1+1: Work as character formation + Center for Faith + Work

Here's one leadership idea and one resource I’ve found beneficial in the past two weeks:

1 idea: Work as character formation

Growing up, my attentive parents gave a lot of attention to how the “influences” in my life shaped my character. We talked at length about the music I listened to, the movies I watched, and the friends I hung out with. But now as an adult, I realize there’s one major character influence that I’ve long ignored: my work.

Leaving the traditional 9-to-5 and becoming an entrepreneur has been an absolute joy. I love having total control over my time, complete flexibility with where I work, and tasks that tap directly into my strengths and passions. It’s been such a gift that I can’t fathom going back to a traditional job again.

But in recent years, I’ve also noticed some unintentional ways that my work environment is forming my character. As John Mark Comer says, what you do does something to you—and my takeaways aren’t always pleasant.

On the positive side, my work has made me more present and peaceful. I learned early in my coaching training that great coaches were great listeners—and that to be a great listener, I had to practice being present all the time. Consequently, I began prioritizing reflection and margin in my work, and those decisions changed me, too. Whether I’m in a coaching call or not, I’m much more likely now to ask open-ended questions, pause and reflect, and listen to my own inner tension throughout the day. That’s a great thing.

But in some ways, I’m also worse off. In my previous salaried job, if someone from another department needed help, I could give my time to them without a second thought. Helping them served our common mission after all, and I got paid regardless. 

But now as a solopreneur, every minute I spend carries a literal opportunity cost that could significantly alter my income. The disappearance of the steady salary makes me more time conscious, and honestly, more greedy with my time. As someone who has always struggled to be generous, the focus on billable hours in my work seems to be deforming my character, proactively fighting against my efforts to become a generous person.

I could name many more ways my job shapes my character: how being the face of a business undermines humility, how answering to no one makes healthy submission harder, and how earning recognition inflates my ego, to name a few. Bu what about you? How does your work form you?

Are the incentives at your job making you more collaborative…or competitive? Is your culture making you more anxious or peaceful? And what about the people you interact with? Are they forming you into a judgmental person or a compassionate one?

These are nuanced questions because the same input could have varied outputs. Sometimes a gossipy person prompts us to become more courageous and take a stand. Other times, we fall right in with them and become more self-righteous. It’s not just your environment, but how you respond to it.

If you see something convicting on those top rows of character traits, ask yourself what in your work is shaping you in that direction. And before you start hunting for a new job, ask yourself, What would need to change in my mindset or habits to counteract this force and build the corresponding virtue?

What we do—and the environment in which we do it—does something to our character, identity, and mindset. But we have a surprising amount of agency in that process, too.  

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• How has your character changed (for good or ill) since you began this season of work?

• Which forces at work are contributing to those changes?

• What could you do to change your trajectory for the better?

1 resource: Center for Faith + Work

If you’d like to unpack this concept with others, join me in Fort Wayne on March 19 where I’ll be speaking at the Northeast Indiana Center for Faith + Work. This monthly gathering for coffee and conversation explores the deeper dimensions of our paid and unpaid work, helping you approach all of your work with thoughtfulness and intentionality.

PS: No, I never wondered how cliff diving was filmed.