Workplace Wellbeing

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Realizing our Eudaimonic Potential: Lessons from Dr. Alan Waterman

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In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, Dr. Alan Waterman joins Andrew Soren to unpack what eudaimonia looks like in everyday life, especially when it comes to the work we do.

Dr. Waterman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at The College of New Jersey. He is widely recognized for his pioneering research on identity, intrinsic motivation, and the distinction between eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. His work brings together philosophy and psychology to explore what it means to live a life of purpose and fulfillment.

Their conversation touches on themes like motivation, personal values, calling versus obligation, and the kind of support individuals need to develop a fulfilling life, whether that fulfillment is found through their job, outside of it, or both.

From Aristotle to Identity: What Is Eudaimonia?

Dr. Waterman explains eudaimonia as the process of realizing our fullest potential.

He draws an important distinction between two kinds of potential. Species-generic potential refers to the abilities and traits that are uniquely human, such as reason, creativity, and moral reflection. Individual-specific potential is about the strengths, values, and capacities that are unique to each person.

Both types matter.

From Waterman’s perspective, fulfillment happens when we develop our own individual strengths within the broader context of what it means to be human. It is not just about performing well, but about growing into the kind of person we are most capable of becoming.

He describes it this way, inspired by the work and research of David Norton:

“Being where one wants to be, doing what one wants to do, where what you are doing is something that is worth doing and worth doing to the best of your ability.”

This definition highlights that living well requires both self-knowledge and effort. We need to know what we are capable of and choose to act on it.

For Waterman, this is what gives life its meaning.

Work as a Calling vs. Work as a Job

One of the clearest applications of eudaimonia to modern life is how we approach work. Waterman distinguishes between work as a calling and work as a job.

  • Work as a calling is intrinsically motivating. It’s often tied to activities or roles to which people feel connected. Not because of pay, status, or convenience, but because they find them worthwhile.

  • Work as a job, by contrast, is usually chosen for practical reasons and tends to be extrinsically motivated. It may be necessary or even enjoyable, but lacks the deeper sense of purpose that defines a calling.

Waterman challenges the notion that callings are rare.

In his view, many people experience a calling: teachers, scientists, first responders, artists, etc. However, they may not always label it as such. He also emphasizes that callings can evolve over time and show up in multiple domains of life, not just in paid employment.

Intrinsic Motivation and Person-Activity Fit

So how do we know what path might lead to fulfillment?

Waterman points to intrinsic motivation as a key signal. The activities, values, or beliefs we feel a natural pull toward are often the ones most aligned with our individual potential.

He encourages us to pay attention to resonance, a term borrowed from music. Just as certain notes create harmony within us, certain tasks, roles, or values feel more aligned with who we are. When we ignore those signals, we may succeed externally but feel disconnected internally.

Waterman also highlights the difference between interpersonal comparisons (how we stack up against others) and intrapersonal comparisons (what we do best among all our own options).

Eudaimonic fulfillment, he argues, comes from the latter.

“We are not here to fulfill someone else’s version of success. The work of a meaningful life is identifying and developing the strengths that resonate most for us.”

Harmonious vs. Obsessive Passion

The conversation also explores a critical distinction in motivation theory: harmonious passion versus obsessive passion.

  • Harmonious passions are intrinsically motivated and additive. They support our overall well-being and integrate well with other areas of life.

  • Obsessive passions on the other hand often involve a rigid attachment to goals or identities. They can lead to burnout, alienation, or the neglect of other important life domains.

Waterman encourages anyone stuck in an obsessive loop to step back and assess what’s working and what’s not. He suggests revisiting earlier moments in life where balance or joy were more present. Oftentimes, rediscovering meaning starts with exposure to something new.

What This Means for Managers and Workplaces

While much of Waterman’s framework focuses on individual awareness and alignment, the conversation closes with a practical discussion about how leaders and organizations can support fulfillment both at work and beyond it.

  • Not all jobs will be intrinsically motivating, and that’s okay. Every person still has the potential to find meaningful expression somewhere in their life.

  • Managers can support employees by creating space for strengths exploration, autonomy, and values alignment even if that expression happens outside the workplace.

  • When employers support the whole person, employees are more likely to feel grounded, satisfied, and capable in their roles.

Soren reflects on how organizations might expand their understanding of growth by including personal development alongside traditional professional development. Together, he and Waterman suggest that fulfillment at work is more likely when people are supported in growing in ways that feel personally meaningful.

