Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee

by Wes Adams, Tamara Myles

“A timely, clear, and actionable book” (Adam Grant) that makes the powerful case that meaning at work drives employee well-being, high performance, and even profit

Named A Best Book of the Year by Fast Company and Next Big Idea Club

We’re in the middle of the most significant transformation in work in over a century. Whether it’s remote work, the rise of burnout and “quiet quitting,” or the changing values and priorities of employees, leading an organization has never been more complex. But through all this, a single factor remains the core driver of fulfilled, high-performing teams—their belief that their work has meaning.  
 
In Meaningful Work, Wes Adams and Tamara Myles, advisers to some of the world’s most successful companies, leverage the science of positive psychology to show leaders why and how to make meaning the cornerstone of leadership practice. It is a practical playbook based on decades of research, including their own groundbreaking multi-year study of meaning at work, and stories from leaders you already admire and others that will surprise and inspire you.
 
The book reveals that high engagement, happiness, productivity, and financial performance from employees are all outcomes of helping them find meaning at work. And that every job can be meaningful when leaders create a workplace culture that focuses on the three Community, Contribution, and Challenge.
 
Whether you lead a team of call center workers, care professionals, cycling instructors, or corporate executives, this book will show you how to take small actions each day to inspire passion and performance in every employee.
 
 

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Audiobook

272 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Megan Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meaningful work emphasizes the importance of connections and communities. In today's world, we rely on work to be more than just a place where we get a paycheck. We are looking for meaning, purpose, and hope. This book reminds us that our impacts can be widespread, no matter what field we are in. This book shows exactly how important knowing the purpose of an organization is and why we crave to do something of importance.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Netgalley for this Audio Arc. I cannot wait for this book to come out to buy it for my leadership library!

[Chelsea Reining · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

This was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a very long time. The authors were concise and well spoken and all examples were relevant and perfectly applied to their sections. Everything was relevant to the current working world and political climate, but more importantly the steps and advice was reasonable and actionable.

Absolutely a book I will be recommending to everyone in my life and one I will likely reread often.

[E.R. Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬 by Wes Adams and Tamara Myles is a thoughtful and actionable exploration of what it takes to find fulfillment in our professional lives, particularly in a world where traditional job structures are being reshaped by automation and artificial intelligence. The authors offer an interesting framework rooted in three essential pillars: Contribution, Community, and Challenge. They assert these elements combine to create an ecosystem where work can transcend tasks and become a source of actual purpose.

What makes this work resonate is its insistence that humanity—not machinery—is the cornerstone of meaningful work. They unpack the idea that jobs of the past relied on muscles, more recent roles relied on brains, and increasingly, the work of the future will rely on the heart. As someone who has built a new business and category directly on heart, this resonated with me powerfully. As technology usurps more of our knowledge work, automation and algorithmic creativity can dehumanize our interactions. By building spaces where people feel valued for their contributions, connected to a supportive community, and challenged to grow, organizations can turn the Pygmalion Effect—a zone of possibility created through expectation and belief—into a powerful force transformation. I love how they use the humble goldfish - frequently called out as a metaphor for our dwindling attention span - gets a bit of a makeover in their last pages. They note that if given the space to spread out, goldfish can grow to the size of a golden retriever. The same goes for empowered employees encourages to have a growth mindset by leaders that care about their employees coming to work for a purpose, not just a paycheck.

The authors also remind us that it doesn’t take grand gestures to create change. Their idea of “it only takes a minute to win it” underscores the value of small, intentional actions that engage and elevate others. This mindset is the essence of servant leadership (something my father and my great mentor Morgan Underwood taught me). It challenges us all to be stewards of meaning, no matter our title. 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬 is more than a book about careers—it’s a manifesto for using the workplace to empower humanity, even as the nature of work evolves. I highly recommend it. It is in stores on April 1, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early look at this exceptional book.

[Kassie Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Hachette Audio, PublicAffairs, and NetGalley for an ALC and ARC of this book!

With the title of the book, I knew what I was going to be listening to. I thought that the book delved into the details pretty quickly and stayed at a level that most people could understand. The book was also focused on the employee and the supervisor, which allows more readers and a larger effect of this book.
Reminding workers and supervisors that work being meaningful is beneficial on every level.
This book gave great examples on how to make work meaningful. Both in a general way, as well as with specific stories.

I enjoyed the narrators voice throughout the entire book.

