When you turn up for work every morning, what emotions do you experience? Do you feel like you’d like to do your very best? Do you think you should do just enough for what you consider fair for what you get paid? Or, perhaps, do the minimum you can get away with?
Well, these emotions do not remain permanent forever. They change on a daily basis as all of us know.
Awareness of these emotions has significant opportunity for us to explore higher order contribution. Marshal Goldsmith in his book Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It defines ‘Mojo’ in an interesting and insightful manner. He says: “Mojo is the positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside.”
Mojo to Nojo
And the opposite of Mojo is Nojo! Recognising Nojo is simply as easy as Mojo.
Let us look at some of the tell-tale signs that reflect if we have the Mojo at work:
Taking responsibility: High Mojo is characterised by a deep desire to ask and take additional responsibility and contribute higher. This calls for a lot of internal motivation, keenness to add value and become valuable. On the other hand, those afflicted with Nojo try to “play the victim”. They shy away from additional responsibility and see it as exploitation or overwork that is not compensated.
Moving forward: Mojo makes people forge ahead, addresses and aims to clear obstacles, examines alternative courses of action to deliver on commitments. On the other hand, Nojo makes people simply “march in place” and do the minimum.
At the slightest event of a perceived constraint, you seen them freeze and stop acting
Running the extra mile: Mojo indicates that you run the extra mile when required. You do not become a clock-watcher. You do not need supervision as you do it yourself and make milestones a source of energy for moving forward. Nojo delivers the minimum and does not summon extra effort to complete what you set out to achieve
Appreciate opportunities: You have admirable attitude towards the opportunities for contribution that lie ahead of you and are only ready to grab. Nojo is the opposite. You at best tolerate what is required of you. You make the best of the opportunities when propelled by Mojo, whereas you “endure it” when Nojo rules your emotions.
You are inspirational: When you are around, you are a source of inspiration for colleagues and that is Mojo. If you are painful to be around, you know what rules your emotions
You’re curious: Your Mojo makes you more and more curious about the world around you and how it impacts your work for the better. With Nojo, you are disinterested.
Zest for life: Finally, Mojo adds the zest for life in you and makes it very meaningful. Under Nojo conditions, you become “zombie like”.
How does it work
Understanding how Mojo (or Nojo) is formed needs attention to four ingredients, as documented by Goldsmith. While we will see each of them in detail in the future columns, let me briefly touch upon them to offer some food for thought:
Your identity: This is all about whom you think you are. Without a firm understanding of our identify, we may not able to appreciate why we lose or gain our Mojo
Your achievement: Focusing on both what we bring to the tasks we perform and what the tasks give us are both important to size up our achievement.
Your reputation: Who do other people think you are? What do other people think you have done lately? This is simply the scoreboard others keep about you.
Your acceptance: This has got to do with what can you change, and what is beyond your control.
Mojo appears in our lives in various shapes and colours. Some experience it throughout and in everything they do, and others in a few things they do. Understandably, at work without Mojo, we cannot expect to move ahead.
Hence, understanding what drives us, and our mojo, becomes all too critical for our progress.
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