What’s your dream job? (My P&G Story #12)

A new manager had joined our team. He knew we felt uninspired. On his first day, he took us out of the office for lunch (yes, it’s possible even when you work in an industrial estate with noisy trucks and dusty warehouses).

We had prepared a business summary and expected questions like “How can you drive double digit growth this year?” We were surprised when our new manager didn’t mention a word about business and instead was curious about our lives:

“If you weren’t working here and you could do anything, what would you be doing?”

No one in the company had ever asked us this question. There was an unspoken taboo on sharing ambitions for work and life beyond P&G. What if the company doubted our commitment and stopped supporting us?

The taboo was broken. Our manager shared his dreams and we shared ours. We got to know the human element of our each other, the one that had been hiding behind name badges and job titles.

Each time we reviewed my work plan, he would ask:

“How will this [possibly not very exciting] project contribute to your future ambitions?”

He reframed even the most mundane projects as an investment in my dream career. I still didn’t love my job, but now it had a higher purpose — I was learning skills that would be helpful later, I was overcoming challenges and becoming more resilient. As a result, I respected my manager and worked twice as hard for him.

Get unstuck by setting a higher purpose for your work. Besides not getting fired, how is delivering brilliant work helping you develop?

Are you stuck in a boring and meaningless job that you just have to do right now?

Coaching can help you make the most of it by connecting it to your overall purpose. Explore how by booking your free consultation now.

Looking forward to connecting,

I publish My Stories about getting unstuck in P&G, Solopreneurship & Life once a week. Follow me on Medium | Email desijagger@gmail.com to subscribe.

Originally published at desijagger.com on August 16, 2017.