015-How Meaningful Work Powers Performance 

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Adam Salgat 0:09
welcome to Beyond the Class: From Knowledge to Action, the audio cast that helps Chapman Foundation alumni turn skills into practical, intentional actions for everyday life. I’m your host Adam Slogan. Today we’re exploring something that sits at the heart of human motivation, meaning not the slogan version, not the framed on the wall version, but the lived everyday experience of understanding why our work matters, who it benefits, and how our individual efforts connect to something bigger than us, and I have a set of stats that back up why this conversation matters. Research from Gallup shows employees with a strong sense of purpose are 5.6 times more likely to be engaged at work, and they are significantly less likely to experience burnout or to be actively job hunting beyond individual impact, meaning is one of the strongest drivers of engagement and retention, consistently ranking alongside and often above compensation as a motivator for employees, and meaning isn’t just good for people, it drives business results. Organizations with highly engaged employees have a 23% greater profitability. They also experience substantially lower absenteeism and see significantly reduced levels of turnover. Finally, global well-being research from McKinsey Health Institute shows that workplaces grounded in purpose, human connection, and psychological safety significantly increased resilience and overall well-being, and because most adults spend the majority of their waking lives at work, those benefits don’t stay contained to the workplace, they influence how people show up at home, in relationships, and in their communities, that’s the ripple effect, so yes, leadership research makes one thing clear: meaning is not a soft perk, it is a performance driver, a resilience builder, and a community strengthener. To dig into this topic and to help us start achieving those statistics for your organizations, I’m joined by someone who leads with meaning every day. Our CEO at the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, Misty Jenks. Misty is a thought leader and organizational psychologist who’s passionate about unleashing the power and potential of individuals and organizations. Welcome back to the show.

Misty Janks 2:39
Thanks, Adam. I’m glad we’re here talking about this, because meaning often gets confused with branding or value statements, but meaning is not something you print on a poster, as you mentioned in the first part of your intro. Meaning is not simply about feeling inspired at work. From an organizational psychology perspective, meaning shapes how individuals interpret effort, persist through challenge, connect to others and understand the significance of their contributions within the larger system.

Adam Salgat 3:06
So, you’ve shared before that there was a season when you were leading an organization and everything looked strong on paper, partnerships were growing, metrics were solid, but underneath it all the team felt disconnected. Is it fair of me to describe it that way, and if so, can you talk a little bit about what you saw during that time?

Misty Janks 3:27
Absolutely, we were growing, expanding partnerships, meeting all of our goals, but I noticed our conversations becoming just more transactional. We were talking about the work, but not the impact of the work, and when that happens, even in high-performing environments, energy starts to fade. That is when I realized we need to slow down just enough to reconnect to why the work mattered in the first place.

Adam Salgat 3:51
The conversations that were transactional, I can imagine that often just felt like, hey, I need this. What do you, can you get it to me by this date? And there’s really no interaction other than that.

Misty Janks 4:02
Absolutely, status update. This is what I need. When can I get it by? And then back out the door.

Adam Salgat 4:07
And I know at times in our business, in any business, that’s important, but when that consistently happens, that’s what you were noticing, right?

Misty Janks 4:16
Yes, that’s the thing. When it consistently happens, there’s going to be a time pressure that will always be up against it, so how do we balance it? How do we make time for that personal connection and finding meaning?

Adam Salgat 4:28
So, I bet that resonates for many of our leaders. It’s easy to get caught up in the metrics and miss the meaning. Things start to become very transactional when that happens. I’m curious, if you can tell me, in what ways did you slow down, and what did that look like in practice?

Misty Janks 4:43
Practically, the way that we made space for meaning again, it meant pausing during meetings to talk about the impact, not just the metrics. We intentionally linked individual tasks to the larger mission, so people could see how and what they were doing fit into something bigger. It and we created small moments, even just a few minutes, to acknowledge why the work mattered before moving on to the next goal. The responsibilities themselves did not change, but reconnecting people to the human impact of their work reshaped how they experienced it. As meaning became more visible, motivation, emotional connection, and the collective energy began to strengthen across the team,

Adam Salgat 5:22
that sounds like a really great choice. Let’s talk about that performance side. A case can be made that meaning isn’t just good for morale, it drives results, right?

