.
And I’ve also made a whole playlist for today’s episode on Mattering that you can listen along to. It includes sessions on Storytelling courses, story nights and more.
#Understanding #mattering #key #engaged #culture
