Does Your Organization Have The Passion To Thrive?

Joan Finley, PhD, Director, Communications & Change Management, Gallagher (AJG: NYSE)

Are you getting the contribution and commitment from your organization needed for your business to be resilient and thrive in today’s marketplace?

What we know is that when employees are passionate about their company vision, values, strategies, AND their own activities, we see results of 27 percent % better performance, 32 percent % more commitment and 53 percent % faster career progression according to research recorded in the book, Leading Organizations, Ten Timeless Truths. Organizations with a passionate and committed workforce will not only survive, but will thrive due to ability to move at same velocity of market changes.

Achievement of the sustained passion of your organization requires specific conditions to exist in the organization’s environment and be experienced by the individuals in the company.

Conditions for tapping into the passion of your organization:

Inspiration – positive activities which enlighten and activate employees to be interested and focus on their work. Inspiration initiates and sustains passion along with the rest of the conditions for passion listed below. Inspiration comes in many forms, such as seeing success in action by like-minded people with similar values persevering and successfully making a difference. Transformational leaders increase passion through inspirational motivation in the form of a vision, a sense of mission, optimism and enthusiasm. A great leader builds a strong culture which includes inspiration plus empowerment, goal alignment, connections across the organization where people feel alive, energized, and connected to their work.

Values congruence – the values of the company, organization and leaders resonate with the values of the individuals – the individuals have an innate sense of belonging and commitment. An organization with a culture and environment in which the individual’s values are congruent with the impacts of their actions activates passion. Values congruence throughout the people in your organization provides the foundation for those people to jump on opportunities to successfully execute their jobs, innovate the solutions, and collaborate with colleagues to achieve the vision.

People’s strengths are aligned to role responsibilities – individual do what they are good at, using their strengths to succeed at doing their jobs. An individual’s conviction and confidence about their abilities to accomplish their tasks paves the way for the person to visualize success, promote persistence in challenging situations and perform difficult goals.

Sense of purpose – people in your organization are compelled to execute their activities and thrive due to having a role where the synergies of others in the organization results in ‘making a difference’ – giving them a sense of purpose. Individuals with a line of site of their role to the strategic business objectives reinforces their purpose, connects them to the mission of the organization. Balance between purpose of one’s work and one’s life contributes to being passionate, innovative and creative with dedication and high performance.

Motivation – people feel a magnetic pull towards performing their duties, going above and beyond expectations of the job – they are ‘moved to take action’. People are more productive and creative when they are intrinsically motivated primarily by passion, interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself – not by external pressures or rewards.

Social connectedness – through communications and working together, people feel a sense of community, unity, belonging, common focus, and camaraderie within the organization. Transparent communications with your organization about priorities, issues, and connecting the dots on roadmap to achieve your vision instills a sense of belonging to an organization. Provide the space, activities and communication channels for people to connect and share their voices. Socially connecting like-minded people through activities they are passionate about can create a kinetic type of connection, a connection with the souls of others, a sense of collaboration with those people focused on the same goals, or a sense of compassion for those people impacted by their actions.

Performance - the fundamental human quality of passion and acting upon it, has served as an active agent in the generation of energy, action, and ultimately performance. Experiences at work influence the direction, intensity, and persistence of employee behavior. Positive emotions from actions can enhance creativity, which can increase identification of new ideas and lead to innovation…and ultimately high performing organizations.

Positive feedback loop – communicate the positive impacts of actions to the organization in ways individuals can understand. Share how their work is making a difference. When people know they are impacting positive change, it leads to higher levels of passion, and subsequently higher performance and retention. The positive inspirational communications to the workforce, sharing the success due to their contributions, fuels the passionate organization to deliver results.

According to research by Tom Rath (2007), only 26 percent of the U.S. working population is actively engaged in their work, while 55 percent % are not engaged in their work and less than 20 percent % of U.S. adults flourish in their jobs.

I Believe Companies With A Fertile Environment To Grow A Passionate Workforce Have A Competitive Advantage. Passion Inspires People To Work Harder With Greater Effect, And Become Higher Performers Than Those Individuals Without Passion

“I believe companies with a fertile environment to grow a passionate workforce have a competitive advantage. Passion inspires people to work harder with greater effect, and become higher performers than those individuals without passion.” Awareness of the conditions which lead to a passionate organization is the first step. Establishing and sustaining an organizational environment with the conditions for the workforce to be passionate, is critical to effective management of our current and future workforce. The opportunities are great for innovation, joy at work and organization agility. Passion, change, and performance are critical components of the workplace and establishing them is not an event, but a process. Leaders have a choice to strive to provide a rich culture to address the conditions that propagate a passionate organization. This process is every bit as important to the organization’s existence as the facets of its finance, technology or supply chain functions. Ultimately, your company benefits tremendously from establishing a passionate organization!