Key Ideas to Reflect On

  • Eudaimonia is about realizing your highest potential by making choices that lead to a lasting sense of fulfillment.

  • Intrinsic motivation and alignment with personal values are reliable signals that you are on a path toward self-realization.

  • Work can be experienced as a calling, a job, or something in between. Each orientation has its place, depending on context and individual goals.

  • When employers support employee fulfillment outside of work, it can lead to greater well-being, motivation, and performance on the job.

Final Thoughts

From Waterman’s point of view, meaningful work is about recognizing your unique strengths, aligning with your values, and having the opportunity to express what matters most to you.

His insights are a reminder that fulfillment comes from choosing what is worth doing and committing to doing it well. This applies just as much to individuals seeking more purpose in their work as it does to leaders responsible for creating environments where people can thrive.

Resources for Further Exploration

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How to Make Work Psychologically Rich: Lessons from Shigehiro Oishi

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For years, happiness and purpose have shaped how we think about well-being. But according to Shigehiro Oishi, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago, there’s a third dimension that might be just as essential, especially for those seeking depth in both life and work.

Oishi is a leading researcher in the psychology of well-being whose work has helped expand our understanding of how people across cultures define and pursue a good life. His latest research centers on psychological richness—a concept that adds texture, curiosity, and complexity to traditional models of well-being.

In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, we sit down with Oishi to explore how this framework challenges conventional thinking, what it means in the workplace, and how we can invite more richness into our daily lives, even in subtle ways.

Psychological Richness Defined

Psychological richness is the idea that a good life isn’t only about feeling good (happiness / hedonia) or doing good (meaning / eudaimonia). It’s also about experiencing a wide range of emotions, ideas, and moments—especially the unexpected ones.

Unlike happiness, which favors comfort and pleasure, and meaning, which often stems from stability and service, psychological richness is defined by:

  • Novelty and variety

  • Complexity and surprise

  • Moments that shift our perspective

As Oishi puts it:

“It’s not always pleasant—but it adds texture, wonder, and growth.”

He likens it to eating dark chocolate: a sensory experience that’s sometimes bitter, complex, and memorable.

Why Psychological Richness Matters

Research from Oishi and his colleagues suggests that people who pursue psychological richness are:

  • More curious and open to new experiences

  • More likely to take intellectual or creative risks

  • Less likely to avoid discomfort if it leads to personal growth

In one study, students who self-identified as psychologically rich were more likely to choose challenging classes—not for the grade, but for the learning. In another experiment, simply reflecting on the value of richness increased participants’ willingness to wait (at a cost) to satisfy their curiosity.

Psychological richness, in other words, invites exploration for its own sake. It helps people engage with life not just for outcomes, but for the stories and perspectives they collect along the way.

Psychological Richness at Work

How does this idea show up in the workplace?

Soren and Oishi explore how certain jobs, like those in the arts, often rank low in satisfaction and even meaning, yet still attract and retain people because of their psychological richness. These roles tend to offer:

  • Freedom and autonomy

  • Creative problem-solving

  • A sense of unpredictability or play

Oishi highlights data showing that while social workers or teachers often rate their jobs as deeply meaningful, editors and artists don’t always do the same—yet they still choose to stay. One likely reason? Their work is stimulating, dynamic, and creatively engaging, even if not always fulfilling in a traditional sense.

Psychological richness also helps explain why some people thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments, while others find comfort and satisfaction in routine. It’s not that one is better than the other. Rather, different people (and roles) may emphasize different forms of well-being.

Simplicity vs. Complexity: The Case for Generalists

Another practical insight from Oishi’s research: generalists tend to experience more psychological richness than specialists.

In studies where participants imagined themselves in narrowly defined, repetitive roles versus more open-ended, cross-functional ones, those in “generalist” scenarios reported greater curiosity and psychological engagement. They also scored higher on behavioral measures of curiosity.

This doesn’t mean specialization is bad. But for organizations looking to spark innovation and learning, it suggests that task variety, cross-disciplinary teams, and autonomy can help create environments that support psychological richness.

Even in structured jobs, small tweaks can make a difference. For example, changing a routine, trying a new route to work, or reframing a task through metaphor or storytelling.

Challenges and Considerations

While psychological richness offers many benefits, it’s not without limits. Oishi notes that high levels of novelty and complexity can also lead to overwhelm, especially if experiences aren’t processed or integrated over time.

