For the majority of my life, starting as a teenager, I’ve always liked work and have drawn deep rewards and fulfillment through it.
After some deep reflection, including my 6-month “forced” sabbatical in 2021 (aka my burnout and crash), and the last year taking off my entrepreneurial hat and going to work for a company someone else owns and runs (after 18 years I was a W2 again), I’ve started to flesh out and define, as minimally but profoundly as possible, what great work means to me.
This also coincides with my one-year anniversary this week at A2 Hosting which has been a great year for me and my work in our world and reminded me that work can be fun and impactful.
Why I’m Sharing This
I’m offering this, first and foremost, for my own clarity and wisdom, and second, for others, to draw ideas and inspiration from it.
There are many paths for all of this, this is just mine.
Take what you need. Leave the rest.
I should also note, I reserve the right to change my mind, to be wrong, and to continually update and refine this as my life evolves and my experiences inform it.
OK, here goes.
What Is Great Work
Last year as I was putting together my resume and contacting some people I’d be interested in working with, and now after the last month as the company I’ve been working for was acquired, I’ve had the opportunity to further crystallize my key values about work.
Great work for me is both transactional and transformational. There are financial and intrinsic rewards I need and draw from it.
But it’s Both/And. Not an Either/Or.
For me, it’s all about balancing and connecting and extending the transactional side of work (the exchange of money for execution and contribution) with the transformational parts (some may call this psychic income – but my connection to it with fulfillment, meaning, purpose).
Specifically, this is about making and ensuring space for both:
Profit AND Purpose
Money AND Meaning
I’ve had it many times over in my work and have led others with both and seen the dramatic results it can have on quality of work, innovation, creativity. And I’ve always gotten way more than I bargained for when I could connect it.
When you have Both, it’s magic. Especially on a team.
But I also want and need both in my work.
The RFPs to Great Work
In reflection, when all of these values are connected, I’m highly energized, inspired and motivated to stretch and grow and give my best to my work for our team or company’s highest impact … and I feel I belong to and can contribute to Something Bigger than myself.
These are the RFPs of Work – or three key values:
- Rewarding — Money matters. I need it, I want it, and deserve fair compensation for the value I bring. But also, beyond money, I crave growth—personally and professionally. I want to be supported and stretched in the growth of my skills and impact, and know that my increased contributions through that growth are valued and reflected, financially and for my career.
- Fulfilling — I want my work to matter, for myself and others. And I want to contribute my time, skills, strengths and experiences for our mutual success. It should be challenging and stretching. It should be creative and innovative work that pushes the status quo to something better in my area of contribution. And I want to connect and collaborate with my team and our customers, on a journey together.
- Purposeful — I need my work to connect to Something Bigger—a cause that matters beyond me or the company — FOR people (customers) and WITH (team) people. Call that a purpose, a vision, a mission, but doing it alongside others and for the betterment of others gives me an energizing drive to make my best contribution.
Belong and Contribute: What I Ultimately Want
This is it: To be a part of a team and company where I can belong and contribute to something bigger than myself.
Belonging and Contribution are interconnected parts of a whole and a consistent process that builds on each other.
They are mutually reinforcing and dependent functions of each other:
- Belonging — I want to sense and feel that I am part of this group. I want to belong to a group on a compelling journey together. And I proudly wear our mark and feel a part of the group.
- Contribution — I grow that belonging as I consistently contribute meaningfully and impactfully to that group and our journey together. Internally I should see the results of my work and feel that meaning, but also I should see and hear good signals externally from my team and leaders.
My Statement of (Great) Work
All of that leads me to a vision for great work, that sounds like this:
I want to belong and contribute my best and highest to a team, in a great culture, working with and for others, on a journey toward Something Bigger and Better, together.
How This Works for Me In Practice: My Current Role as a Case Study
I want to share how I see this practically working in my current work as Chief Evangelist at A2 Hosting/World Host Group, leading team communications and customer community.
ME (And My Role) — I’m Energized and Inspired by My Role & Rewards
I relish my role as Chief Evangelist for our company, team and customers. It connects many of my diverse experiences and skills together, with and for people I care about – in a unique and cool and new way that energizes and inspires me.
This role was one facet or part of previous roles I’d had, but now I’m getting to focus and dive deeper into this area that resonates with me deeply.
I’m seeing more and more how I can contribute to it and week by week I’m making and seeing my first contributions to it.
It also pays me fairly and consistently, offers me benefits like Paid Time Off, insurance and more, and I see the opportunity for more rewards as I contribute and impact others in my work for our company.
WITH OTHERS (Team) — I’m Contributing to A Band of Pros Who Go Far Together
I want to do great work with great people—real professionals, but even better humans. Like a band, I want to create something powerful, something that resonates, something that moves people, TOGETHER.
