How to love what you do: Takeaways from 'Love+Work'

by Marcus Buckingham
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Shun comparisons, find your red threads or activities that absorb

you completely, and more tips on loving work from Marcus
Buckingham's 'Love+Work'.
Anitha Moosath
October 16, 2022 / 03:11 PM IST

It helps to understand what makes you you, and drives your likes
and dislikes. (Representational image: Nick Fewings via Unsplash)
For over 25 years, Marcus Buckingham has been the world’s leading researcher on
strengths and human performance as well as an entrepreneur, founding the strengths-
based leadership development firm The Marcus Buckingham Company. He began his
career at Gallup and was

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the co-creator of StrengthsFinder. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including
First, Break All the Rules; Now: Discover Your Strengths; Standout 2.0; and Nine Lies
About Work. He is currently head of People +Performance Research at ADP Research
Institute.

“Do what you love” is advice that rolls out from parents, friends, and well-wishers often.
Unfortunately, the world is not set up to help us do this always. What if we could, instead,
find love in what we do? Marcus Buckingham tells us more about this in Love+Work—
how to usher in ‘love’ into our lives and cash in on its immense power to drive success.

“… the only way you’ll make a lasting contribution in life is to deeply understand what it is
that you love. And the inverse: you will never have a life you love unless you deeply
understand how to contribute to others,” he writes. There's more:

1. Loves and Loathes

Buckingham introduces us to the concept of Wyrd (pronounced the same as ‘weird’), an

ancient Norse term that refers to the distinct spirit each person is born with. It is this spirit
that makes each of us love some things and loathe others, and shapes our individuality.
This ‘extraordinary complex’ combination is also the powerful source of our excellence
and success.

2. The conformity trap

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Unfortunately, the world around us—be it the workplace, schools, or even our own
families—tend to obscure the uniqueness in us. The demand
mostly is for conformity, expecting us to go through standardised testing at schools and
meet prescribed goals, skills, and attributes at workplaces. In fact, many of the processes
and tools used by organisations are seemingly designed to distance employees from who
they really are. “Your unique loves, your uniqueness in general, runs counter to the
organisation’s need for uniformity… and so the goal of work is experienced by you as an
ongoing effort to make you as much as possible like every other salesperson,
housekeeper, teacher, manager, nurse, machinist, or whatever your role might be,” he
says.

3. Finding the love in what we do

According to Buckingham, our fullest life is one where our loves and work flow in an
infinite loop, with the energy of one fuelling the other.
Highly successful, resilient, and engaged people don’t necessarily “do all they love”, but
“find the love in what they do”, every single day, he says. They get a chance to do
something that plays to the best of themselves every day. In the context of work,
Buckingham feels that we don’t need to hold out for that perfect job where we do all that
we love. Instead, we can learn the skill of finding the love in what we do—“identify those
activities that excite us, where we feel at ease, at our best, pinpoint those moments or
situations or outcomes that we love, and then learn how to weave them into what we do,
every day”.

4. ‘Red threads’

Among the multiple activities that throng our lives, there may be ones that we lose
ourselves in totally. When engaged in these, time rushes by and life seems to be easy-
flowing. Buckingham calls these the “red threads”. He offers a red thread questionnaire
too, comprising questions like “when was the last time you found (you were) looking
forward to work” and “when was the last time someone had to tear you away from what
you were doing”. Once you identify your red threads, weave them into the fabric of your
life, at home and at work, he says. In a team work scenario, we can collaborate better if
we have an understanding of each other’s red threads.

5. Resist the pull of comparison

Comparison is a fool’s game, an insult of sorts to the uniqueness in us, he observes. But
again, that is what parents, schools, social media, and even workplaces often force us to
do. Comparison hides the real us from ourselves because it uses standardised criteria as
measure. If at all one feels the need to compare, the focus should always and only be on
contribution. For instance, while we may admire the outcome of a teammate’s efforts, we
should not try to copy his or her methods. Instead, we may use our most authentic way of
achieving the same outcome.

6. Specificity Vs superiority

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In job interviews, performance reviews, or even during daily conversations, many of us
tend to show how amazing we are or how much better we are than others. Ditch the
fakery of being ‘complete’ and differentiate yourselves instead, says Buckingham. When
joining a new team, we could describe our red threads by saying, “You can always rely on
me for…, or “I am at my best when…” We should also be comfortable with describing the
threads that are not red. “I’m not my best when…, I seem to struggle with…, I’m drained
when…, etc. This openness will help become a trusted teammate over time.

7. Mis-instincts

Buckingham explains the construct of ‘mis-instincts’ in the work context. For instance, if
we lobby for a promotion only because of the perks it offers, or choose a posting just
because it brings more prestige, it’s a mis-instinct. If our loves are to really turn into
contribution, then we should pay attention only to the specific activities, not the outcomes
—on the ‘what’ as opposed to the ‘why’ of it. So, before taking on a new role, we should
be concerned about ‘what’ we are going to be doing rather than ‘why’.

8. Love+Work organisation

An organisation’s most valuable asset is its trust. Without it, there is no way love can be
brought in. Love+Work organisations do not impose goals from above or use
performance feedback tools or do cascaded talent reviews. They would have in place a
formal team-joining programme; would prioritise frequent, one-on-one meetings between
team leaders and team members; support employees’ education; will have a strong
alumni association, and so on.

Anitha Moosath is an independent writer. Views are personal.

Tags: #books #career #employee engagement #job satisfaction

first published: Oct 16, 2022 03:11 pm

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