The pride and satisfaction people experience from doing a job well is etched deep into the human psyche. People are self-motivated to do good work. Those enlightened by a higher vision go a step further.
They strive to excel for the personal gratification and self-respect they experience, not for the material or social rewards associated with the outcome. For these lucky few, the desire to create mastery over their work becomes a lifelong obsession.
These people transform work into craft. By focusing on learning and practice every day, they treat the process of what it takes to create mastery as the holy grail. Their highest desire is to earn the badge of honor that comes with being a craftsperson, taking pride in every detail that is required to produce excellence.
The idea of craftsmanship as a way of life can be applied to almost every profession and endeavor. Anyone can choose to treat what they do as a craft, which is emblematic of the never-ending process of reaching for the highest quality possible.
The choice is yours. When we think of our work as a craft, we become consumed with the details and processes that contribute to high-level output. Mastery, for a craftsperson, is accomplished at every step and with every ingredient.
Perfecting the smallest act or routine is what approaching mastery requires, so craftspeople dissect each part of the process, looking for ways to improve upon them. Not everyone has the patience, focus, or learning intensity required to treat their work as a craft, but for those who do, a different life satisfaction emerges.
Those who view what they do as a craft find the many pieces of their lives connected. Everything they do, even the most mundane activities of living life, come to inform their pursuit of excellence. Creativity in finding connections to the work they do becomes amplified. And those connections can be found everywhere.
Not surprisingly, those who think of their work as a craft generally produce higher-quality work. They’re in it for the pride that comes from mastery and not just for the material rewards. They refuse to let themselves down.
It’s not a common way to approach what many people have come to think of as a “job.” But the best leaders first promote the idea of becoming a lifelong learner and then often ask people to think of what they do as a craft.
Such a simple word and concept can have a profound effect on how people orient to what they do. Great leaders know the power of symbolic words and images. Craft is one of those words.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
