In this episode of Start With A Win, Adam sits down with Tom Rath, an author and researcher who has spent the past two decades studying how work can improve human health and well-being. His 10 books have sold more than 10 million copies and made hundreds of appearances on global bestseller lists. Tom’s first book, How Full Is Your Bucket?, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and led to a series of books that are used in classrooms around the world. His book StrengthsFinder 2.0 is Amazon’s top selling non-fiction book of all time. His newest book, Life's Great Question: Discover How You Contribute to the World, released last year.

During his 13 years at Gallup, Tom led the organization’s strengths, employee engagement, wellbeing, and leadership consulting worldwide. Tom has served for the past five years as an external advisor and Gallup Senior Scientist.

The conversation begins around the idea of making more meaningful contributions and work and in life. Tom shares that he typically starts each day by asking the question: What could I do today that will continue to grow and contribute to the people I know and love, and my community, that will continue when I’m gone? What am I going to do today that makes someone else’s life better? These contributions can be big picture, but they can also be daily tasks or interactions that improve the lives of others in the long term. He believes that if we are spending a little time in our day making a contribution like that, we can accumulate those over time, and make our work more meaningful and more effective.

Tom also shares about a rare condition that causes him to be more susceptible to many cancers, but for him, having the reminder of mortality is a very powerful force for good. It’s something we’ve seen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic—a sense of urgency to evaluate our daily routines, how we impact people around us in the immediate and the long-term, and our relationship with our work. Prior to the pandemic, the way we worked on a daily basis was a relic of an industrial era when work was just plain bad for our well-being. Tom believes that most people have had a dysfunctional relationship with work for too long.

Organizations have been so structured around profits and productivity. So each individual needs to ask themselves: Are my relationships, family, community and life better off because I joined this organization?

We went into pandemic with horribly low expectations of what we get out of our work. But it is possible to have a job where you feel like you help people every day and not just enrich the pockets of your employer. Tom would love to see a great restructuring of how we work, and explains how companies can play a part.

Well-being in a job is key. Tom shares about his experience with big employers who spend tens of millions of dollars on employee wellness programs, but their leaders are the ones working around the clock and expecting their employees to always be on. But then they ask why the programs are not working; “When employees see the people they look to us leaders eating over their keyboard every day and not taking time to move around…and not talking about these things, no one in the organization even feels like they have the permission to take care of themselves or their own health.”

Episode Links:

https://www.tomrath.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TomCRath/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authortomrath

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trath/

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