Misty Janks 5:33
Absolutely, you mentioned this stat in your intro. Organizations with highly engaged employees, which is a direct outcome of meaningful work, have a 23% greater profitability. So, when people understand why their work matters, they bring more discretionary effort. And in times of conflict, like big organizational changes, this is so important, because change is rarely easy. But when people stay connected to purpose, they have something solid beneath their feet during periods of uncertainty or organizational change. Purpose functions as a psychological anchor when individuals remain connected to a shared sense of meaning. Leaders create greater emotional stability, resilience, and adaptability within their teams. Retention also improves, and collaboration feels more natural.

Adam Salgat 6:22
There’s something that I want to touch on a little bit, and that is personal values. I know personal values can come into play when we’re talking about the meaning of our work as well. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Misty Janks 6:32
Understanding your personal values is important, because values shape how you interpret meaning, make decisions, respond to stress, and connect to the purpose in both our work and our life. From a motivational psychology perspective, individuals experience greater intrinsic motivation, engagement, and resilience when their behaviors align with what they deeply value. Research, particularly through self-determination theory, suggests that people thrive when they experience alignment, autonomy, purpose, and connection to the work that they do, without awareness of personal values, it becomes easy to pursue external markers of success while internally feeling disconnected or depleted. Values function as an internal compass that helps individuals make decisions that are more authentic, sustainable, and psychologically aligned, that alignment often increases energy, persistence, and the commitment, because people are no longer operating purely from obligation, but from internal meaning.

Adam Salgat 7:32
What about if someone is facing a challenge? Tell me, how values comes into play there

Misty Janks 7:38
when individuals can connect difficult work to something personally meaningful. They are more likely to remain adaptable, resilient, and emotionally grounded during those periods of uncertainty.

Adam Salgat 7:50
As a leader, why is it important for a leader to think about how their values are influencing their work

Misty Janks 7:57
in leadership? Specifically, self-awareness around values has cultural implications, leaders communicate values consistently through what they prioritize, recognize, tolerate, and reinforce. Organizational culture is shaped not only by stated values, but by the repeated behaviors leaders model every day. This is why understanding personal values is not simply personal development work, it directly influences leadership effectiveness, team experience, and organizational culture, and that’s why the values are rooted in the Our Community Transforms, and it is the very first session that we start off with. So, you, as a leader, can understand what yours are,

Adam Salgat 8:39
and I know, as a leader, the impact that we have on our people can extend beyond the workplace. Right.

Misty Janks 8:44
Yes, absolutely. Workplaces are one of the primary environments where adults experience connection, recognition, stress, belonging, and purpose on a daily basis. From both organizational and motivational psychology, those experiences do not stay contained at work. They influence emotional well-being, behavior, and relationships outside of it as well. When people consistently experience meaning, psychological safety, and care at work, it often strengthens resilience, communication, and overall well-being. They tend to bring more patience, presence, and emotional capability into their homes, relationships, and communities, but also the opposite can be true. Environments that create chronic stress, disconnection, or lack of meaning can carry over into other areas of life too. That is why leadership matters so much. Leaders are not simply influencing productivity and performance metrics, they are shaping human experiences that ripple far beyond the workplace. In many ways, organizations become practice grounds for how people learn to communicate, trust, collaborate, and care for one another.

Adam Salgat 9:56
I think everybody’s had the experience where you’ve had a wonderful day at work and you. Go home, and you continue just a wonderful day at home, right? I think that’s a very simple way to put this, but that’s one way of describing this, right?

Misty Janks 10:09
Yes, I could not agree more. What you experience during the day at work will be brought home with you, unless you are very intentional and make that choice not to.

Adam Salgat 10:20
For our listeners, this ties directly into something we’ll be diving into in another episode very soon. Here we’re going to revisit our Caring Workplace initiative, so stay tuned to hear more about that strategy in an upcoming conversation. And I want to make a quick call out to something I appreciate: is that our foundational classes really help build a base set of skills you mentioned transforms, but I’d like for you to also touch on our community listens. Could you do that?

