Choose Your Passion
Why should you care whether or not your people have any passion for their work?
The answer to that is that when people care about what they are doing they work with more commitment, energy and inspiration. Anthony Landale reports on a key business issue.
We all want more out of our work. That, surely, is the reason that a supposed 80% of us dream of handing in our notice when we return from our holidays. Who can blame people for wanting to get away when work mostly consists of relentless change, budgetary pressure and drudgery?
…80% of us dream of handing in our notice…
But let’s not fall into victim mode here. It doesn’t have to be this way.
According to Clive Lewis, MD of illumine, both individuals and their organizations have much to gain by getting in touch with the issue of passion at work. “Most people want to make a contribution through their work. Whether it’s in retail or education, the health service or manufacturing, people are typically drawn to employers not only by their desire for greater rewards or because they want more challenge but by their ambition to make a difference. They want something they can be proud of and that feels worthwhile. That’s what motivates them.”
“Only when you get people working actively towards their dream will passion occur.”
This sounds like sense. People who get a sense of meaning from their working life are likely to be far more attached to it and will willingly put in extra effort and energy. And when this occurs organisations will of course get better results. So the next question to consider is what makes people feel passionate about their work.
In this context Lewis, who is running a new development programme called Passionworks!™ is absolutely clear that passion has two core elements. “The definition we use about passion is that it is a strong emotion that happens within us when we are doing meaningful work that makes us feel better about ourselves,” he said. “But meaning on its own won’t change anything. What you need to combine with the dream is action and a sense of progress. Only when you get people working actively towards their dream will passion occur.”
So far so good but does this mean we all need to start saving the planet or being artistic. Not so, says Lewis. “Some people might get a sense of meaning by doing something altruistic or personal but others will get their meaning from doing work that is simply important to them. Some people, for example, will feel passionate about their contribution in the field of public service. Others will feel the same about implementing systems that improve efficiency or about the legal work that helps parties reach fair agreements. The truth is that people feel passionate when they are investing in the work they are doing,” he said.
“People with passion will leave a job that doesn’t allow them to make the kind of contribution that they want to make.”
This is good news for organisations which might want to consider that passion could give them a real edge in their recruitment and retention strategies. In essence the thinking here is that top talent will not only be attracted by organisations that promote the benefits of passion at work but key staff will stay longer in companies which go out of their way to help people apply such passion in their work.
Lewis agrees. “People with passion will leave a job that doesn’t allow them to make the kind of contribution that they want to make. So as well as making the effort to recruit top talent, forward-looking companies have to establish the kind of challenging and creative environment that enables such individuals to thrive.”
But what happens if and when people don’t know what it is that excites them? You surely can’t make people passionate when they are not. Find out “Why Passion Works” here…
“It’s not uncommon for people to hesitate when asked what’s meaningful for them in their work,” explained Lewis. “One senior manager told us that he just didn’t know. However this same manager was also thinking about turning down a promotion because he didn’t know whether it was the right move or not. It took a number of conversations using the Passionworks! model - but finally he realised that he got motivated when taking dysfunctional teams and turning them into high-performers. On assessing the promotion within this context, he realised the team he’d be taking over in the new job was completely dysfunctional. It was the perfect fit and so he quickly said yes.
…passionate people are likely to bring much more vitality and enthusiasm to their work than those who have to be urged to work harder…
“This same manager then went on to use the Passionworks! skills and techniques to help his team. Instilling motivation and commitment in the team not only helped team members develop a sense of purpose of their own which flowed through into positive results - it further underlined for the manager the sense that he was making a meaningful difference.”
So why don’t more people try to get in touch with their passion when there are so clearly such dramatic benefits to be gained?
A spate of surveys by organisations such as Gallup, Towers Perrin and Blessing White have linked this problem with the issue of employee engagement. People who are engaged are likely to be in touch with their passion but it appears that many companies are struggling in this respect. Directors, it appears, find it easier to talk about cost cutting, efficiency measures and running the numbers. Small wonder people get turned off. Indeed in the Gallup study, research found that only 19% of us feel engaged at work. The rest of us either have little motivation or are downright hostile to our employers.
This may make uncomfortable reading for those who believe that work is first and foremost about profit, shareholder value and competitive advantage, but there is another perspective re-emerging here. It’s the same one that had Peters and Waterman back in the 80s suggesting that it is those companies which put the non-financials first that do better financially than those who try to run everything through the balance sheet.
This argument makes sense. In short, passionate people are likely to bring much more vitality and enthusiasm to their work than those who have to be urged to work harder. More than this, the energy of people engaged in what they care about is contagious. This means that they generally have a positive impact on their colleagues and their culture.
People don’t have to be charismatic or an extrovert to be passionate; they simply need to know what matters to them.
So if you, as a manager or a leader, are interested in finding out whether your team has any passion for work what should you do? The first step is to find out what they care about. People don’t have to be charismatic or an extrovert to be passionate; they simply need to know what matters to them. So ask them about what gives them the greatest sense of satisfaction and get them talking about what contribution they want to make. And if you want to go further, talk to them about how they would feel about working in a passionate team.
The real issue here, of course, is how leaders can forge a powerful, long-term relationship with their people. Getting people to consider that their organisation wants them to make work more meaningful will in itself open the door to a more engaged and motivated team.