Mattering Matters for You and Your Company
Back in November, I started to hear about a new term (for me) called Mattering. Though new to me, mattering was given a huge boost in the late 1980’s by Gordon Flett, a Professor of Psychology at York University. Although psychologists use it as a term to measure well-being, I became interested in it from a career satisfaction and company performance perspective.
As Gail Cornwall wrote in the New York Times,
Mattering is “a core, universal human need,” a necessary component for well-being, Dr. Flett said. But it’s tricky to define, he added, because people sometimes confuse it with belonging, self-esteem and social connection.
Mattering involves “more than feeling like you belong in a group,” he explained; it’s also being “missed by people in that group if you weren’t there.” When it comes to self-esteem, you can like yourself and feel capable, Dr. Flett said, but “you still won’t be a happy person if no one notices you when you enter a room.”
To matter, people must feel valued — heard, appreciated and cared for — and they must feel like they add value in ways that make them feel capable, important and trusted, said Isaac Prilleltensky, a professor at the University of Miami and a co-author of “How People Matter.” It’s a two-part definition: feeling valued and adding value. (Emphasis mine.)
The highlighted last point has important implications for the workplace. Can the workplace reach peak performance without considering whether people feel valued? What can be done to improve people’s feeling that they matter at work - both from a leader’s perspective, but also, what is within the employees control.
Do any of these situations apply to you?
You feel that you are easily replaceable at work.
You don’t understand how your work fits into the broader picture of what your company is trying to achieve.
You don’t know how the metrics (KPIs) you are measured by directly impacts your organization or the broader company.
You sometimes question the priority of your work.
You are told your work matters but are not given the resources to be successful.
If you answered yes to any of these, there is a good chance you don’t feel as if you matter enough. In a recent poll I conducted on linkedin, only 38% people responded that they mattered a lot at work. This has dire consequences for people’s well-being, commitment, and productivity.
As an employee, it's easy to see why this is demoralizing. Who wants to work when you feel not just like a cog, but a redundant cog, in the wheel.
As a leader, these things should matter to you because they lead to
Suboptimal performance
Employee dissatisfaction
Employee absenteeism
High turnover
As Cornwall writes, not mattering can have dire psychological consequences.
Research suggests that people who feel like they matter experience more self-compassion, relationship satisfaction, and greater belief in their capacity to achieve their goals, while lack of mattering is associated with burnout, self-criticism, anxiety, depression, aggression and increased risk of suicide.
As a leader, you cannot build a great company without people who feel valued. You need every last job to be filled by someone who feels they are part of a team, that their contributions make a difference, that their unique skills are being put to great use. If you, as a leader, find yourself questioning that statement with regards to any position, you should ask yourself whether the job is really necessary, not whether the person is the right person.
Some questions to ask yourself as a leader:
Are you making your team feel as if every team member matters?
Your company should be routinely taking the pulse of the organization through anonymous surveys to see how people feel on the mattering scale.
Does your company have a sense of shared mission?
Your company will only thrive when employees have a sense they are accomplishing something great together. At my last company, it was re-writing the technical rails of the financial industry. It was a meaty goal that excited people, but sometimes got lost in the day-to-day. Think of ways to show and celebrate progress toward that mission, and continue to reinforce it.
Are you communicating enough with your employees?
The simple answer is no, as any quick search on this topic will show. Your communication will likely never be perfect, but one simple thing to keep in mind is the marathon metaphor. Leaders who are responsible for implementing change in their company have generally been thinking and working through the problem leading to change for a long period of time. They’ve considered alternatives, held discussions with colleagues, and come to conclusions. Those conclusions can be thought of as the finish line of a marathon. Most of the people impacted by the change will be on various portions of the marathon course: some may have been involved in parts of solutioning, but others may be impacted out of the blue. Think about how much communication it took you to reach the finish line. Then be compassionate to the smart, motivated people running the marathon, but who started at a later point than you did. If you want their best, you need to give them time to reach the finish line as well.
Do you hold off on decisions until you’ve heard your employees' opinions?
You’ve gone through the rigors of hiring a talented workforce. Make sure to include them in decision making, and in more than a token way. Your employees want to be valued for all they bring to the table. You ask for their commitment, and that requires you to include them in decisions that impact them.
Do you recognize and celebrate their contributions?
Most smaller organizations I’ve worked at have had a good way to say thanks across all levels of the organization. But I’ve noticed something lost over my years in corporate careers: the real stopping, as a team, to celebrate milestones, to recognize people, and to give people time to breathe after reaching a big milestone. In our conscious efforts to move fast, we have forgotten that we are all people, not machines. That we need recognition beyond raises, email thanks, and promotions: that we need time to appreciate progress. This is different from needing to recharge via vacation, because it is a joint celebration that may take the form of a little celebration at work combined with taking the foot off the accelerator for a period of time. Such periods reinforce the sense of progress toward the joint mission.
As an employee, you also have to ensure you are doing to your share to feel, and make other people feel, as if they matter.
Have you made an effort to engage with others beyond the necessary work meetings?
With hybrid work, or fully-remote roles, this becomes even harder. Make an effort to reach out in a more personal way, and explore other ways to build your community.
Do you not feel you do not have the context for your role?
If not, seek it. Ask your management why you are doing what you are doing in a way that makes it obvious you want to be part of the solution.
Have you made every effort, but still don’t feel like you matter? Hopefully you feel safe to talk to your HR team. If you still don’t feel as if you matter, it may be time to think about finding another opportunity. You do matter, and you deserve to experience and feel it.
Resources:
I enjoyed Gordon Flett’s York Circle talk on mattering.
The Mattering Movement has great resources, including talks and books.
I first became of mattering through two New York Times articles (subscription may be required). Gail Corwall’s “Want to Believe in Yourself? ‘Mattering’ Is Key.” and Natalie Proulx’s “When Have You Felt That You Mattered?”
Finally, if you want to dig deeper into matter, this review article from Gordon Flett is a good place to start.
