“How can I be significant in my industry?”

What does it mean to be significant? Does it matter, and if so, why? What is your industry and does staying within your industry better or worse? How about your role? Has it stayed the same, or are you developing?

Industry

I am a travel guy. The opening line on my blog site is,

“I‘m a traveler by profession and by nature. When I’m not speaking or writing about travel, I’m probably planning my next adventure.”

With the exception of the US Air Force, my career has been in the travel industry:

Airline

Distribution

Luxury

Experiential

Call Center

Caribbean Retail

Trains

Car Rental

Online Travel

Membership Travel

Group Travel

Association

Short-term Rental

I’ve met a lot of people who work across industry boundaries, leveraging their skills in new ways, getting better and better at what they help companies accomplish. I admire these folks for growing their skills irrespective of the company or industry. Legendary. Significant.

Role

Like most, I started at the bottom and was eager to learn. I quickly found the path to promotion and took roles that lead there, believing that would lead to more significance. It definitely led to increased visibility and responsibility. I stumbled here and there, learned how ‘upper management’ wanted things done, learned finances and executive presence. The air gets thinner the higher you go, and decisions get tougher.

In 10 years, I was a Vice President at American Airlines (yes, I definitely fell behind some who made it faster). The greatest learning lesson was in communicating with those I was entrusted to lead, and with those upward who led the company. I realized that I could learn more from those who moved ahead of me. In some sense, we are all followers, maybe of “what” rather than “who.”

I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of others.

I seek the things they sought.” -Basho

I traveled. Meeting with clients and supplier-partners was critical to increase innovation and product adoption. Traveling, role and company were all aligned. As Matthew McConaughey said, “Greenlight.”

I learned that the career ladder became scaffolding, so rather than upward, growth went sideways. I took roles in software development, marketing and sales. My title changed to Evangelist. I spent more time building bridges, creating relationships, explaining new products, improving productivity. I was on the path to significance.

Significance

Significance certainly comes with all sorts of connotations. I will try to keep it simple and without judgement. The American Psychological Association defines significance as a noun,

Significance, “the extent to which something is meaningful or of consequence.”

There are folks whose sole aim is significance and others who do not think about it. Some stumble on it while significance eludes others. Social media, including Facebook and LinkedIn, are outlets creating significance. Writing, blogging, and posting lead to other forms of significance.

“… the extent to which something is meaningful or of consequence.” To whom?

Bosses take, leaders give. We’ve probably worked for both. Maybe, at times, we’ve been both. I have. Significance swings both ways, as in, “I had a significantly terrible boss.” and, “I made a significant mistake.”

How important is significance? Last month, the New York Times published an article, Workers Are Gaining Leverage Over Employers on the current downside of worker retention. The article lauded the work that companies like IBM are doing.

“Efforts like the one at I.B.M. are, to some degree, a rediscovery in the value of investing in workers.”

And,

“it’s about making managers more accountable for mentoring, developing and building talent versus buying talent.”

The search for significance turns into something around meaning.

Meaningful

Friends and those we meet along the way add to the level of meaning we receive from our work. Development and learning are meaningful. To some, giving back is meaningful.

Deloitte published a great article this year on meaningful work, Elevating the workforce experience: The work relationship, Part 6 of a six-part series on the core relationship attributes that together influence and shape the Workforce Experience.

“Although worker perks, learning opportunities, flexible working schedules and workspaces, innovative technologies for collaboration, and building a positive company culture are indeed important aspects of the workforce experience, none are as fundamental to the worker as their work.”

After a year of Covid, more workers have a different view of work life. Forbes published an article on Apple workers’ response to going back to the office, Back To The Office? No Thanks, Say Apple Employees. HBR, 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2021 and Beyond, reports that at-home workers are more productive than in-office workers. Here are the nine trends:

1. Employers will shift from managing the employee experience to managing the life experience of their employees.

2. More companies will adopt stances on current societal and political debates.

3. The gender-wage gap will continue to increase as employees return to the office.

4. New regulations will limit employee monitoring.

5. Flexibility will shift from location to time.

6. Leading companies will make bulk purchases of the Covid vaccine for employees — and will be sued over Covid vaccine requirements.

7. Mental health support is the new normal.

8. Employers will look to “rent” talent to fill the skills gap.

9. States will compete to attract individual talent rather than trying to get companies to relocate.

Summary

The Today Show reported that in April, 4 million people quit their jobs.

Cutting across role, industry and even significance is the need for meaningful work. We can find significance without meaning, but that flight is short. The climb to significance is long, elusive and probably lonely.

As managers, we can help our teams find meaningful work in what they do. Endless meetings and bad PowerPoint can become meaningful experiences. Performance reviews can become meaningful. Customer engagement can become meaningful for both the customer and the provider.

As workers, we should find work that is meaningful. We should find relationships that matter. At the end of the job, these are the things that we take with us. I was fortunate to have managers who understood that meaningful work is different for each employee and adjusted our work. Yes, it can be done.

To that, I say thank you to those leaders I worked for, who created meaningful work.