We have reached the last topic of the course, in which we will talk about the last two elements of leadership focused on human flourishing: meaning and commitment. Finding meaning in life is essential in order to be happy and depends mainly on how skilled we are when we’re looking for it. Service, transcendence, and gratitude are elements that will help us find meaning. There are numerous research studies that analyze the effect of finding meaning in work in regard to job satisfaction and performance. In the field of health, a research study was carried out comparing the results and quality of service levels in different hospitals in the United States, and they saw a clear correlation between those with the best results and those whose staff had higher levels of meaning. The research included individual interviews with the workers, in which, among other things, they were asked about their job description. In these interviews, while the caregivers of the centers with the worst results and the lowest levels of meaning talked about their occupations focusing on the unpleasant aspects, the difficulties of their daily work, and their low autonomy, other caregivers saw their occupation as a fundamental part of the hospital by being in direct contact with patients for longer times and consequently being able to have an influence in their mood and their recovery. Work can be just a job, in other words, a means to earning a living and satisfying certain basic needs, it can be a way to advance in the workplace and develop a professional career, or it can be a vocation, and when we find meaning in what we do we are more optimistic, we trust more, we commit ourselves more, we enjoy more, and we’re more generous. Seligman says that the difference between a pleasant life and the good life is precisely that we find meaning in what we do. When we find meaning, transcendent motivation is activated and this leads us to focus more on others than on ourselves, increasing altruistic behaviors. Altruism leads us to seek transcendence and is a key character strength for managing positive relationships. We can define it as doing something without expecting a reward in return, giving or helping for the simple pleasure of doing it or doing something because we feel it is part of our responsibility. We all have infinite opportunities to be altruistic in activities that adapt to our interests, tastes, or abilities. Remember that happiness has more to do with being than with having; and it also has to do with focusing more on others than on oneself. With regard to gratitude, abundance is not found in circumstances or events, but lies in the value we give to these events and circumstances and in how we interpret their impact. We all have a lot to be thankful for, even if we sometimes forget it. Surely one of the most important testimonies in this area was provided by Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and writer, who was a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. In his book "Man’s Search for Meaning," he revealed the reasons for being able to endure after having lost everything and suffered from hunger, cold, and all kinds of brutalities. For him, the hope of being able to tell the world what had happened there and try to prevent, in this way, that the atrocities he had suffered would happen again was the driving force that made it possible to overcome the difficulties. A leader focused on human flourishing looks for meaning in his leadership by focusing on giving the best service. He cares about results and genuinely cares about the people in his team. As Tom Peters said, "if you take care of the people, the people will take care of the service, the service will take care of the customer, the customer will take care of the profits, the profits will take care of the reinvestment, the reinvestment will take care of the reinvention, and the reinvention will take care of the future."
