Our Emotional Needs At Work

The five pillars of working well, working better, and working with joy.

A lot of the time, when I share ideas and practices about work, they’re pretty well thought through. Like the idea of #WorkKind, which is being tested and proven daily by thousands of people at work.

This article is a little different, and I hope it’s the beginning of a conversation. Work is far more than a place where we earn a living. And I’m really convinced that we have five basic emotional needs at work and that, when they are met, we work well, creatively, with purpose, and with joy. These are elements you may not have thought about before, but they play an indispensable role in how you feel, what you do, how you perform, and how you create impact through work. So, let's get down to them.

1. Purpose: More than just some warm and fuzzy intent

When your work resonates with a deeper sense of purpose, it transforms from a daily grind into a fulfilling quest.

A 2023 study by Great Places to Work reports that 86% of employees who work in companies where purpose is prioritised plan to stay, versus only 52% where purpose is not clear.

Purpose is good for business too. They also found that companies with high purpose and clarity outperformed the US stock market by 6.9%.

2. The Role of Leadership

Leadership is another cornerstone of workplace wellbeing. It's the guiding light that makes us feel the organisation we work for is secure, has direction, and is working. In turn, we feel inspired and confident that we are moving forward.

A study by O.C. Tanner found that when leaders connect their people to purpose, accomplishment, and one another, the people who work for them are 1,674% more likely to have a strong positive perception of leadership. They are 373% more likely to have a strong sense of purpose, 747% more likely to be highly engaged, and 49% less likely to burn out. Great leaders lead by example, and they lift others up. According to a survey by Virtuali, 47% of Millennials want to be leaders because they want to empower others, not because they want to tell people what to do.

3. Trust in Management

“Your manager has more impact on your health than your doctor,” says Jim Clifton, Gallup's CEO. Managers don't merely assign tasks; they cultivate a culture of health, engagement, and productivity.

A study by the CIPD reveals that managers crucially foster healthy work behaviours and that employees engaging in regular wellbeing conversations with their managers are more productive and motivated. When you find a manager who aligns with these virtues, treasure them.

4. The Importance of Team

Our need for social belonging isn't left at the office door; it’s a driving force within the workplace too.

Gallup has repeatedly shown that having best friends at work is key to employee engagement and job success and is now, more than ever, tied to key business outcomes. The secrets of high-performing teams were the quest of Google’s Project Aristotle. After two years of analysing 180 teams and hundreds of different data sets, they uncovered the #1 factor that creates high-performing teams: psychological safety. Employees felt it was far more important how team members worked together than who was on the team. As they said, “Psychological safety should be considered the fundamental platform from which everything else thrives.”

5. My Work

The final pillar is about enjoying your work, the need to have work I enjoy, the feeling that I have agency and autonomy, and that I am doing a good job.

In one study, workers who said that they always (or nearly always) had fun at work were interviewed to discover how. Control of their happiness at work was key, demonstrated in four ways: (1) a priority placed on fun at work; (2) a sense of responsibility for fun; (3) a positive orientation to the world; and (4) a sense of mastery and challenge in work tasks. I have long believed that work can and should be fun. It seems like when you focus on fun at work and feel like you're doing a good job, it is not just enjoyable—it can be fun.

Agency is the capacity for individuals to act independently, make choices, and exert influence over their environment. It encompasses the ability to make decisions, set goals, and pursue them. When workers feel they can effect meaningful change within their roles, they are typically more engaged, satisfied, and productive. High agency is a strong sign of a positive workplace culture.

Autonomy, on the other hand, is the condition or quality of being self-governing or self-determining. It specifically highlights freedom from external control or influence. An autonomous individual is one who can make decisions without needing permission or direction from others.

An article in Forbes explores the work of psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci on autonomous motivation. The more autonomy a person feels, the more motivated they become. People are best motivated to do tasks by intrinsic factors instead of extrinsic rewards. This feeling of independence and being motivated by things that are intrinsically important to me (hello, purpose) drives people to do their best work.

And a study published in the journal Work and Occupations found that workers who have higher levels of autonomy report positive effects on their overall wellbeing and higher levels of job satisfaction.

The Power of #WorkKind

I believe #WorkKind is more than a hashtag encouraging people to be kind at work—it's a profound shift in how we work. It's an invitation to all professionals to rethink success, offering a more balanced equation where people, planet, and prosperity coexist. By subscribing to the #WorkKind philosophy and making these pillars actionable, we're not just advocating our own individual wellbeing—we're inspiring others and redefining what success means at work.

It's time to make working well, working better, and working with joy the headline, not a footnote, in our professional stories. Reflect on how you can integrate these five pillars and the #WorkKind philosophy into your own professional life. Let's start this transformation today, one #WorkKind action at a time.

How do you #WorkKind, and what do you think of these pillars? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.