Misty Janks 10:48
Yes, our community listens is our first foundational class, and it lays the groundwork for meaning by strengthening relationships. When people learn to listen effectively and empathetically, express themselves clearly, and build trust, the environment around them becomes more human, and meaning grows in human spaces.

Adam Salgat 11:06
In our second foundational class, our community serves, we build on that foundation by helping people shift from a me-centric mindset to a wee centric one. That’s where meaning becomes shared, right, part of the culture, not just an individual insight,

Misty Janks 11:21
exactly. Our community serves deepens emotional intelligence and helps leaders intentionally create environments rooted in service, shared purpose, and human connection. The class challenges leaders to move beyond individual achievement and begin thinking more systematically about how their behaviors shape the experience of their team and the culture around them, through practices like self-awareness, accountability, and intentional connection, leaders began creating conditions where people feel psychologically invested, not only in the mission, but in one another. That shift is important, because meaning becomes socially reinforced through relationships, shared values, and collective purpose, not just personal motivation. When leaders foster trust, alignment, and a sense of contribution, people stop working solely for the task completion or individual success, and they begin working with a deeper awareness of how their role impacts a larger team, mission, and the community that they serve, that is when meaning becomes embedded into the everyday culture of the organization, rather than existing in an abstract idea or a personal insight.

Adam Salgat 12:33
We have two upcoming virtual roundtables for Chapman Foundation alumni. The first is on June 11, and the topic is Clear is kind, mastering the art of clear and transparent communication. And then on july 15, we focus on the three moves to tackle annoyance, how to turn frustration into action. Be sure to register for these online classes today. All right, Misty. As part of our goal in every audio cast here is to lay out some concrete, actionable steps for everyone. So, you’ve put together a list of six practices that strengthen meaning in workplaces. Please tell me about the first two.

Misty Janks 13:15
The first one is to keep the human impact front and center, as I mentioned earlier. How this looks in practice is we could start meetings with a quick story of impact, who benefited, what changed, or we could ask why does this matter to the people that we serve as we’re talking about key metrics or key projects, or finally we could invite team members to share a recent moment of meaningful work in your all team meetings.

Adam Salgat 13:40
I love those opportunities, especially from someone like myself. We really appreciate storytelling. So, I always know when I get to hear a story about how one of my teammates served someone else and how we got somebody ready for a class, maybe. And I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t need to have anything to do with it, but I like hearing those kinds of comments and those stories.

Misty Janks 14:04
I think you also do a great service to the organization as you highlight the outcomes that are happening out in the fields with our communities and our workplaces, or the individual stories.

Adam Salgat 14:15
Tell me about tip number two. Practice number two.

Misty Janks 14:18
Yes, practice number two is to name how someone’s role connects to the larger mission, so this can show up by using phrases like when you do this it helps us do that, right? Or when you make job to purpose connections explicit, not assumed. And finally, by celebrating behind the scenes contributions that may go unnoticed.

Adam Salgat 14:41
Yeah, and I think I just touched on that a little bit. What kind of roles an organization might benefit from that second tip the most?

Misty Janks 14:49
Typically, it is the role that is not client facing, so it is behind the scenes. They don’t get to see it firsthand of why their work matters. So this could be. Administrative or support staff, or maybe your finance team, or quality assurance – anyone that is not seeing that impact firsthand

Adam Salgat 15:08
makes sense. I can imagine it directors sometimes trying to get stuck in that space.

Misty Janks 15:14
Yes,

Adam Salgat 15:15
so let’s move on to steps three and four.

Misty Janks 15:18
All right, practice number three is to create intentional reflection space in one on one leadership conversations that are made to strengthen self awareness, alignment, and intrinsic motivation. In practice, in those meetings, you could be asking those in your span of care, what part of your work resonates most with you right now. You could also explore why that work feels meaningful to them. Ask them if it connects to a personal value, and then finally check for misalignment early, before disengagement grows.

