36 Questions to Cultivate Your Work Well-Being

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As a collective group of employees, consultants, contractors, and gig workers, you are experiencing a triple-play of threats in your personal lives that affect your well-being. This is a big deal as the workplace transforms in response to continued disruption and change.

According to a study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the events of 2020 have threatened three core life elements: security, safety, and health.

And as Jay Jamrog, co-founder of the organization points out, the year of chaos will extend for another 12-18 months due to the continued impacts of the pandemic, civil unrest, and economic crisis.

Yikes! That seems like a long time to cope with the daily onslaught of change and follow-on adjustments. On an individual level, however, there are questions you can ask yourself to help you navigate the shaky terrain and work toward a stronger sense of well-being at work.

You Can Only Improve What You Can Measure

When conducting research for the book Activate Your Agile Career, I discovered personal well-being in the workplace is influenced by the optimization of creativity, growth, and happiness.

Applying these three filters in our measurement dashboard illuminates the insights to inform thoughtful decisions.

Consider the career strength trilogy as the well-being balance formula for desired performance. When negative forces weaken any of the elements, the career foundation starts to erode.

How Do You Measure Creativity, Growth, and Happiness?

Unlike business metrics, such as sales, loss, and profits, the triad of well-being traits is best measured by your internal evaluation system. Of course, there are assessment tools and surveys to measure these characteristics, and you can certainly calculate your scores.

A benchmark set of results may help as a point of comparison. However, many of the tools compare populations of people and are biased by corporate definitions and regional cultures. The results will differ from criteria set by you for your career.

For example, only you can determine the state of your own happiness. Self-reporting leads to reasonable results. If given a scale of one to ten, with ten being extremely happy, most people can pick a number on the scale.

 Two things define your place on the spectrum of each characteristic: your gut feeling of rank, and your responses to sample questions.

Creativity Measurement

The assumption for the Agile Careerist Development Model resulting from my research is "creativity will find its own form of expression."

Most people are creative. Yet when factors like stress and negativity permeate your existence, creative forces retreat.

Consider some of the following questions and comments as you take the temperature on your creativity levels:

1. Describe what inspires you.
2. When you were eight or nine years old, what did you want to do that you have not done yet? Provide details.
3. What creative activities do you participate in? Gardening, inventive cooking, making things, tinkering with equipment, keeping a photo journal, sketching ideas in a notebook, studying architecture, writing stories, taking a dance class, woodworking, and film studies are all examples.
4. How often do you create and/or explore?
5. What are your hobbies? How do they make you feel?
6. How many responses do you generate when faced with a problem?
7. Are you willing to remove barriers and constraints from your solutions when asked to solve a problem?
8. Do you track your ideas, big or small, and revisit them regularly?
9. Are you generating new ideas on a regular basis? How often?
10. How often do you explore other disciplines like science, medicine, or mathematics to solve problems within your own discipline?
11. What do you read or what activities do you engage in to get inspired?

Growth Measurement

The Agile Careerist Development Model expects forward movement and productive work flows as functions of growth. Incremental growth achieved through deliberate and frequent steps contributes to steady career advancement.

Growth assumes a learning ethos, where expansion of skills and a sharpened mind lead to a consistent progression of responsibility and polished satisfaction. When an agile careerist notices a hint of boredom, actions are taken to evolve the role.

The levels of growth are self-determined according to your goals and personality. Like your unique definition of success, you define your particular definition of growth markers.

Following are some questions and comments to ponder as you quantify and track your growth progress:

1. Describe the roles you have held in your current line of work.
2. Define the times you saw a need in the company and filled the gap with your talents.
3. How many times did you take on a less-than-desirable role to support company goals?
4. What types of training have you participated in to further your skills?
5. Have you added any skills to your portfolio?
6. Is the study of leadership integrated into your workplan?
7. Have you engaged in any parallel pursuits, side gigs, or passion projects to further your knowledge and/or satisfy your curiosity?
8. Are you being rewarded financially for your progress?
9. Does your growth strategy consider the balance of life and work?
10. Do you take responsibility for your own growth by actively pursuing work and projects that interest you?
11. Are you self-directed when it comes to your workday and job responsibilities?
12. Looking back, how have you improved?
13. How did you address setbacks and challenges?
14. Do you give of yourself in the workplace for others to benefit? Provide examples.

Happiness Measurement

 Scores of authors and neuroscience advocates have studied happiness because of its integral role in personal health and the well-being of our planet.

A TED Talk elaborated on the happiest places on earth as measured by Happy Planet Index (HPI). The country of Bhutan measures Gross National Happiness. As a reader of happiness books, this makes me smile, and I am grateful the topic of happiness is trending.

While not an expert on the many studies of happiness, the stark difference between my own dark sadness and luxurious happiness is evident. When a deep funk rolls in like a spring thunderstorm, happiness is hidden.

In contrast to the frustration of work’s dark times, joyful work possesses the exalted status of contentment and renewed energy.

The happiness zone within our life’s work provisions the pipeline for creativity and growth, reinforcing the interdependent triumvirate of the Agile Career Development Model. The model includes happiness because it is integral to our hopes and dreams.

Among the three agile careerist attitudes, happiness is perhaps the easiest to measure, by simply answering the question, “Am I happy?” The key, however, is in the habits included in the following questions:

1. Are you happy with your current work situation?
2. Do you keep a gratitude journal or keep track of what is going well?
3. Do you look forward to going to work?
4. Are you working on any projects that hold your attention and interest?
5. What is your experience when you collaborate with others for the purpose of working toward a shared goal?
6. Is helping others at work part of your daily habits?
7. Do you share credit for accomplishments?
8. Are there other attractive roles in your present company?
9. What are your accomplishments?
10. Name your proudest work accomplishment. Are you working on projects similar to that now or in the near future?
11.  Could you be happier somewhere else?
12. Is your current role a bad fit?

Reflection in Action

There are abundant concepts to analyze the impact of 2020’s grip on our lives. This timeframe has also been described as the time in between or transition.

While watching Michael Jordan’s multi-part Last Dance documentary on Netflix, I am reminded of his infamous hang time, when the world stopped as he reached for the hoop.

When the world feels like it has stopped for a moment, and your well-being is threatened, this may be the time to make your life better. By defining what’s important to you and asking yourself some enlightening questions.

Virtual Speaking, Training, and Workshops

Ask me about my agility, adaptability, and personal branding workshops that will help you, your teams, and your organization rebound in a time of a change and disruption. Available for teams, managers, and senior leaders.

We've adapted our content for virtual platforms. Looking for a keynote, workshop, or training on the topics of agility, change management, personal branding, or future of work for your organization? Send an email: marti@konstantchange.com and we will schedule a call. Check out topic ideas for speaking and training. 

©Konstant Change, 2020