I've forgotten nearly every job interview question ever asked of me. But this one? This one has sat in the way back of my head since the day it was asked early, early, early in my career:
"I'm results focused. Results are what matter. Are you results focused?"
Ahhhhh … errrmmm … no! I'm results obsessed!
Ha! I mean, how else do you answer that question?
Industrialized management has a long history of waiting until a thing changes, a grand outcome or a result, before acknowledging the work, and yes, while outcomes and results are important, so is alllllllll the work that goes into making those outcomes and results happen.
I don't remember the interviewer's name. Can't look up how it's gone for him since. But clearly that gentleman 1) wasn't all that good at interviewing and 2) had found success in his industrialized results first! approach.
Some twenty years on from that fateful day, with at least half a career in tow, and dedicated time to diving into these topics for reasons only the universe knows, I can see what is missed when the focus is results only: how much meaningful progress goes into making a result happen.
Teresa Amabile's research found that making progress in meaningful work is the single biggest factor in daily motivation. Meaningful progress—small, specific, visible forward movement on work that matters to you. It's the meaningful progress that matters.
But our system of work measures results. Volume up. Readmissions down. New initiative launched. Quarterly targets hit.
Managers are confused, too. When Amabile asked managers what they thought motivated people most, progress ranked dead last. They thought recognition, incentives, clear goals, and interpersonal support mattered more.
Progress isn't just "work on the way to results." Progress, meaningful progress, is the actual source of motivation, engagement, resilience, and ultimately performance that makes results possible.
It's totally cool if you, too, are results obsessed; but here's the thing: even when those organizational results align with your own interests—because you want to be good at your job, because you care about being employed, because you want the situation to improve—the organization rarely celebrates the progress it takes to get there.
And that's a motivational miss. Yes, the result can be meaningful progress. However, it's just one moment in the work. The other moments matter just as much: The presentation you aced. The late night walking a travel nurse through line maintenance. The barrier you finally broke through. The code you committed. The meeting with the referring physician you nailed. Whatever it is that matters to you.
Amabile found that people often don't recognize their own progress—we're too close to it, or we've been conditioned by results-obsessed environments to dismiss anything short of completion as not counting. Yet the progress is happening. The feeling is available.
Yes, even in pursuit of results.
But the organization isn't going to give you this. So track the progress.
And celebrate that. Because that's what keeps you going. Then celebrate the result, too.