He cites the example of Anthony Bourdain, whose life was filled with adventure and cultural exploration, but who still struggled with meaning and coherence. Without reflection, even a life filled with experiences can feel fragmented or hollow.

Richness works best when paired with the ability to make meaning from experience. Otherwise, it risks becoming noise rather than depth.

Takeaways

  • Psychological richness is a third, vital dimension of well-being. It complements happiness and meaning by emphasizing complexity, exploration, and new perspectives.

  • Curiosity and growth often stem from discomfort. People who value richness are more willing to try unfamiliar things, take intellectual risks, and learn from unexpected situations.

  • Work can be rich, even when it’s not always meaningful or satisfying. Roles that allow creativity, autonomy, and surprise can offer value beyond traditional success metrics.

  • Psychological richness can be cultivated. Even small changes—like saying yes to a stretch assignment or taking a new path to work—can enrich our experiences.

  • Reflection matters. To truly feel psychologically rich, we must integrate and make sense of our experiences—not just accumulate them.

Final Thoughts

A good life isn’t always sweet. Sometimes it’s complex. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. But as Shige Oishi reminds us, it’s often those experiences that stay with us. The ones that challenge our assumptions, stretch our thinking, and add layers to our story.

If we want to design lives and workplaces that are truly fulfilling, we may need to look beyond happiness and meaning alone. Psychological richness invites us to embrace life’s full spectrum, and in doing so, discover a more complete picture of well-being.

Resources for Further Exploration

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Rethinking Meaningfulness Through a Cultural Lens: Lessons from Mohsen Joshanloo

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In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, host Andrew Soren speaks with Dr. Mohsen Joshanloo, a personality and cross-cultural psychologist whose research explores mental well-being, emotions, personality traits, and culture. Mohsen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Keimyung University in South Korea and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne. With a global perspective, he incorporates data from countries across six continents to challenge the assumption that emotional happiness and autonomy are universal ideals.

In their conversation, Soren and Joshanloo explore how different cultures define wellbeing, the phenomenon of “fear of happiness,” and why a sense of purpose may matter more than emotional happiness—especially at work.

The Western Bias in Wellbeing Models

Joshanloo opens with a critique of many dominant models of psychological wellbeing, which often originate in Western societies. These models prioritize individualistic traits like self-esteem, autonomy, and personal growth—an assumption that meaning must be self-generated to be authentic. These ideals don't always translate across cultures.

“The criticism isn’t that other cultures don’t value autonomy or purpose,” Joshanloo explains, “but that the definition of those things changes depending on cultural context.”

In what Joshanloo describes as collectivist or traditional societies, meaning is often derived from social roles, tradition, or guidance from elders. Far from being seen as conformist, these sources of meaning are deeply valued and can form the foundation of a fulfilling life.

Eudaimonic Wellbeing vs. Emotional Happiness

A central distinction in the conversation is between emotional happiness and eudaimonic wellbeing. Emotional happiness refers to short-term positive feelings, while eudaimonic wellbeing is rooted in dimensions like purpose, personal growth, and living in alignment with one’s values.

Mohsen’s longitudinal research has shown that:

  • Emotional happiness and eudaimonic wellbeing are correlated in the short term.

  • Over time, eudaimonic wellbeing predicts future emotional happiness—but not the other way around.

This finding suggests that chasing emotional highs may not lead to sustainable wellbeing. Instead, investing in purpose and meaning may be a more durable path to fulfillment.

Understanding Fear of Happiness

One of Mohsen’s most well-known contributions is his long-running research on the fear of happiness. Across 25+ countries, his team has explored why people in some cultures are hesitant to fully embrace or express happiness.

This fear isn’t about rejecting joy altogether, but rather a belief that intense happiness may lead to negative outcomes—like envy, loss, or punishment. In some cultures, visible happiness may invite the “evil eye” or signal carelessness, making restraint a form of protection.

“People may fear emotional happiness,” says Joshanloo, “but rarely do they fear growth, purpose, or contribution.”

This insight challenges the idea that emotional happiness is the ultimate human goal and helps expand the conversation around what it means to support wellbeing—particularly in diverse or global settings.

