Back in the day, I used to say to my team members:
“Don’t get too personal and precious about your work”
Well, that was when we used to work like cogs in a machine.
Doing the kind of work we do nowadays where our values, purpose and mission are at stake, it is only possible to do meaningful work when we do get personal.
The additional ingredient I would add is humility.
Why?
It’s because getting personal with our work does not mean we have a license to become obsessively self-centered human beings.
Humility provides the counterbalance when we feel the need to be right, or self-righteous, and those feelings get in the way of doing the work that matters.
Let’s get personal, and do it with humility. This is my new motto.
Who’s with me? 😎
