Career Karma ♾
What goes around comes around in business and life
Karma is the spiritual principle of cause and effect. Basically, what you give is what you get; what goes around comes around. From a spiritual perspective, this concept causes believers to want to behave well so they can later expect their positive actions to benefit them in some way. What if we applied the principle of karma to business and how we build teams?
Many organizations are focused on talent retention. In the current competitive job environment, it makes sense to ensure your team is happy and wants to continue working with your company. But it’s rare for employees to stay at an organization their entire careers. So what if we embraced this fact and adopted the concept of “career karma?”
Career karma means investing in your employees so they not only produce immediate results, but results that will karmically return to your company for years to come.
Some employers are reluctant to invest in their teams because they fear upskilled employees will leave and produce for another employer. But if everyone invested in their staff, and we created an ecosystem of everyone learning and growing with their current employer, then your company will benefit from future employees’ growth at their current workplace.
We could start viewing our companies as more of a university. Students attend a university for a season of their life. They desire to be educated and equipped to start a fulfilling career. During their time on campus, they enrich the community by giving back during their education. When they graduate, they continue giving back to the university either financially or through other means. They become a proud alumnus of their university and may even return for more education or ongoing learning.
Learning and growth don’t end with university. In fact, researcher Robert Kegan has found that adults don’t hit the limit of their growth capacity once they leave university. We continue to learn throughout our life, including throughout our careers.
If we viewed companies as a university, where employees contribute their talents while a member of the organization, and are continuously invested in, then when they graduate, or move on to a new role, nothing is lost. In fact, it is a form of success to have employees “graduate” from your company because you know they have contributed greatly to your company and will continue to do so wherever they go. And if everyone adopted this approach to building their staff, then your next employee will be just as talented and skilled as the one who left for a new adventure.
Kegan advocates for deliberately developmental organizations, which continually invest in the growth and betterment of their staff. Not only are organizations with this abundance mindset able to produce incredible immediate results, they invest in the future of their brand and their industry. Leadership coach Simon Sinek refers to this as the infinite game.
“How do we become ridiculously successful? By making other people absurdly successful.” Author Donald Miller shares this wisdom with companies to help them attract customers. But the same wisdom can be applied to employees and employers. Both employers and employees can become ridiculously successful by helping each other become absurdly successful. It’s good karma.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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