Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, I am a little
Speaker 1: white man's everybody. Jason Kelly stopped dancing. It's a little horrifying. UM.
Speaker 1: I feel complete because I gotta have a little Beatles
Speaker 1: that always makes me happy, a little George Harrison specifically. Um.
Speaker 1: And then we get to talk about Life's Great Question.
Speaker 1: I just feel like this is right up our alley.
Speaker 1: It is, and I feel like it's a good thing
Speaker 1: to talk about on a week, on a day where
Speaker 1: they might feel hopeless. Cross currents have been fierce, to
Speaker 1: say the least. And uh, who better to talk about
Speaker 1: it than the author of Life's Great Question, Discover How
Speaker 1: You Contribute to the World. Tom Rath joins US number
Speaker 1: one New York Times bestselling author, world renowned in many ways.
Speaker 1: So happy to have him here on our program. Tom,
Speaker 1: nice to talk to you, Great to talk with you
Speaker 1: as well. All right, So I write this book. Why
Speaker 1: write it now? Well, you know, I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people out there who are just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how they can have a little bit
Speaker 1: more meaning in their work and bring a little bit
Speaker 1: more purpose into the equation and problems as we end
Speaker 1: up spending a lot of time focusing inward on our
Speaker 1: personality and our passions, and a lot then at some
Speaker 1: point we finally realize that no matter how much we do,
Speaker 1: that the world isn't going to start revolving around our
Speaker 1: passions and our interests. And what I found is we
Speaker 1: need to do a lot more work investigating the demand
Speaker 1: side of the equation so we can figure out how
Speaker 1: our supply meets that. I think that is a really
Speaker 1: incredible UM thought. And what you just said, I mean,
Speaker 1: because I do feel like it's a it's we're at
Speaker 1: it this time tom where everybody is so focused on themselves,
Speaker 1: whether it's because of Instagram or social media or what
Speaker 1: I need, what I want UM that I think we've
Speaker 1: lost focus of UM the world at large. Yeah, most
Speaker 1: of us want to make a real contribution to others
Speaker 1: and see how our work has meaning on a day
Speaker 1: to day basis. But a lot of the tools and
Speaker 1: books that I've been guilty of riding myself and a
Speaker 1: lot of us have worked on UM really lead people
Speaker 1: to focus inward on self development and their personality and
Speaker 1: their passions. And if you really get into the science
Speaker 1: of it. We might be better off starting with what
Speaker 1: the communities around us, need, what the customers and clients
Speaker 1: around us need, and then working back to who we
Speaker 1: are and how we can fill those needs. All right,
Speaker 1: so give us some tips and tricks. We're gonna make
Speaker 1: people buy the books. So don't give it all away, um,
Speaker 1: but you know, give us a give us a sample. Sorry,
Speaker 1: Carol's planning at me, I am, because before we do that,
Speaker 1: what went into putting this work together? Yeah? You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I tried to figure out is
Speaker 1: I look at this is if there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of good work done on personality and who we are
Speaker 1: as individuals, how do you begin to quantify what the
Speaker 1: world needs and what the demand is at there? So
Speaker 1: I went through thousands of guirreaus and labor statistics, job
Speaker 1: descriptions and essentially try to gather and code what people
Speaker 1: get paid to do and what the demand looks like
Speaker 1: and what the common themes are out there in the
Speaker 1: job market today. And that's where I can't honed in
Speaker 1: on twelve broad contributions that people can make through the
Speaker 1: work that they do that hopefully help not only individuals
Speaker 1: but teams to sit around from the outset and have
Speaker 1: level setting conversations about how each person can maximize their
Speaker 1: contribution to a given effort. And so when you were
Speaker 1: going through that data, Carol and I like to talk
Speaker 1: a lot about sort of wait, what moments was there
Speaker 1: something that jumped out at you where you just thought, wow,
Speaker 1: I did not see that coming, or I didn't think
Speaker 1: the data we're gonna show me that. You know that.
