Three Key Strategies You Need to Thrive at Work

Thriving at work isn’t just about fulfilling the daily grind and hitting your monthly quota; it involves creating a mindset and environment where feelings of fulfillment, productivity, and resiliency can truly flourish. In this month’s blog, we will discuss three key strategies for thriving at work. 

These strategies can be adapted and utilized by employees, workplace leaders, or human resources professionals in order to promote well-being and maximize performance and satisfaction in the workplace.
 

1. Cultivate a Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is a term that describes openness to learning and growth, and reflects an ability to embrace failures and see setbacks as learning opportunities [1]. Those with a growth mindset view characteristics (such as intelligence) as attributes that can be developed and molded, rather than as fixed or unchangeable.

Those with a fixed mindset are more likely to take feedback personally, avoid challenges and give up easily when faced with difficulties. In contrast, those with a growth mindset are more open to feedback, develop resources and skills to overcome challenges, persevere in the face of difficulties, and report overall higher job and life satisfaction [2]. Additionally, studies show a relationship between a growth mindset and increased employee engagement, performance, and innovative behaviour [1].

So what are some practical tips for cultivating a growth mindset?

• Foster Self Efficacy:

  Believe in your ability to succeed through effort, instead of ‘natural talent’. Recognize that your actions contribute to your success, and view failures as opportunities for growth rather than indicators of fixed character traits [2,3].

• Embrace Challenges:

  Approach challenges as opportunities to expand your capabilities and develop new strategies. Embrace the learning process, knowing that overcoming obstacles leads to personal and professional growth [4]. Further, be open to trying new strategies to attain your goals [1].

• Maintain Optimistic Expectations:

  Cultivate optimism by focusing on positive outcomes, possibilities, and progress. A positive outlook and trust in your abilities can foster resilience in the face of setbacks [5].

• Focus on Strengths:

  For employees, actively seek opportunities to identify and cultivate your unique strengths, leveraging them to enhance your performance and satisfaction at work. As a leader, foster a culture that values and encourages the utilization of strengths among your team members. By recognizing and capitalizing on individual strengths, both employees and leaders can drive productivity, innovation, and overall success in the workplace [1].

• Self-Reflection and Compassion:

  Being kind to yourself when you fail and giving yourself encouragement when things feel hard are essential to fostering a growth mindset [6]. Remember, it’s hard to learn from growth if we feel bad about ourselves when we fail!

2. Strategically Design Your Work 

A strategic work design refers to the deliberate structuring and arrangement of one's tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities within the work environment [7]. Research indicates that one's work design is an important predictor of intrinsic-motivation [8]. Moreover, mindfully designing jobs that foster feelings of self-accomplishment and relatedness can enhance subjective well-being [9].

For crafting an optimal work design, consider the following factors:

• Autonomy and Decision-Making Ability:

  Leaders can empower individuals with the freedom to make independent decisions within their roles, including things like hours and location of work and the ways in which tasks get done. Employees can advocate and ask for autonomy wherever possible [8,10]. 

• Task variety and Diversity:

  Leaders can provide opportunities for engaging in a diverse range of activities that match employees’ interests, abilities and capacity, fostering a dynamic and stimulating work environment. Employees can volunteer or ask for new tasks or opportunities to learn new skills [8,10]. 

• Task Significance:

  Employers should aim to ensure that employees understand the impact of their work outcomes on others, instilling a sense of purpose and meaning. 

• Feedback Mechanisms:

  Establish mechanisms for employees to receive direct performance-related feedback from their tasks, enabling continuous improvement and growth [8,10].

• Built Environment:

  Consider how the physical structure of the work environment impacts employee well-being and consequently, productivity, and strive to incorporate employee needs and input into how the workplace is designed.

• Tools and Technology:

  Ensure employees have access to the tools and technology needed to get work done, as well as the skills required to use them effectively.

• Interpersonal Collaboration:

  Facilitate employees in harnessing the collective skills and resources within teams when beneficial, and in navigating group dynamics and fostering positive interpersonal relationships during collaborative endeavors.

• Time management:

  Seek employee input on determining whether the amount of work is reasonable within the time frame given. Support employees in prioritizing tasks and utilizing time management tools and strategies.

3. Engage in Meaningful Action

Meaningful work implies that individuals have the opportunity to express themselves fully – showcasing their talents, values, creativity, and beliefs [11,12]. Meaningful work allows individuals to thrive through a sense of purpose, growth, development, and make contributions to a larger community, which can positively impact relationships and boost overall well-being.

Meaningful work enables individuals to identify with, and adjust to, the organizations they work for [13]. This has been shown to enhance feelings of vitality as well as positive regard, mutuality, and belonging in their professional relationships, which empower individuals to be creative in their work [13]. In addition to creativity, meaningful work promotes job performance by facilitating engagement with and commitment to one’s work [14], risk-taking, and problem-solving [15]. These effects also support wellbeing outside of the workplace by mitigating work-related exhaustion and building self-esteem [13,14]. 

Each of us has the capacity to uncover and express meaning for ourselves [11]. Importantly, leaders play a vital role in shaping workplace culture and facilitating these processes. Leaders who empower employees to engage in meaning-making reap the benefits of more engaged and productive employees. 

How to create and shape meaningful work? 

• Self-Expression:

  Think about your personal values, beliefs, and talents. Then, identify and dive into workplace tasks, projects, and initiatives that align with yourself and allow for self-expression [15].

