You create meaningful work, one intentional step at a time. You won’t find it at the end of a long chase or a busy stretch. That’s the heart of Justin Jones-Fosu’s new book, Stop Chasing, Start Creating: A Timeless Fable on Mindset, Resilience, and Meaningful Work. Get the book here (paid link): https://amzn.to/4zrOIc4 (Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases).
Justin returns to the Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast to help high achievers, leaders, and HR professionals stop chasing applause, busyness, and approval, and start building lives, teams, and organizations rooted in core values.
Chasing vs. Creating: The Shift to Meaningful Work
So what are we chasing? Justin sums it up in two words: External validation. We chase applause, busyness, and other people’s approval. Creating is the opposite. It’s internal alignment, and it produces impact and meaning. The shift sounds simple, but it’s hard, because society keeps pushing us toward the scoreboard. Justin wrote his book as a business fable on purpose. Many people are suffering from information fatigue, so he reimagined The Tortoise and the Hare inside a company called Forest International and told the origin story of how the tortoise became the tortoise.
Incidentally, the tortoise was never slow. “Slow” is a comparison term. The tortoise was strategic, resilient, wise, and steady. You don’t need a radical life overhaul to find meaning. You need one intentional step.
The Three Parts of Meaningful Work
Justin defines meaningful work with three simple tests. First, it’s significant or purposeful to you. Second, it’s aligned with your values. Third, it provides a positive impact on someone or something (and at times, yourself). His research centers on creating meaning, which is the intentionality behind those three things.
That intentionality led Justin and his wife to create the Meaningful 67 Challenge. Habit research suggests it takes an average of 66 days for a new behavior to stick, so they asked, “Why be average?” Consistency is where meaning gets built, and it fits beautifully with the habits step in Nicole’s SHINE methodology.
When Healthy Ambition Turns Into Unhealthy Chasing
Ambition isn’t the problem. Nicole loves a driven achiever (CliftonStrengths Achiever is one of her top five). Justin says you’ve crossed the line when the work is no longer purposeful to you, no longer aligned with your values, and no longer creating a positive impact. That’s why his first recommendation is a true core values assessment. Not what you think you value, but what you value when you take the time to examine it.
His cliff jump story makes the point. On an anniversary trip to Curaçao, Justin jumped 40 feet, filmed it, and posted it about facing fears. The likes barely trickled in, and he felt deflated. Then, in the Miami airport, he ran into a college friend he hadn’t seen in 20 years who told him the video inspired him to face his own fears. The friend hadn’t liked, commented, or shared it. Justin had been so focused on numbers that he missed the impact. Today, he hides likes and share counts on his posts and asks a better question: Am I creating this to be liked, or to help someone?
Nicole adds a reminder for organizations: Core values should never be words on the wall instead of behaviors in the hall. And your personal values should match the values of the place you work.
Serving Out of the Overflow
Servant leadership still matters, but Justin warns that many leaders forget to serve themselves. Picture a champagne tower at a wedding. When the leader at the top keeps tipping their glass to fill everyone below, they block themselves from ever being full. When leaders fill themselves first, the overflow naturally pours into the people around them. As Nicole puts it, you can’t be a thirsty water giver.
Resilience Requires an Ecosystem
Nicole grew up as a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of person. Justin’s definition of resilience goes further. He calls it a resilience ecosystem, and it includes a rhythm of assessment (asking quarterly, “Am I living according to my values?”), a peer group, and mentors. When a major initiative collapsed in March 2020, his mastermind group told him, “Justin, watch your own video.” In the fable, Tano the Tortoise is mentored by Petra, the HR badger, a nod to Justin’s own years in global HR.
Justin was also tested by his own message. Two days after his book launched, his mom was hospitalized. He spent the following weeks driving between Charlotte and Hampton, Virginia, to be with her, even with publisher expectations on the line. He chose his values. His challenge to listeners: Identify the one place you’re out of alignment and build an intentional habit around it this quarter.
Leaders Shape Meaningful Work More Than Mission Statements
Justin’s team recently completed a national study on meaningful work in America. Two findings stand out. First, 71% of people said their leaders impact the meaningfulness of their work more than the organization itself. Second, 77% said organizations confuse busyness with meaningfulness. Nicole connected the dots with SHRM research: The number one reason people quit is their leader, because leaders create climates, and climates create culture.
The good news is that you can create meaning in any job. Using job crafting research, Justin teaches a three-rhythm model: Perspective (how you choose to see it), task (what you choose to do), and relationship (who you choose to engage). Nicole shared the story of Barry and George, two sanitation workers in Mooresville who brought meaning to their route by quietly helping housebound residents with their carts.
Two Simple Tools for Intentional Leaders
As a strategist, Justin gave leaders two measurable habits. The first is 1MC/W: One meaningful connection per week. Block 15 to 20 minutes on your calendar for one intentional, meaningful conversation (or start with one per month). The second is 5SC², five self-care strategy challenges: One thing you’ll do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually to care for yourself. Justin’s team reviews these during monthly care calls that focus on the whole person, not the business. Small steps, like checking in on a family going through a hard time, are how cultures transform. To equip your managers with habits like these, explore Nicole’s employee training catalog.
Your Race, Your Pace
Justin’s hope for every reader is simple: Create meaning, whatever that looks like for you. We can run the race of life to beat others, or we can run it to finish what we started. Your one intentional step might be reading five pages a day, writing a weekly handwritten note to your team, or taking a daily walk outside. As Justin said in the rapid-fire round, a vibrant culture is amazingly intentional.
CONNECT WITH JUSTIN JONES-FOSU
Justin Jones-Fosu is a speaker, researcher, two-time TEDx speaker, and author of Stop Chasing, Start Creating: A Timeless Fable on Mindset, Resilience, and Meaningful Work. Learn more and connect with Justin here:
Buy the book (paid link): https://amzn.to/4zrOIc4 (Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Book website: https://stopchasingstartcreating.com/
Website: https://workmeaningful.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iworkmeaningful/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwdXsR45s2f3TN2p82rJctw
BUILD YOUR VIBRANT CULTURE WITH NICOLE GREER
Learn more about Vibrant Culture and how Nicole Greer can help your team succeed.
Download the Speaker Packet: https://vibrantculture.com/speaker-kit-request/
Explore the Employee Training Catalog: https://vibrantculture.com/catalog-request/
Explore the TILT 365 Assessments (a great way to uncover the character strengths behind your values and intentions): https://vibrantculture.com/product-category/tilt-365/
As an Amazon Associate, Build a Vibrant Culture earns from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
