Are You Engaged in Your Work?

Gallup reports that 87% of employees around the world are not engaged in their work. Think about it, think about your organisation, think about yourself! It’s a colossal waste of human capital. Nearly one in four employees are actively disengaged, working against the mission of the organization. Yet, nearly all humans want to be engaged in work that matters. The difference between those who will flourish and those who languish in the workplace is mindset.

what is your mindset?

We all have a mindset. Not often we are consciously aware of it and the effect it has on our lives. Our mindset is the underlying mechanism that can expose opportunities and ignite our ambition. It makes us engage to enable us to flourish and thrive. But our mindset can also blind us to opportunities and hinder our ability to learn and grow. It keeps us to familiar, unproductive patterns of thought and action.

mindset needed

In the workplace, mindset can manifest in the form of an employee mindset or an entrepreneurial mindset. An entrepreneurial mindset is defined as it can push us towards a place of growth and creative tension. It is a constant balance of challenge meeting the stretching of our skill set. The distinction between the two mindsets, we can identify and encourage entrepreneurial behavior in the workplace in order to empower and engage more employees.

an employee mindset

Some employees feel as though they are just cogs in the wheel. The think they are unable to succeed in bureaucratic systems. This sense of powerlessness can lead to complaining, making excuses, or blaming others. Often, work is seen as a job description, and the preference is to work within the comfort zone of a well-defined job. Initiative to explore and implement new ideas is mostly lacking. This is because of a lack of belief in the ability to impact change or that change can really occur. There is little meaning in the work they do, and the main goal is to collect a paycheck, retirement, and benefits.

an entrepreneurial mindset

Employees with an entrepreneurial mindset are driven by compelling goals and find purpose in their work. Being future-focused, they see daily tasks as the means to achieving a bigger vision. An entrepreneurial employee has a growth mindset and is quick to acquire additional knowledge or master new skills required to achieve goals. Self-directed and solution-oriented, an entrepreneurial employee finds ways to create value by solving problems for others. They tend to work collaboratively and share in the success of the work achieved.
An entrepreneurial employee rarely feels confined by a job description and is quick to move new ideas forward. Even when challenges arise, they tend to have an optimistic interpretation, seeing problems as temporary and fixable as well as potential opportunities to create value and enhance their skill set.

flow and you

Entrepreneurial employees take ownership of their work and feel empowered to make change. Highly engaged, they often work in flow losing all sense of time. Work is play, and play is work.
Many studies show that entrepreneurs are the happiest, most engaged people in the world. They find purpose in their work. But the mindset isn’t just for entrepreneurs. An entrepreneurial mindset can be developed and enhanced through learning. By cultivating this mindset we can empower and engage employees more. And this helps to unleash their potential.

Some inspiration to end this blogpost:

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