In the last month, as I have moved into a much bigger team in our Commercial Team, I’ve been inspired and encouraged by my new teammates. They simply want to do great work together.
They’ve inspired and reminded me that I want to be part of a team that is:
- Collaborative – A mindset of shared success—we win together. We win BETTER together. We’re not independent rockstars, we’re a band that makes great music together.
- Supportive – I’ve seen and benefited from a culture of positivity, mutual support, and encouragement. Many of us have families and young children. We pitch in and help each other. And that’s very inspiring.
- Cutting Edge Challenges — I want to tackle new challenges. I want to stretch. And I know growth happens when I push the limits—personally and professionally. And my work gives me some space and resources to dive deeper into areas of passion, skills and strength to make myself better for our work together.
I’m getting to do some of the best work and constantly being challenged to deliver my best. ANd I’m better for it. So is the work.
FOR Others (Our Global Team, Customers & The Open Web) — I’m Contributing to Something Bigger and Better For Others
This is where I see my work extending and connecting to an even bigger sense of purpose and meaning.
I’m deeply energized and inspired when I get a sense and confidence that what I do has an exponential impact for others.
There are two groups we work with and where I see even bigger potential for impact:
- Team Community — “Communication is oxygen.” Add deep connection and that’s magic. And part of our new work is helping communicate with and connect our global team together to all of this. To vision – where we’re going as a company, to who our customers are and their hopes, dreams, goals, challenges, and obstacles. And to each other. We’re around 800 people now and I’m getting to take some of the things I did previously at iThemes and scale it so our team feels the RFPs of their work and see how what they do supports others on their journeys. How it all makes a difference and their part in particular. How we can work even better together, giving our best and highest toward it. We’re starting with internal updates on Teams, clips of our leaders sharing vision and values and critical updates, alongside a monthly newsletter. Our plan to grow that to be more impactful, clear, consistent, connective and aligned. And hopefully soon – inspiring and engaging.
- Customer Community — This has been the work I’ve been doing since March 2024 for A2 Hosting — specifically our Agency Success team, starting and growing our agency community by supporting and collaborating with great agency owners. If they win, we win. And then everybody wins together. I connect with agency owners and also our bigger customer base as they are entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders. All roles I’ve had and done before and resonate deeply with. I can safely say I’ve been where they are before. And entrepreneurs, whether an agency owner or small business owner are the builders, innovators, and creators of our global economy, offering transformative products and solutions to their customers and shaping our future. And I believe supporting them fuels a better world. Our platform, products, teams help them do just that. And we have entrepreneurs leading it.
ON A JOURNEY TO SOMETHING BIGGER TOGETHER: The Internet and the Open Web
The final Something Bigger I connect my role to wraps all of this in an umbrella: The Internet and specifically the Open Web.
The Internet, which I’ve spent most of my adult life working in or around, is the most innovative communications tool ever invented by humans.
It’s transformed life on our planet in a few short decades. If I step back and look at it all, it’s mind blowing to think how fast it’s changed our planet and still in its infancy.
And I’m honored to have been one of billions to use it and benefit from it in my life and career.
And it’s no secret I’ve spent 20 years of my life in Open Source, specifically through this thing we called WordPress.
I believe WordPress is and has been a critical player in the rapid expansion and development of the Internet we enjoy today. The numbers grow every time I check, but 40%+ of the Internet is powered by WordPress.
Because of its open source roots and the incredible community of humans who have contributed to it, I’m very honored to continue to contribute to it and promote it, alongside other incredible open source tools like Drupal and Joomla.
And that brings me to the Open Web.
In 1999, I bought this domain and started cobbling together HTML in Claris Home Page on nights and weekends, for my first website. Later on, I got to use WordPress to take all of that to the next level.
What I sometimes forget is the incredible freedom and opportunity I had in doing all of that.
All because it was OPEN. It wasn’t a closed system. It wasn’t censored. And I could for the most part, post whatever I wanted when I wanted to. I could Click Publish on my ideas, thoughts, perspectives and yes, eventually my first business.
All of that opened the door to the crazy adventure of life and work I’ve experienced for the last 20 years now.
And … I want it to remain open and free to my children and generations to come.
So when I invest my time, energy, and talent here at work, I feel I am:
- Empowering innovators and entrepreneurs, like me.
- And helping grow and protect the Open Web—for them and for my kids’ kids. And the rest of the planet.
All of this is why I’m energized and inspired to show up at my best.
And that’s why I want to do this work, here, with these people, for this mission.
Final Words
I don’t think I’m alone in this.
I’ve felt these things personally as a leader and teammates. But I’ve also seen it resonate deeply in others I’ve worked alongside.
I believe most of us want something inspiring and compelling as part of our “work.” Not just a simple paycheck but something deeper and profound that we feel an integral part of.
Work can be so much more, when it connects like this, don’t you think?
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