Speaker 1: One of the big ones is that we have to
Speaker 1: find ways to see the influence of our work on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. So real quick example, if you're in
Speaker 1: food service, you're working in a restaurant, you're preparing food
Speaker 1: for other people. If you can see people eating and
Speaker 1: enjoying the food that you cook, you make better quality food,
Speaker 1: it's more nutritious, and you feel better about your work.
Speaker 1: And same general theme applies in call centers, it applies
Speaker 1: for radiologists, it applies for software developers. We've essentially got
Speaker 1: to find ways to bring the face of the customer
Speaker 1: and some of the humanity back into our work and
Speaker 1: other important pieces, beginning to describe our work in ways
Speaker 1: that are much more personal and nowhere near as sterile
Speaker 1: and clinical and detached as the standard job description or
Speaker 1: resume you see out there today. It's interesting to um,
Speaker 1: you know, you talk a lot about teams and working together. Um.
Speaker 1: I feel like that is a concept that has been
Speaker 1: around obviously for a long time, but I think we've
Speaker 1: kind of forgotten that as well. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times we bring teams together and we
Speaker 1: have the best of intentions. You know, if I were
Speaker 1: to bring a team together, it's probably a lot of
Speaker 1: people who like doing the same things I do, passion
Speaker 1: by the same topics, and then we all hit me
Speaker 1: around running and it takes three, six, maybe even twelve
Speaker 1: months before we realized that we were all kind of
Speaker 1: doing the same thing, and we didn't sit around and
Speaker 1: say here's how I want to cont reviewed. And so
Speaker 1: we're each moving quickly in our lanes in complementary ways,
Speaker 1: and so to some extent, just having that conversation from
Speaker 1: the outset can make things move a lot faster and smoother.
Speaker 1: And Tom, I gotta ask you, because in reading this book,
Speaker 1: one of the things that really struck me was you
Speaker 1: have very practical advice for people at work, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're all in these situations at work I mean, I
Speaker 1: have the best job in the world. I have the
Speaker 1: best partner of the world, So no issues here. But
Speaker 1: other people I'm talking about, you know, might not have
Speaker 1: it as perfect as I do. What's your advice to them? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. I I think one of the things I've
Speaker 1: realized when I um AM at a cocktail party you're
Speaker 1: meeting new people is if you just ask people what
Speaker 1: they do, it yields such general and kind of generic descriptions.
Speaker 1: But when you step back and ask someone what they
Speaker 1: spend most of their time doing and to really paint
Speaker 1: a picture of a typical day, that's where you hear
Speaker 1: the stories from dad or mom who stays at home
Speaker 1: talking about coaching a kid soccer team and helping them
Speaker 1: with their development, or someone who volunteers is very active
Speaker 1: in their community talking about specific efforts and so I
Speaker 1: what I've learned is that the big contributions we make
Speaker 1: throughout the day, they can be very personal and take
Speaker 1: place within a family. They can take place within a
Speaker 1: faith based group or a community group, or with more
Speaker 1: of a typical job, and even if you're working nine
Speaker 1: to five in a normal role, um it's still really
Speaker 1: important to acknowledge the small and meaningful contributions you make
Speaker 1: outside of work, because those are some of the things
Speaker 1: that people really identify with when we take from to
Speaker 1: extended interviews and kind of put together profiles of what
Speaker 1: matters most. Well, since my partner just gave me a compliment,
Speaker 1: I'm going to toss it back because I think no
Speaker 1: one energizes others UM around our newsroom like Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: drives them a little crazy, but he's always excited and
Speaker 1: we talk about even together like just the joy in
Speaker 1: what we're doing. And I do think about, Uh, there's
Speaker 1: a line in your book when you talk about energizing
Speaker 1: specifically and you knowing you know, those those individuals who
Speaker 1: motivate um to inspire you know, or inspire others um.
