Passion is contagious and passionate people energize the workplace. Passion is even more important when times are tough. Here are five tips to encourage passion in the workplace:
1. Create connections
New research reveals that passionate people like to connect with others to help solve problems. And their companies support this spirit of exploration by making it easy for people to find others with relevant expertise.
- Set team goals that people can work towards together – building team spirit along the way.
- Create a culture of collaboration where employees can share their knowledge, hear each other out and respect their ideas.
- Use social networks to help people find others with specific areas of expertise, similar passions, skills, experience and interests.
2. Develop a sense of purpose
Have employees come together to ask and answer powerful questions. That way, you can look up from day-to-day activities, see your role in wider business goals, and feel a sense of purpose, which boosts passion levels. Ask open-ended questions like, “Is this what we should be doing?” and, “What else is possible?” That way, you’ll encourage creative thinking and new approaches. Through one-on-ones and goal setting, managers should help employees see their part in “the bigger picture.”
3. Encourage growth
Passionate people seek out new challenges and see them as opportunities to learn. The very act of learning motivates and impassions. In fact, the opportunity to learn and develop is the most important driver in employee happiness after the nature of the job. And when employees see that their employer takes their career development seriously, passion soars.
To help your people grow:
- Ask managers to regularly discuss their employees’ development needs. And ensure people have access to the training and learning resources they need.
- Encourage career development with mentoring or coaching programs.
- Get team members to share knowledge, learn from each other, and enhance each other’s roles and abilities.
4. Empower your managers
Research reveals that managers are most likely to inspire people to learn – almost twice as much as colleagues. When leaders and managers are passionate about their work and organization, this rubs off on employees. And the best way to do it is to really connect with people.
Often when people lose their motivation, it is because they are disconnected from their peers, manager and team. The best way to reignite their passion is to reconnect them emotionally – creating safety to explore emotions, identifying what do they need and having bonding conversations where they can reconnect.
5. Take on a passion project
There are only so many stretch activities you can take on. So, encourage people to look for passion projects outside of work – and make time for them. When dissatisfaction approaches the candle needs to be relit, and one way to do this is to learn something new. Encourage employees to take a class or start a hobby they’ve always wanted to try, and passion will follow them back to the job.