Adam Salgat 15:50
That’s a great tip. I’ll read number four, and I’ll let you tackle the bullets. So, practice number four is to recognize behaviors that align with values.

Misty Janks 15:59
In practice, this could look like praising how the work got done, not just the outcome. So, if you know your team member values collaboration and connection, you could be highlighting how did they make that team come together, how did they increase collaboration or increase that experience for the better for that full team, not just the outcome that was achieved.

Adam Salgat 16:23
It sounds like taking time to think about the details of the work that they did might come in handy there.

Misty Janks 16:28
Yes, and knowing your team members. The second way that you can make this practice come to life is to connect recognition to values explicitly, and so that is simply saying when you worked on this project ended X. It really lived our value and put your organizational value in there.

Adam Salgat 16:46
Reminds me of something from our community listens. So, quick pop quiz. What’s a quick and easy acronym to help someone with a recognition statement?

Misty Janks 16:57
Yes, that is our FBI method. So, your feelings about their specific behavior and the impact that that behavior had either on the team, the organization, or you.

Adam Salgat 17:08
That’s awesome. Yeah, so you passed. First of all, congratulations. I like to give you and Katie pop quizzes every once in a while. If you want to go into depth, by the way, on writing FBI statements, whether for a recognition or maybe confrontation, if necessary. You can go back and listen to our cleverly titled episode 103 dissecting top secret FBI statements. The direct link to that will be in the description of this audio cast. All right, let’s wrap up with our last action, steps five and six. So, practice number five.

Misty Janks 17:41
Practice number five is to make purpose a decision-making lens. So, to do this, you can name out loud when a choice reflects organizational values, or when it doesn’t, or before making major decisions, ask, does this align with or deepen our intent?

Adam Salgat 18:00
I really like that naming out loud to your organizational values, and even in small cases, I think even the small cases help build a habit, right?

Misty Janks 18:10
Yes, absolutely. And so, for you as a leader, it might come really naturally, and so when you say it out loud, you’re actually telling the story of the organization, and that’s why it’s so critically important.

Adam Salgat 18:23
Awesome. Number six,

Misty Janks 18:25
practice number six is to build moments of pause, and with this, you can add purpose check-ins to the start of a meeting, or maybe the end. Set quarterly mission moments for storytelling, or encourage team members to reflect on what motivates them, and explain that it’s okay to do that on company time.

Adam Salgat 18:43
Great reminders. Thank you for those six tips. As we wrap up today’s conversation around the importance of meaning in the workplace, can you give us a quick recap of some of today’s biggest takeaways?

Misty Janks 18:56
Yes, first, meaning is not a message, it is a felt experience. Teams thrive when they can see how their work matters, and meeting is embedded through repeated leadership behaviors. And then, finally, that meeting has a ripple effect. The care and connection people experience at work extend into their homes and communities. This helps create healthier relationships far beyond the workplace.

Adam Salgat 19:22
All right, Misty, it’s your favorite part. We covered some of the main focus areas, but I’m going to ask for one actionable step that listeners can take away with them.

Misty Janks 19:30
Here’s the simplest, most powerful one. Before your next meeting, answer this question yourself, and then say it out loud to your team. Why does this work matter today? It takes 10 seconds, and it can change everything.

Adam Salgat 19:44
It is powerful, and it is a reflection that I think can really lead to some great conversations. If you’re looking to weave meaning more intentionally into your leadership, we have two great next steps. If you’re an alumni of our community listens, we high. Recommend looking into our community serves to turn purpose into consistent leadership practice, and then you could also take our virtual roundtables to strengthen the emotional clarity and communication skills that help meaning land. And if you’re an organization that wants to embed these ideas into your culture, reach out to us about our Caring Workplace Partner Program. Misty, thank you for this rich conversation today. Very thankful for the time I get to spend with you doing this.

Misty Janks 20:26
Yes, thank you so much, Adam.

Adam Salgat 20:28
Until next time, we’re inviting you to walk your path with intention, because you are the message. Take care, my friends.