Marshall Goldsmith, world renowned author of the recently published Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It and international authority on leadership development, declares his operational definition of mojo, “That positive spirit toward what you’re doing now that starts on the inside and radiates to the outside.” 

He explains, “Mojo plays a vital role in our pursuit of happiness and meaning because it’s about achieving two simple goals: loving what we do and showing it. It is the moment when there’s no gap between the positive way we perceive ourselves—what we are doing—and how we are perceived by others.”

In today’s economy, organizational leaders, HR professionals, managers and, yes, employees, may be struggling at times to stimulate their positive spirit, feel engaged, and put forth their best efforts. They, in fact, may need to recharge their mojo. 

Goldsmith and his daughter, Kelly Goldsmith, an assistant professor of management at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, conducted a research study with 3,000 participants to measure meaning and happiness at work and meaning and happiness at home. 

Their findings concluded that people who were happy and fulfilled in one aspect of their lives were happy in other aspects of their lives.

“People who see themselves as succeeding at work are the same people who see themselves as succeeding at home,  explains Goldsmith. 

“This has interesting implications for HR professionals who often think about what the company can do to help increase an employee’s satisfaction. 

“I’m focusing on what the individual can do to experience happiness and meaning at work and at home. It’s not a function of the company or job; it’s a function of our [each individual’s] mindset and it’s cheaper than increasing the HR budget.”

Try This Exercise at Work

Starting out with simple exercises as reviewing each meeting and your participation in it after the fact may get you on the right road, suggests Goldsmith. 

“Let’s imagine that you’re going to a meeting and you’re dreading it. In fact, during the meeting you’re in a bad mood. What if you knew that at the end of the meeting, you had to evaluate your experience of happiness and meaning in the meeting? 

Plan to ask yourself just two questions—‘How happy was I at this meeting’ and ‘How meaningful was this meeting?’

“My prediction is that you’ll act differently, rather than just being miserable in the meeting and making everyone around you miserable. 

“You’ll say, ‘How can I make my experience in this meeting as meaningful and happy as possible?’ You won’t be perfect but you’re going to get better each time because you’re thinking about it.”

This change in mindset puts you in charge of your behavior and attitude. A Mojo Scorecard is available on www.mojothebook.com that allows you to score every activity of your day against professional mojo components (motivation, knowledge, ability, confidence, and authenticity) and personal mojo components (happiness, rewards, meaning, learning, and gratitude). 

For each activity, you score yourself with the number 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) in each component. 

As you review your scores in your activities, you will see patterns emerge, and you can begin working to change your behaviors, notes Goldsmith. 

Teaching your employees to do this as well can increase employee engagement and help them to achieve more happiness and meaning in their work and in their lives. 

Goldsmith concludes, “We can change the way we view ourselves in the world; we can change the way we act; and we can change our mojo.”