Job or Calling? The Difference and Why It Matters

by Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business (dou@umich.edu) and Chester Elton, Dave’s Friend, Best-Selling Author of The Carrot Principle and Leading With Gratitude (chester@chesterelton.com)

In our coaching, consulting, and research, we have engaged with thousands of people about their work (probably tens of thousands). We try to discover why people work, what they do at work, and how they feel about their work. Knowing we are again being over simplistic, we find that people often approach their work with an assumption that it is either a job or a calling. The differences in figure 1 are telling. You might think about which assumption you most likely bring to your work setting.

Of course, work is not either/or: a job or a calling. At times, jobs need to be done, tasks accomplished, and routines managed. At other times, work needs to inspire and fulfill a greater good. Many explore the importance of purpose to provide meaning to our lives. Since work occupies a major portion of our lives, defining work as not just a job but a calling becomes a major component of employee experience. In his recent letter to shareholders, Jamie Dimon (Chairman and CEO of JPMorganChase) laid out ten management learnings then ended with this statement: “Finally, we sincerely hope to see the world on the path to peace and prosperity.” As CEO, he has a job to do, but his calling is about hope, peace, and prosperity.

Let us offer some simple tips and stories about how to turn a job into a calling with personal and organization (through HR) implications.

Personal Agenda for Work as a Calling

We like to start coaching sessions with people in all jobs and at all levels of an organization with the simple question: “What do you want?” or the corollary, “How do you want to be remembered?” These questions lead to reflections on core values, identity, meaning, and personal purpose. When individuals clarify what they want, they are able to create a set of assumptions about their work as a calling.

An Uber driver said that he quit his corporate job because he wanted more flexibility to tend to his family, since being a member of his family was his primary identity. He was delighted and fulfilled with the autonomy of being a driver—his “calling.”

A high school teacher defined her identity as helping students learn and graduate so that they could have better lives. Her in-class teaching was passionate and creative, and her out-of-class time helping students progress was meaningful to her—her “calling.”

A sales manager defined his work as helping clients solve their problems more than making a sale or increasing commission. In some cases, he recommended customers use a competitor product if it better met their needs. Not surprisingly, he was often the leading salesperson for his company because his clients knew his “calling” was about them. 

An executive we coached was so engaged in his work that he lost sight of his values and identity beyond work. When he was not doing work, he felt lost and without an identity. While he had a “best friend at work,” he did not have a “best friend” who did not care much about his work. His job dominated his life. We coached him to reflect thoughtfully on the questions:

• What are my core values?

• What do I want to be known for (identity) as a person both at and not at work?

• What brings me a lasting sense of meaning, peace, and purpose?

As he reflected, he began to see his job not just as delivering on tasks and results but as helping himself and enabling others to accomplish a greater good through work. He still worked long hours, set goals, delivered results, and governed the organization, but he framed his work as ministering not just administering. His commitment to a broader calling showed up at work as he brought more feeling into his daily routines by listening more, showing empathy and compassion, and sharing personal stories and emotions. His example radiated to others and the culture around him began to change.

The leader of a family business once asked me (Chester) as his coach, “What is your goal for me?” My answer was, “I want to get you to happy.” He perceived his work an obligation to the family, and there was no joy in his work. This attitude had impacted every relationship in his life. No one at work wanted to talk with him, and his family didn’t like to be around him. He had a job—he had lost his calling. Once he was able to re-engage with the joy of his business and how his products and services brought joy to his customers and employees, everything changed. He found his calling. He found happiness and joy in his work. His calling now puts a smile on his face where his job only brought him obligation and long days at the office. 

While jobs have to be done, and done well, when the work is framed as a calling, polarization is replaced with peacemaking, self-interest turns into other service, social isolation morphs into belonging. 

Organization Agenda for Work as a Calling

While most of the pivot from work solely as a job to also being a calling occurs at an individual level with new assumptions and actions about finding meaning in a job, work as a calling can also be institutionalized into the organization through human resource efforts.

HR professionals, coaching and partnering with business leaders, can help make personal callings into organization cultures with some of the following actions:

• Share information. Story-telling is a powerful way to engage in a calling. Our stories are our traditions. Make sure that goals, strategies, and results are linked to broader purpose statements (missions, visions). Invite customers, community members, and employees who have been served well to tell their stories that reinforce work as a calling. People forget the numbers; they will remember the stories.

• Engage employees. Decades ago, Frederick Herzberg suggested that employees need hygiene factors (extrinsic working conditions that make jobs easier) and motivational factors (internal elements of work as a calling). His basic logic continues as the employee value proposition has evolved to offer employees hope that their work will serve others.

• Develop competencies. Opportunities to improve competencies give people a chance to grow. We have all had a leader that believed in us and gave us a chance to do more than we thought we were capable of doing. HR often has stewardship to define and develop leaders to have the skills to create strategic unity, manage differences with respect, build positive accountability, and disagree better. Create opportunities to grow and people are more likely to find their passion and calling.

• Model calling behaviors. HR professionals can personally model work as a calling and can coach and monitor business leaders to ensure that work as a calling becomes part of leader actions. When people see personal passion, they are more likely to join in the cause. Enthusiasm has no substitute!

Positive organization cultures turn internal values into external value, and work as a calling delivers stakeholder value.

Conclusion

While we focus on work becoming a calling, we are aware that much of work resides in the daily routines of a job: reports, approvals, meetings, processes, policies, procedures. Connecting these routines to a higher purpose makes them not only tolerable but enabling.

One last idea to make work a calling: Never underestimate the power of simple acts of kindness. The message you send when you drop a note of encouragement or give people a little more of your time and listing ear is, “You matter. What you do is important. I appreciate you.” When people know you care and that they matter, everything gets better. We promise you that it will put a smile on their faces . . . and yours! Send your people home happy!

We both are passionate about our work—not as jobs but as callings that help others.

How do you make your work into a calling? We would love to hear your stories.

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Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.