What Purpose Tells Us About Money and Satisfaction

In a global dataset spanning 94 countries, Joshanloo examined the relationship between income, purpose, and life satisfaction. His findings were striking: people without a clear sense of purpose placed more importance on income when evaluating their lives. For those with a strong sense of purpose, the correlation between income and life satisfaction was significantly weaker.

In other words, meaning can buffer our reliance on external markers of success.

This insight has direct implications for how we think about motivation, performance, and compensation at work. While money is important, purpose may be a more stable source of satisfaction—especially when work feels meaningful.

From Research to the Workplace: Why Mattering Comes First

So, how can organizations apply these insights?

Joshanloo emphasizes that before people can pursue purpose, they need to believe they matter. Feeling invisible or powerless undermines motivation, whereas believing you can make a difference is the first step toward purpose-driven engagement.

“You can’t make people feel they don’t matter and then expect them to be purposeful,” he says.

For leaders, this means that fostering inclusion and psychological safety is not just a cultural goal—it’s a strategic one. Only when employees feel valued can they fully engage with their work and find meaning in it.

Resources for Further Exploration

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Rethinking Performance Management for Workplace Flourishing: Lessons from Antoinette Weibel

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In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, Andrew Soren spoke with Antoinette Weibel, a professor of public management at St. Gallen University’s Business School.

Weibel’s fields of research include trust management in and between organizations, as well as employee engagement/motivation and positive human resource management. Inspired by the work of Sumantra Ghoshal, who wrote about both bad management theories and destroying good practice, Weibel has worked over the past several years to both uncover and teach findings on fostering good leadership and, more broadly speaking, better societies as a result.

Performance Management is Broken

As Weibel makes clear, traditional performance management systems fall short of helping people flourish. These systems are mostly rooted in outdated industrial models that fail to accommodate the complexities of modern, knowledge-based work. Weibel argues that traditional performance management often leads to negative outcomes such as reduced creativity, organizational citizenship, and overall performance. In other words, they destroy the very things they are supposedly in place to foster.

Positive Psychology Can Be Part of the Problem

Weibel also doesn’t shy away from critiquing the field of positive psychology despite her appreciation for its contributions. She points out that positive psychology, when misapplied in organizational contexts, can sometimes reinforce neoliberal ideals. This can lead to practices that focus on making employees happier solely to increase productivity rather than genuinely fostering their well-being.

The metaphor “happy cows produce more milk” illustrates how positive psychology (and humanistic psychology before it) can be misused to exploit workers under the guise of promoting well-being. Weibel emphasizes the need for a more holistic approach that considers systemic changes and ethical implications rather than merely applying positive psychology techniques to boost performance.

The Need for a Paradigm Shift

Weibel says that we need to shift away from a neoliberal paradigm, which prioritizes profit maximization and competition, to a more human-centric approach. This new paradigm, inspired by virtue ethics and more humanistic ideals, emphasizes freedom to be and become rather than merely freedom to have. It calls for organizations to redefine their purpose and contribute to social value, not just shareholder value.

The Global Flourishing Manifesto

For all of these reasons and more, Weibel has been working on The Global Flourishing Manifesto. This manifesto, co-created with her colleague Otti Vogt and a global coalition of HR and business professionals, outlines a vision for reimagining performance management. It is built on four core beliefs:

  1. Growing Better Together: Emphasizing collaboration and mutual development over individual competition and forced rankings.

  2. Freedom to Be or Become: Advocating for environments where employees can fully realize their potential.

  3. Purpose and Social Value: Prioritizing organizational goals that contribute to societal well-being over mere profit maximization.

  4. System Change Over Individual Appraisal: Recognizing the importance of systemic changes to foster flourishing rather than focusing solely on individual performance metrics.

Practical Wisdom and Ethical Leadership

The conversation also touches on the importance of practical wisdom, a concept rooted in Aristotelian ethics. Weibel highlights the need for organizations to cultivate environments where ethical decision-making and practical wisdom are embedded in everyday practices. This involves creating structures and processes that support co-creation, collective growth, and ethical behavior.

Final Thoughts

Weibel aims to spearhead several more initiatives to advance the manifesto. She believes the path forward is through conversation, experimentation, and learning. Two initiatives she’s already started, Leaders for Humanity and Business for Humanity, both look at creating a better system by talking to current thought leaders in this space to answer questions like: Can we reinvent capitalism? Can we heal capitalism from inside? Do we have to change our economic system? Visit Good Leadership Society to learn more and be part of the conversation.