Tag Archives: meaning

What Does It Mean?

“So, when I try to get my team to understand what I mean, I have to look inside, at myself first?” Renata asked.

I nodded. “And making meaning is a bit of sticky wicket,” I replied, using my best croquet analogy.

“How so?”

“When we look inside to figure out what we mean, we are simply asking questions to help us interpret people, things, events, conversations,” I said. “Interpretation helps us understand the meaning. It’s not what the facts are, it’s the way we interpret the facts. And, then you have to ask the question, in relation to what?”

“Explain.”

“For a leader, at any level, it has a great deal to do with the objectives, goals or mission. How do we interpret these facts in relationship to our goals or our mission? That gives us insight into what it means.”

Work and Competence

It’s an innocent question at every cocktail party. It’s an icebreaker question. “What do you do?” is a variation on “What do you do for a living?” The intent of the question may be casual, but it may be the most serious question of the evening.

Why this focus on work? And what of job satisfaction surveys? How important is work in a person’s life? And, why does some work suck, and other work engage?

Each person, based on their internal capability, yearns for work that is just within their highest level of competence. Competence is the combination of capability and skill. Skill is the combination of technical knowledge, application of that knowledge and practiced performance. Both capability and skill are required for competence.

Competence is an integral part of happiness. The invitation for every manager is to create the environment where team members are challenged to their highest level of capability leveraging their internal competence.

Watch Tom Foster on Chris Comeaux’s Anatomy of Leadership.