Building a Workplace People Enjoy
The following has been adapted from Pick Up the Gum Wrapper by Joe Bertotto.
I couldn’t believe it as I listened to a group of young friends talk with great enthusiasm about the day when they could leave their jobs to live the good life. Twenty and thirty-somethings talking about retiring? Wow! What a shame to dislike what you do so much that you would wish your day, week, year — well — basically, wish your life away!
Sadly, so many people feel this way. However, your work can provide the opposite experience. A place where your contributions are valued and celebrated. A place where you have a strong sense of affiliation with your colleagues as you strive to accomplish great things for customers and one another. A sense of purpose. A place where you are not only accepted for who you are but also encouraged and supported as you grow. A place where you’re doing more of the work you’re good at and enjoy. Think of the personal satisfaction that comes when you reshape the work experience. If they had a place like that, those young friends of mine would be eternally grateful.
It really can be like that. What companies need are leaders who also want that same supportive environment and are courageous enough to do what it takes to install the right elements. When I read a business book — and I’ve read a lot of them — the ones I find most useful are the books that give me specific practices I can begin to implement. That’s what I’ve provided for you here in Pick Up the Gum Wrapper. From agendas to activities, there are tools you can begin to use immediately after you read them. You may have to refine them to fit your style. I hope you’ll share them with others. We all have a responsibility to make our workplaces great.
YOU can be that person who makes the shift happen in your workplace. Think about that: you can be someone who can change the lives of others. You can be the person who makes work enjoyable for yourself and others. It’s not easy, and there aren’t shortcuts, but the energy you feel will propel you through and around the inevitable obstacles. The other thing that will energize you like the thrust of a rocket booster is the business results of this workplace improvement. I’ll provide specific examples as these pages unfold.
This process — the process of building a culture of people who pick up the gum wrappers — works. I’ve used it to help companies become Best Places to Work, increase their employee engagement to numbers that almost double the national average and, most of all, to have more people feeling good about walking through the door to their workplace each day rather than thinking about how soon they can walk back out that door.
The bottom line is that all of this leads to better performance. It’s no mystery that when we’re enthused about something, we tend to work harder at it while enjoying it more. The mystery has always been how to make the overall experience of work one that creates and sustains that enthusiasm. I’d like to think my contribution helps solve that mystery.
From a personal standpoint, my passion is helping others get to the same place. I live and breathe leadership and culture, so much so that I think I’ve read the majority of books published on these subjects over the past few decades. I even do my own version of book reports.
But I wasn’t always this way, as you’ll learn. I experienced the Sunday night dreads and lottery wishes just like many of you, and that’s what drives me. I know it can be different. When I found the role that matched my natural talents and worked for leaders who built trusting relationships and invested in me, my life became much better — not just my work life, but my whole life.
Keep making a positive impact!
To learn more about building a compelling workplace, you can find Pick Up the Gum Wrapper on Amazon.
Joe Bertotto has more than three decades of experience helping leaders improve their workplace environments and increase team productivity in a way that helps people live better lives. Joe works internally as the chief culture officer at Vizo Financial Corporate Credit Union and consults externally with numerous organizations successfully using this approach. Joe was one of the first Gallup Certified-Strengths Performance Coaches, and he and his wife, Judy, are the first married couple in the world to be Gallup Certified-Strengths Coaches. They have two grown, adventurous, and supportive children, Alex and Melanie. Joe played baseball at Temple University and enjoys Philadelphia sports.