• Professional Development:

  Opt into learning, training, and professional development opportunities [16].

• Meaningful Memories:

  Reflect on a meaningful event or situation that happened at your current workplace [15]. 

• Goal-Setting:

  Set a behavioural goal that you feel would have a meaningful impact within your workplace. As you pursue this goal, reflect on the meaningfulness of your actions [15]. 

• Working for Others:

  Consider the coworkers, individuals and communities who benefit from your work and make an effort to help others when you are working [17]. 

• Leadership Development:

  Consider your strengths and areas for improvement in your ability to support your team in engaging in meaningful work. Helpful skill sets include emotional intelligence and psychological health and safety training.  

How can you support your employees and promote a thriving workplace?

Recognizing that thriving and wellbeing are individual experiences, it's crucial to understand that there are established methods for shaping the workplace environment to support these goals. Individuals need support from their organizations to effectively address the challenges present in the workplace, which can otherwise hinder their ability to thrive. While each person may face unique challenges, leaders and HR professionals can influence the organizational culture to promote growth mindset, effective work design, and meaningful engagement. By acknowledging the broader impact of leadership on employee wellbeing, organizations can implement changes that foster an environment conducive to thriving and productive outcomes for all employees.

To learn more about these thriving principles, as well as how leaders, employers, and HR professionals can support their employees in thriving, book WellIntel Talk’s newest speaker Mae Kroeis (MPH-HP) for your organization’s next talk. In her talk Surviving to Thriving: Key Pillars of Workplace Success, Mae equips attendees with an understanding of the value of thriving at work for both employee well-being and business outcomes, specific strategies for building personal resources and actively thriving at work, and actionable strategies for contributing to a positive and thriving workplace environment. 

Written By: 

Mae Kroeis, MPH-HP, WellIntel Talks Expert Speaker and Leader in Mental Health Promotion
Jordan Beck, BA, WellIntel Talks Volunteer

References:

[1] Liu, Q., & Tong, Y. (2022). Employee Growth Mindset and Innovative Behavior: The Roles of Employee Strengths Use and Strengths-Based Leadership. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.814154

[2] Kondratowicz, B., & Godlewska-Werner, D.. (2022). Growth mindset and life and job satisfaction: the mediatory role of stress and self-efficacy. Health Psychology Report. https://doi.org/10.5114/hpr/152158

[3] Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47, 302–314. https://doi.org/10. 1080/00461520.2012.722805

[4] Ehrlinger, J., Mitchum, A. L., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Understanding overconfidence: Theories of intelligence, preferential attention, and distorted selfassessment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 63, 94–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp. 2015.11.001

[5] Burnette, J. L., Pollack, J. M., Forsyth, R. B., Hoyt, C. L., Babij, A. D., Thomas, F. N., &  Coy, A. E. (2020). A  growth mindset intervention: Enhancing students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and career development. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 44, 878–908. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719864293

[6] Kwan LY-Y, Hung YS and Lam L (2022) How Can We Reap Learning Benefits for Individuals With Growth and Fixed Mindsets?: Understanding Self-Reflection and Self-Compassion as the Psychological Pathways to Maximize Positive Learning Outcomes. Front. Educ. 7:800530. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.800530 

[7] Parker, S. K. (2014). Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health, ambidexterity, and more. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 661–691. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115208

[8] Güntert, S. T.. (2015). The impact of work design, autonomy support, and strategy on employee outcomes: A differentiated perspective on self-determination at work. Motivation and Emotion, 39(1), 74–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9412-7

[9] Magnier-Watanabe, R., Benton, C. F., Uchida, T., & Orsini, P.. (2019). Designing Jobs to Make Employees Happy? Focus on Job Satisfaction First. Social Science Japan Journal, 22(1), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyy040 

[10] Morgeson, F. P., & Humphrey, S. E. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1321–1339. doi:10.1037/ 0021-9010.91.6.1321

[11] Lips-Wiersma, M., & Morris, L.. (2009). Discriminating Between ‘Meaningful Work’ and the ‘Management of Meaning’. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(3), 491–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0118-9

[12] Rothausen, T. J., & Henderson, K. E.. (2019). Meaning-Based Job-Related Well-being: Exploring a Meaningful Work Conceptualization of Job Satisfaction. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(3), 357–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9545-x 

[13] Cohen-Meitar, R., Carmeli, A., & Waldman, D. A.. (2009). Linking Meaningfulness in the Workplace to Employee Creativity: The Intervening Role of Organizational Identification and Positive Psychological Experiences. Creativity Research Journal, 21(4), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410902969910 

[14] Fairlie, P. (2011). Meaningful Work, Employee Engagement, and Other Key Employee Outcomes: Implications for Human Resource Development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13(4), 508-525. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422311431679

[15] Fletcher, L., & Schofield, K.. (2021). Facilitating meaningfulness in the workplace: a field intervention study. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(14), 2975–3003. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1624590 

[16] Voegtlin, C., Boehm, S. A., & Bruch, H.. (2015). How to empower employees: using training to enhance work units’ collective empowerment. International Journal of Manpower, 36(3), 354–373. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-10-2012-0158 

[17] Allan, B. A., Duffy, R. D., & Collisson, B. (2018). Helping others increases meaningful work: Evidence from three experiments. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(2), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000228