Tamara Myles is a speaker, professor, and co-author of “Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee.” She specializes in the science of human flourishing at work and serves as faculty at Boston College and the University of Pennsylvania.
In this episode, Tamara challenges the biggest misconception leaders hold about purpose and productivity. She explains how leaders often view these as opposing forces, when research shows they actually create a virtuous cycle that drives engagement, performance, and innovation.
Tamara emphasizes that self-awareness through intentional reflection time is essential for productivity, as leaders who carve out solitude to think strategically can better connect their work to meaningful impact.
Tamara shares insights from studying positive outlier organizations and leaders who excel at creating meaningful work environments. She identifies role modeling as the number one factor that moves the needle in changing team behavior and performance.
Discover how purpose and productivity work together to create high-performing teams that feel fulfilled in their work.
You can find episode 480 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Watch this Episode on YouTube | Tamara Myles on Number One Factor for Changing Team Behaviors
Key Takeaways
[02:53] Tamara explains the biggest misconception is that purpose and productivity “are at odds with each other” when they “create a virtuous cycle.”
[03:49] Tamara confirms leaders are responsible for 48% of our experience of meaning at work.
[05:51] Tamara outlines her framework of three pillars: community, contribution, and challenge.
[10:30] Tamara emphasizes that “clarity around values” is foundational to meaningful work.
[12:49] Tamara highlights that reflection is actually a huge part of creating that meaning at work.
[15:40] Tamara explains that bad management habits get passed down from generation to generation.
[18:49] Tamara identifies “role modeling the behaviors” as “the number one needle mover.”
[21:48] Tamara confirms that alignment between spoken values and actual behaviors is huge.
[25:57] Tamara explains to work on things that are important but not urgent yet.
[30:02] Tamara defines community as “do I matter here,” contribution as “does what I do matter,” and challenge as “does my growth matter here.”
[32:29] Tamara shares that Americans are “much more achievement driven” while Brazilians are “much more relational.”
[36:38] Tamara explains workplaces are one of the last places where people from different backgrounds still come together. Tamara discusses that what really matters is how they design the time that they are together. Tamara connects consequences to “going back to clarity and expectations.
[42:44] Tamara closes with three daily questions: “who did I connect with,” “is something better in the world,” and “did I learn something today.”
[44:44] And remember…“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi
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Quotable Quotes
"Purpose is a symptom." Share on X "Clear is kind." Share on X "Reflection is actually a huge part of creating that meaning at work." Share on X "These bad management habits get passed down from generation to generation." Share on X "The number one needle mover is role modeling the behaviors that they want to see." Share on X "Alignment between spoken values and then actual behaviors is huge." Share on X "We are all humans. We are fallible. Nobody's perfect." Share on X "Our workplaces are one of the last places where people from different backgrounds with different ideologies, different beliefs, different skills, maybe different languages, you know, still come together to work on a common goal.… Share on X "We can have discipline without being rigid." Share on X "Every meeting is a decision support system." Share on X "Sometimes you need to be direct and you need to be, you know, quick thinking and acting and sometimes you need to be patient." Share on X "People just don't know how to run meetings. People don't know how to do the basics of like, follow up and all that. It's just, it's really epidemic bad." Share on X
This is the book mentioned in this episode
Resources Mentioned
- The Leadership Podcast | theleadershippodcast.com
- Sponsored by | www.darley.com
- Rafti Advisors. LLC | www.raftiadvisors.com
- Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC | selfreliantleadership.com
- Tamara Myles Website | www.makeworkmeaningful.com
- Tamara Myles LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/in/tamaramyles
- Tamara Myles Instagram | @tamaramyles
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