Assessing Your Fulfillment at Work Through RIG: Relationships, Impact & Growth

To provide some context, Imperative was founded by Aaron Hurst, author of The Purpose Economy, and former Googler Arthur Woods to be the leadership, manager and career development platform for the rise of a new era of work.

In mid-October, half of the Y Scouts team attended Purpose 2030, a summit presented by Imperative, which brings industry thought leaders together to take action towards creating meaningful solutions to barriers which leave people feeling unfulfilled in their work. Imperative was built drawing from neuroscience, habit formation research, technology, and proprietary research to identify drivers in each individual’s purpose. Through the Purpose Assessment Platform, employees are able to discover their purpose drivers, managers can use these assessments to build and reinforce strong team dynamics and leaders can show how each person’s purpose fits into the larger organizational vision.

Imperative is the leading global expert on the science of purpose at work. Through extensive research, they have discovered that 2 in 3 people are unfulfilled at work. The goal of Purpose 2030 is to identify tangible ways to flip that number so, by the year 2030, 2 in 3 people will be fulfilled. In our discussions, we first needed to discover what fulfillment is and how we measure a concept which previously seemed intangible.

 

 

We first learned about the Cycle of Fulfillment, which is technically a positive habit feedback loop. The first step is self-awareness. This is the notion of owning your purpose and taking steps to align your daily work with that purpose. We then focused on Relationships, Impact, and Growth. We found that if these are positive in an individual’s work environment, it triggers the brain to release the “angel’s cocktail” of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine which creates the feeling we call fulfillment. This creates ambition which in turn leads to continually leaning into purpose.

The measurable piece of this cycle is the focus on relationships, impact, and growth. The task of being aware of your purpose and putting yourself in an organization who understands purpose is simply not enough. It is possible for purpose-driven individuals to still be unfulfilled in purpose-driven organizations if the right ingredients are not there to trigger the angel’s cocktail. The next step of the cycle can either make or break fulfillment.  

Fulfillment at work comes from the relationships we foster, the impact we have in our role in an organization and the personal growth we experience from the things we are exposed to in our environment, in culmination, I like to refer to these as RIG levels. Much like purpose drivers, an employee’s ideal RIG levels vary based on the individual. To become more aware of your RIG levels, consider the following questions:

• Relationships- What types of relationships do you have currently at work? Do you have the ideal number, quality and variety of relationships you would like?
  
• Impact- In what ways are you impactful at work? Are you making the type of impact that is meaningful to you?
  
• Growth- In what ways are you learning and growing at work? Does your work lead to personal growth? Is there a meaningful growth trajectory for you?

We find it can be helpful to assess your current RIG levels, think about your ideal RIG levels and honestly address the gap between the two. What are actionable plans you can make to improve your RIG levels? These small tweaks may just make waking up excited to go to work every day and coming home fulfilled a reality.

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Melissa Schonberger, Leadership Search Advisor with Y Scouts. In her role, she truly loves being able to surround herself with clients, candidates, and colleagues who are dedicated to elevating humanity through business. She finds meaning in helping others ponder and find their purpose through her conversations. Outside of work, Melissa is passionate about boxing and being a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters.

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Y Scouts is a purpose-aligned, performance-proven leadership search and development firm focused on transforming how people and organizations connect to work that matters. When you’re ready to hire a new leader, Contact Y Scouts. If you are looking for your next leadership role within a purpose-driven, performance-focused organization, please join the Y Scouts Leadership Community.