The Power of Mattering: How to Feel Valued and Valuable in Your Career

Squiggly Careers

AmazingIf

Careers, Management, Business

4.9 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

🦞 Join our Learn Like a Lobster Sprint: https://bit.ly/4oZzJ3F This week on the Squiggly Careers podcast, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from Dr. Zach Mercurio’s book The Power of Mattering. They talk about how mattering goes beyond belonging, why it boosts motivation and wellbeing, and what happens when we feel invisible or replaceable at work. From personal reflections on high and low mattering moments to practical ways to help others feel noticed, affirmed, and needed, Helen and Sarah bring this idea to life with real-world examples. You’ll learn how small actions — from giving meaningful feedback to showing appreciation — can make a big difference to how people feel, perform, and connect at work. Episode 514 🦞 Pre-order Learn Like A Lobster: 🇺🇸PRH US - https://bit.ly/3KxTeBn 🇬🇧 Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3KcRZaR ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:30 What is mattering? Feeling valued and valuable 04:39 Mattering vs belonging — what’s the difference? 07:42 The data: 4 in 10 people feel invisible at work 10:07 High and low mattering moments in your career 17:00 The 3 ingredients of mattering 18:44 Noticing others in meetings 22:35 Affirmation vs recognition 27:36 Making people feel needed 33:41 The mattering spectrum: meaningless, mattering, enmeshment 35:27 How to increase mattering for yourself and others 🎯 What You’ll Learn - How to understand the psychology of mattering at work - The difference between belonging and mattering - Three simple ways to help others feel valued and valuable - How to create a stronger sense of purpose and performance in your team 📚 Resources Mentioned The Power of Mattering by Dr. Zach Mercurio For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com More ways to learn about Squiggly Careers: 📩 Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 🏃‍♀️ Join the Skills x AI Sprint: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNQl9gsac8BXnWe2qoGuHkLKwsygjP_Ma&si=l7kODG3JpopH0Irz 📮 Get Squiggly Careers in Action in your inbox: https://bit.ly/SquigglyCareersInAction 📚 Read our books: The Squiggly Career and You Coach You: https://www.amazingif.com/books/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast. And before you listen to today's episode, I just
0:05.0	want to let you know about some news that Sarah and I are very excited about. And that is that our new book,
0:09.8	Learn Like a Lobster, is ready to pre-order now. We really care about everybody learning and growing at work,
0:16.7	but we know it is not easy to do. And so we're borrowing some brilliance from lobsters to help you to do it.
0:22.9	The book takes three inspiring and surprising abilities of lobsters in terms of how they grow
0:29.0	and applies it to how we can learn at work. So if you want some inspiration and you need some
0:34.0	practical insights to support your learning, growth and development. This is the book for you.
0:38.9	And if you pre-order now and send your pre-order to hello at learn like a lobster.com,
0:43.8	you can join the lobster library where we have a community of lobster learners ready for you to learn with,
0:50.1	some live sessions, and this will all happen before the book arrives.
0:55.4	So pre-order the book now,
1:00.7	send it to hello at learn like a lobster.com and get started with your learning straight away.
1:07.0	Now let's get on to today's episode. Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast. And before you listen to today's episode, I wanted to let you know about some news that Sarah and I are very excited about.
1:12.7	And that is that our new book, Learn Like a Lobster, is now ready to pre-order.
1:17.7	We think that learning is so important to people succeeding in their squiggly career.
1:22.1	But we recognise that it is not easy to do.
1:24.7	And so we wanted to inspire people to look differently at learning and we think
1:29.0	that lobsters are the role model that we have been missing. We really, really appreciate it when
1:34.4	people pre-order our book. It means that our book gets momentum and also you get it first. But we know
1:40.1	it's a while before that book arrives. And so who pre-orders we have got a special surprise.
1:46.2	The surprise is the Learn Like a Lobster Library and you will become a member of the library when you
1:52.2	pre-order the book. In the library you will find three live learning sessions with Sarah and me,
	...

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