meaning at – Misryoum highlights how leaders often overlook employees’ need for meaning, belonging, and alignment, limiting engagement and performance.
Leadership teams often get trained to chase what can be counted: output, efficiency, and performance targets. But Misryoum notes that the most consequential part of work does not always show up in dashboards.
What too often goes unseen is how people actually experience their jobs.. Do employees feel the work has meaning?. Do they feel connected to coworkers and managers?. And does the role reflect who they are and what they value?. These “invisible” drivers shape motivation and achievement because they determine whether effort feels worth sustaining or merely required.
Misryoum frames the core question employees carry into every workday: “Does this work matter. and do I matter in it?” When the answer feels like yes. people tend to invest more of their energy beyond the minimum.. When it feels like no. work can become transactional. engagement can fade. burnout can spread over time. and talent retention often suffers.
That gap matters because it explains a pattern many organizations recognize but struggle to fix: teams can meet short-term goals while still losing commitment and creativity. The cost is usually paid later, through higher turnover and deeper disengagement, even among strong performers.
In this context, Misryoum argues that leaders typically do not ignore these needs on purpose.. The challenge is practical: it’s difficult to define meaning. belonging. and alignment in ways that feel concrete enough to manage.. So companies may address them indirectly through stand-alone programs rather than building them into how leadership operates day to day.
Misryoum also emphasizes that these experiences are interconnected.. Meaning. belonging. and alignment converge on the same outcome: whether employees can see purpose in their roles. feel safe and recognized within their teams. and experience their work as a reflection of their strengths and identity.. Treating them as separate initiatives misses how employees actually experience them as one whole picture.
A leadership shift, then, is not about chasing softer ideas at the expense of performance.. It is about changing how managers lead conversations and decisions: clarifying how roles contribute to something larger. listening to how employees experience their work rather than only how they perform. and inviting employees to discuss how their responsibilities could be shaped to feel more connected and more aligned.
Insight: When leaders make room for meaning and connection, they give people a reason to bring more than compliance to the job. That is where sustained engagement and resilience tend to come from.
Misryoum highlights an illustrative example of this principle in practice: a high-performing leader sought responsibility for planning major team meetings not simply because she could do it. but because it would deepen her relationship with her manager and increase her impact on the wider group she supported.. The takeaway for organizations is clear: even small changes in who gets ownership of work can turn routine tasks into work that feels personally significant.
To Misryoum, the responsibility is straightforward.. Just as organizations cannot afford to ignore fair pay. recognition. growth. and autonomy. they also cannot treat the human dimension of work as optional.. Building workplaces where work matters both practically and existentially is not an extra.. It is a prerequisite for unlocking full capability across the workforce.
Insight: The next leadership “metric” may not be something you measure weekly, but it will show up in how long people stay committed, how fully they contribute, and how creatively they solve problems.