Speaker 1: You know, we have such daily routines, things we have
Speaker 1: to do every day. They can become pretty boring, but
Speaker 1: you gotta do them. But when you have somebody who
Speaker 1: just either brings joy into the workplace um or inspires
Speaker 1: you and really get you to kind of keep going
Speaker 1: and even achieve more, that's pretty remarkable. Yeah. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've seen in working with
Speaker 1: a lot of leadership teams and businesses all over the world.
Speaker 1: Is it the one area where they're usually lacking is
Speaker 1: in that very specific domain of building strong relationships and
Speaker 1: energizing one another. And I mean some of it, frankly
Speaker 1: could be due to the lack of gender diversity and
Speaker 1: a lot of leadership teams, but there's there's a serious
Speaker 1: gap there in terms of you have these teams that
Speaker 1: are usually pretty good at the big idea thinking and
Speaker 1: creativity pieces, and a lot of them are good at
Speaker 1: execution and they've kind of come up through the organization
Speaker 1: because of that, but they just fall flat when it
Speaker 1: comes to energizing one another and forming initial relationships. What
Speaker 1: alone strengthening those relationships over time. But everything I've looked
Speaker 1: at in terms of research on well being and effective
Speaker 1: workplaces would suggest that that's probably the most important element
Speaker 1: to building successful teams and organizations over time. Yeah, it's interesting,
Speaker 1: you know, in at a time and you mentioned this
Speaker 1: in the first part of our conversation, you know, at
Speaker 1: a time when we're so focused on technology and our
Speaker 1: ability to leverage that minute to minute day to day,
Speaker 1: whether it's social media or even just all the tools
Speaker 1: that we use, it feels like we do often miss
Speaker 1: the opportunities for pretty basic human connection at work. And
Speaker 1: I guess what I take away. One of the things
Speaker 1: I take away from your book is you have to
Speaker 1: be sort of open to that to sort of understand
Speaker 1: that supply and demand equation that you talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have. You really do need to be open to
Speaker 1: talking about the emotional aspects of why you do what
Speaker 1: you do, because until you're able to connect your daily
Speaker 1: efforts with the influence they have on other people, you're
Speaker 1: not going to be anywhere near as motivated or energized
Speaker 1: as you could just to make a difference for the
Speaker 1: people around you. So I mean, even in a small
Speaker 1: interaction in a retail setting. Let's say, if a customer
Speaker 1: walks in who's irate about a problem that she's having,
Speaker 1: and you're able to at least get her to neutral,
Speaker 1: that's a victory worth taking a moment to recognize because
Speaker 1: you've probably changed the trajectory of that person's day. And
Speaker 1: it's those little moments that accumulate and shape our work
Speaker 1: to a great degree. Hey, well, last question before we go, Um, So,
Speaker 1: somebody who you're saying, you know, as your book is
Speaker 1: called Life's Great Question, discover how you can contribute or
Speaker 1: how you contribute to the world. If someone needs to
Speaker 1: kind of begin on this mission, what do you suggest,
Speaker 1: Obviously take a look at your book, but what's kind
Speaker 1: of the first step that we need to make. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's stepping back and asking what are the
Speaker 1: big roles that you play in life? So for me,
Speaker 1: it's being a husband and a dad and me sure
Speaker 1: you're in a writer, and saying, how do you how
Speaker 1: do you take those rules that you're proud of and
Speaker 1: you want to play in life and connect that with
Speaker 1: who you are and your life experiences and to try
Speaker 1: and be as efficient as possible. That's saying, based on
Speaker 1: who I am, here's how I think I could make
Speaker 1: a meaningful contribution to the world really on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: and try and make that more practical instead of a
Speaker 1: big philosophical thought about your broader purpose or mission or whatever.
Speaker 1: All Right, I really like it. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Tom Wrath. Congrats on the book. Life's Great Question, Discover
Speaker 1: How you contribute to the world. Check it out. It's
Speaker 1: stop provoking. It definitely got me thinking about even you know,
Speaker 1: sort of our our day to day how we interact.
Speaker 1: I have some questions. I bet you do anyway. It's
Speaker 1: a nice way to kind of wrap up what's been
Speaker 1: another crazy day here at Bloomberg.