[PagesFromMyHome · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this title in scrolling through NetGalley, and I'm so glad I did!

I think this book is important for anyone in a leadership position to read and discuss with their coworkers on how to spark passion and drive performance with their team. The authors stress the importance of employees finding connection with their work, mission and their co-workers. This book gives clear examples of how their concepts have been implemented in companies, and the outcomes achieved.

Both authors were great narrators, and now I hope grab a physical copy to refer to frequently!

Thank you to PublicAffairs and Netgalley for the ALC

[Lee Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Tamara Myles on my podcast to discuss her latest work, and I loved the conversation so much I had to dive into the book.

In Meaningful Work, she and Wes Adams offer a refreshing perspective on leadership. Rather than focusing solely on output or efficiency, they present a robust framework built on the '3 Cs': Community, Contribution, and Challenge. I found the approach incredibly practical; it gives leaders clear tools to align daily tasks with a deeper sense of purpose.

If you want to build an environment where your team actually wants to show up and perform, this is the playbook you need.

[GK · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me so long to read because after getting a couple of chapters in, I went back to the beginning and started to read it like a textbook because they're were so many great concepts and examples within. I have flags and highlights all throughout. It's a great tool for leaders looking to solve people challenges, or individuals looking for something more or of their career. I haven't believed this strongly in a business type of book like this since The Speed of Trust!

Kudos to Wes and Tamara.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

These authors recommend meaning-driven leadership through building community, establishing mission, and fostering challenges for employees. In this way, you build a superorganization with intentional, values-based messaging and lived experience that leverages the power of connection and collaboration to thrive. I think this is a useful reminder that you need to be much more intentional about showing your lived values when you have widely-dispersed team.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have selected this book as Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 6/15, as it stands heads above other recently published books on this topic.

[Amanda Peppercorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a thoughtful exploration of the modern workplace. Lots of things to think about to improve my attitude towards work and how to focus on the people I work with.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book! I read it in 2025 via an eARC from NetGalley (where I posted this review originally). The book is chock full of outstanding advice for everyone in an organization's hierarchy (whether lateral or vertically oriented). It outlines what meaning is, and more importantly in doing so, it shows what it isn't. HR professionals may find more useful concepts in this book but as someone with occasional supervisory duties through committees and volunteers for programs, I still found it enlightening.

As an elder millennial, the idea of meaning at work wasn't sharply clarified until my very early 20s as an impetus beyond the rungs of survival jobs. I hadn't considered the long haul because I was more concerned with living pay-to-pay in minimum wage (or pretty damn close to it) jobs. Tracing the need for meaning as the authors do, is helpful for those who feel as though they may be waking up to a working world espousing these virtues that sound entitled. It can seem as such, based on uneven privilege distributions, not least of which is socioeconomic. I would read this as being relevant to the knowledge economies, though I think that the trades are also fulfilling for many (and are underappreciated as a meaning-making career path). It is a helpful discursive remedy and conversation starting point for those wanting to better articulate why they need work to be important to them in realms where "it just is, and that's good enough for me" won't suffice. It won't help you debate obstinate (i.e. invasive) relatives during holiday dinners who ask what you're up to these days (for that you probably need a book about boundaries- Melissa Urban has written a brilliant one), but in the quiet moments between the living of your life, it will remind you that the world you craft with your mind or your hands at work is significant.

The meaning doesn't happen overnight and contrary to what many corporate trainers might suggest, there isn't a magical secret sauce. They outline the foundations for a strong workplace culture so that it is within easy reach for any senior leaders hoping for long term change rather than quick wins among lowest common denominators. They also outline a very important caveat in the application of the book's wisdom: "work must be decent before it can be meaningful". Working at a public library I'm pretty lucky in that my work is steeped in meaning. Literacy, stewarding the commons, skill building, the power of knowledge through reading, and more...I am spoiled for choice when it comes to the ways meaning weaves through my everyday work. When reading this book, I felt more inspired in the work I do and think that this book could be helpful to spark a reminder in folks that even in the most mundane-seeming jobs there is something we are doing that matters.

Without giving too much away, the authors focus on 3 areas around which to develop a strong organizational ethos: community, contribution, challenge. Your organization may not use the same words, but probably engages similar principles. I can see how this book has the potential to generate great ideas, initiatives, hiring practices, and most importantly, clarify expectations about work from employees and standards of practice for management. Certainly worth the read for those interested in the aforementioned topics!