What is Passion? Passion is a force – sometimes and uncontrollable force – that infuses life with meaning, joy, and even outrage. In any event, passion fosters commitment and determination. Passion is an urge or desire that consistently calls us to action, often radical action. Passion can be used or misused. When guided by the wrong motives, passion can be very dangerous. When guided by the desire to help people lead bigger, richer, fuller lives, passion has the potential to help create a better world. Passion is the fire that burns within. It often starts as a spark or a flame and eventually turns into a blazing fire that stirs the soul. Passion is that incredibly compelling emotion that enables us to go places others are afraid to go, to try things others are afraid to do and be the kind of people others are afraid to be! Passion creates the energy and drive required to do what others think is impossible.
Is there a business case for cultivating passion in your organization? Is it really a competitive advantage? Can passion make a difference in terms of accomplishing your organization’s objectives? Consider the benefits:
1. Passion intensifies our focus. In a complex world where we’re moving at .com speed and we’re bombarded with information, it’s easy to get distracted. Passion gives people the courage to say “No” to distractions by staying focused on the bigger “Yes.” It’s the magnetic force that keeps people working on things that make the business more competitive.
2. Innovation and creativity become key factors in adding value to the customers we serve. Approaching the business with a fresh, new perspective requires people who are fully awake, fully alive, and who have an active, intense, engaged focus on making things better. Innovation requires that our minds work furiously when we come to work. Passion activates our minds, expands our awareness (we observe more intensely), and challenges us to think outside the conventional box.
3. With intense pressures to perform it’s easy to cut ethical corners and compromise doing what’s right. It requires passion to protect and promote the values driving the business. To say, “No” to a questionable business deal that will generate a lot of revenue takes guts. It takes the courage and passion to stand upon your convictions.
4. People with passion raise the standards of performance in an organization. They have a tendency to hold others accountable and tolerate nothing less than the full-blown commitment of everyone around them. Their commitment to a higher standard becomes contagious, spreads throughout the entire system, and eventually becomes a part of the fabric of the culture.
5. People with passion create an electric, exiting work environment that energizes others. They contribute to building the kind of culture that attracts world-class people.
6. Passion creates a sense of urgency that is required of every organization going through change in today’s highly competitive world. Passion is the enemy of apathy, complacency, and procrastination. Passion is usually dissatisfied with the status quo.
7. Passion helps people deal with fear. Change is scary – for anybody! But when our passions are bigger than our fears we develop the courage to step outside our comfort zones, risk more, fail faster, and learn like crazy.
8. There is less attrition and absenteeism in a passionate work environment, where meaningful work and a heroic cause energize people. People don’t want to miss the thrill of the journey and the significant things going on at work.
9. It seems that the cultures of many firms is corporate America and around the world breed a political correctness that is socially acceptable. Unfortunately, it’s not conducive to the burning fire or radical passion that is required to bring about revolutionary change. Dramatic change and complexity are requiring an unprecedented effort from the contemporary work force. Passion will be the key to PERSEVERANCE in the midst of this change.
10. Perhaps the most exciting benefit that comes from cultivation passion is an organization is the contagious enthusiasm it generates. Passionate people ignite enthusiasm in the rest of us. Something so alive in them awakens something that needs to be alive in us. Passionate people inspire hope and enthusiasm. That’s why they’re so attractive to be around. There’s an intensity, a commitment, a PASSION with which they approach their work – it’s inviting and tantalizing, it’s heroic and alluring, it’s inspiring and provocative all wrapped up in the same package.
1. Passion intensifies our focus. In a complex world where we’re moving at .com speed and we’re bombarded with information, it’s easy to get distracted. Passion gives people the courage to say “No” to distractions by staying focused on the bigger “Yes.” It’s the magnetic force that keeps people working on things that make the business more competitive.
2. Innovation and creativity become key factors in adding value to the customers we serve. Approaching the business with a fresh, new perspective requires people who are fully awake, fully alive, and who have an active, intense, engaged focus on making things better. Innovation requires that our minds work furiously when we come to work. Passion activates our minds, expands our awareness (we observe more intensely), and challenges us to think outside the conventional box.
3. With intense pressures to perform it’s easy to cut ethical corners and compromise doing what’s right. It requires passion to protect and promote the values driving the business. To say, “No” to a questionable business deal that will generate a lot of revenue takes guts. It takes the courage and passion to stand upon your convictions.
4. People with passion raise the standards of performance in an organization. They have a tendency to hold others accountable and tolerate nothing less than the full-blown commitment of everyone around them. Their commitment to a higher standard becomes contagious, spreads throughout the entire system, and eventually becomes a part of the fabric of the culture.
5. People with passion create an electric, exiting work environment that energizes others. They contribute to building the kind of culture that attracts world-class people.
6. Passion creates a sense of urgency that is required of every organization going through change in today’s highly competitive world. Passion is the enemy of apathy, complacency, and procrastination. Passion is usually dissatisfied with the status quo.
7. Passion helps people deal with fear. Change is scary – for anybody! But when our passions are bigger than our fears we develop the courage to step outside our comfort zones, risk more, fail faster, and learn like crazy.
8. There is less attrition and absenteeism in a passionate work environment, where meaningful work and a heroic cause energize people. People don’t want to miss the thrill of the journey and the significant things going on at work.
9. It seems that the cultures of many firms is corporate America and around the world breed a political correctness that is socially acceptable. Unfortunately, it’s not conducive to the burning fire or radical passion that is required to bring about revolutionary change. Dramatic change and complexity are requiring an unprecedented effort from the contemporary work force. Passion will be the key to PERSEVERANCE in the midst of this change.
10. Perhaps the most exciting benefit that comes from cultivation passion is an organization is the contagious enthusiasm it generates. Passionate people ignite enthusiasm in the rest of us. Something so alive in them awakens something that needs to be alive in us. Passionate people inspire hope and enthusiasm. That’s why they’re so attractive to be around. There’s an intensity, a commitment, a PASSION with which they approach their work – it’s inviting and tantalizing, it’s heroic and alluring, it’s inspiring and provocative all wrapped up in the same package.
