Mojo and Satisfaction

Marshall Goldsmith is a professor, management consultant and executive coach. He is the author of acclaimed management-related literature. His new book, MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It, focuses on one attribute that all successful people share. He calls it Mojo.

His operational definition of Mojo is: that positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts on the inside and radiates to the outside. The use of the word ‘now’ in the definition is interesting. It denotes that people with a positive Mojo love what they are doing when they are doing it. They are finding happiness and meaning in the present. He uses the word ‘Nojo’ to describe the opposite of Mojo.

While performing any activity we have two forms of associated Mojo; Professional Mojo and Personal Mojo.

Professional Mojo is a measure of the qualities that we need to bring to an activity in order to do it well and includes (1) motivation, (2) knowledge, (3) ability, (4) confidence and (5) authenticity. Personal Mojo is a measure of the benefits we may receive from a particular activity and includes (1) happiness, (2) reward, (3) meaning, (4) learning and (5) gratitude. The terms are individually delineated and the author’s guide is available here.

Marshall Goldsmith suggests rating your different important activities on each of the ten aspects on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Using the Mojo Scorecard for a few days will allow observation of patterns. One will be able to identify areas of strong Mojo and areas of weakness. In fact, exploring the qualities in the scorecard for any endeavor makes the performance of the activity better and makes it appear more meaningful.