Finding Fulfillment in 2023

As we begin a new year, it’s important to ask ourselves — and our teams — what we’d like to achieve in 2023. Part of that process is looking back over the past year. How did things go in 2022, and what would we like to change going forward?

If your goal is building a company where people love to work, fulfillment should be your focus. Start 2023 on a strong note by asking your team members if they found fulfillment in 2022. If not, take time to assess why and how they can experience it in 2023.

How to Find Fulfillment

Before we do anything else, it’s important to understand the key components of fulfillment. Our fulfillment theory goes into detail about what fulfillment in work looks like and how to achieve it. Be sure to take the time to read it, but I’ll boil it down to the basics.

Fulfillment isn’t merely feeling “happy” at work. It’s a deep, meaningful experience that sustains us through challenges and uncertainties. Fulfillment is an intrinsic motivator that allows us to connect with our work. Even when times are tough, fulfilled employees and leaders look forward to their jobs. And, they recognize the deeper meaning behind what they do.

Three key experiences foster fulfillment:

Passion: Loving the work you do
Purpose: Believing the work you do matters
Progress: Seeing the impact of your work

An employee who experiences passion, purpose, and progress in tandem would most certainly say they’ve found a fulfilling career. But what if they’re missing a piece of the fulfillment puzzle?

What Prevents Fulfillment at Work?

Knowing the ingredients for fulfillment, you can begin to speak candidly with your team members about their experiences. If they struggled to find fulfillment in 2022, what went wrong and how can they achieve it in 2023?

Everyone is unique and has specific needs, but there are a few common roadblocks that hinder fulfillment.

Roadblocks: Passion

Passion is the zeal we experience when we love our work, industry, or cause. And it’s a vital component of finding a fulfilling career. Unfortunately, not everyone feels passionate about their work. It’s a truly disheartening experience, usually caused by one of two factors.

One, there may be a disconnect between your employee’s job and their core beliefs. If influencing others doesn’t bring them joy, they’re not going to feel fulfilled as a copywriter or a content strategist. Encourage your people to define their personal values and mission, which will guide them toward a role they can feel passionate about. This takes a great deal of exploration, but the results are well worth it.

There’s another roadblock to passion. Some team members are in the right role for their values, but somewhere along the way, their passion fizzled out — usually due to burnout. Even the most energetic employees only have so much to give. As a leader, you can help prevent burnout by giving manageable workloads, making sure people have enough time off, and encouraging them to take breaks.

Work alongside your people to discover whether they’re still searching for passion or they want to reignite the flame they lost along the way.

Roadblocks: Purpose

Purpose means finding a greater meaning behind our work — understanding the “why” at the core of what we do. Having a clear purpose helps us push through the daily grind and overcome obstacles. It’s one of the strongest motivators out there.

When your team members’ work feels purposeless, there’s little hope for fulfillment. Sometimes, employees can discover their purpose with a fresh mindset. Other times, the leader needs to provide more clarity.

If mindset is the issue, remind your people that purpose can be found in nearly every job. They don’t need to wait for that dream role to understand how their work fits into a larger, more impactful narrative. Challenge these employees to explore how their work impacts other people or initiatives. They’ll probably be surprised by what they learn. A software tester’s purpose may be improving user experience, while a graphic designer’s purpose could be making the world a more beautiful and engaging place.

If lack of clarity is preventing that sense of purpose, it’s up to leadership to be more intentional about honest communication. In fact, clarity is one of the cornerstones of motivation when it comes to fulfillment. Meaning, people must have clarity to experience passion, purpose, or progress. Offering clarity means equipping your people with the information they need to be successful and engaged. And when it comes to purpose, leaders must be clear about how each role fuels a larger vision. Paint the big picture for your people instead of giving orders with no context.

Roadblocks: Progress

Progress means getting the right amount of better in the right amount of time. When you see your efforts making an impact, you know you’ve made progress. When you realize you’ve learned a new skill or improved an existing one, that’s progress, too.

If your team members aren’t making progress, not only will they feel unfulfilled, but your business will suffer. There are two common culprits of stagnation.

The first is perfectionism — the enemy of progress. Perfection is impossible to achieve. It prevents talented employees from growing because they’ll feel too paralyzed to make the next move. It’s the writer who never gets published because their first draft “isn’t ready.”. It’s the entrepreneur who never launches their business because they haven’t worked out all the kinks. You get the picture. No matter how perfectionism manifests in your employees’ work, it’s unhealthy. When working with perfectionists, remind them that progress is better than perfect — it’s attainable, natural, and empowering.

If perfectionism isn’t at play, your team members may be confusing progress and productivity. The latter keeps them busy all day, but it doesn’t guarantee growth or results. To promote progress, help your teams set clear goals and prioritize the work that fuels those goals. Other tasks can be delegated or set aside for later. The most successful team members know how to focus on the most impactful areas of their work instead of being distracted by minutia. It’s an essential skill for making progress.