Passion, Priority, and Performance

Where there is a will, there is a way. This often heard saying is the foundation of every individual’s time and quality performance management. People predictably focus on what they love doing and anything and everything that relates to it. Regardless of the circumstance, they find the time and attention to do what interests them. Recently our business insurance agent called to say he was retiring. We asked him what he was going to be doing. Now we already knew he was an avid golfer, so going to play golf was the expected answer. His answer was that he planned on pursuing his dream of traveling and performing with his banjo band. Unbeknown to us, he had been playing in a group for the past 20 years. Here was a man who had a successful professional career, raised a family, played golf every Saturday and Sunday, attended most of the local university’s athletic events, and yet still found time to pursue his real passion, playing the banjo.

Managers must pay attention to this undeniable human tendency. Managers who know how to connect job tasks and responsibilities to the passions of employees have satisfied and committed players. We know the change workers are enduring today. Helping overcome change, discomfort, and resistance is vital to productivity and job satisfaction. Managers are good at encouraging people to deal with change, but could be even more effective if they could link required activities to the primary motivations of each employee. Obviously, in order to do this, a manager must know the passions and motivations of each employee. In our coaching work with all levels of management, we have discovered that only a few managers take the time to know the dreams, passions, and motivations of their people. We also discovered that managers who know this information use it on an individual basis to effectively drive commitment and achievement. These same managers are usually considered in their organizations to be high achievers. They have less problems with unexpected turnover. It is a managerial advantage to know how to coach to employee passion and motivation.

The process for making this happen is fundamental:

• Find out the dreams, passions, and other motivations of each employee. Through the use of open-ended questioning and clarifying discover what matters most to each individual. Get an individual talking about passions by sharing yours. Don’t accept generalized answers, get specific information. For example, people often state they want recognition. Don’t assume what that means. Probe to uncover what type of recognition. Have them describe what the perfect form of recognition would look like.
• Analyze what each employee is being asked to do and how it relates or conflicts with his/her primary motivations.
• Decide ways to link required responsibilities to each individual’s passions. This takes time, effort, and ingenuity. The payoff is worth it.
• Meet with each employee and discuss how job activities relate to the things that matter most to him/her. Discuss and jointly decide on an appropriate problem solving approach if there are things that can not be connected. Remember an unfulfilled employee is seldom a producer and is often a candidate for unexpected turnover.
• Constantly reinforce successful performance and link it to an employee’s motivations.
• Challenge non-performance. Find out why there is a disconnect between what is being done; the outcome that will take place, and the result. Determine a course of action that can achieve increased job performance and fulfillment.

It really is quite simple. Know what matters most to each individual and then help find ways to make that happen in the job. Several weeks ago we were coaching a sales manager who was completely frustrated with a salesperson who subtlety refused to discover additional needs of existing customers. The manager was ready to begin to find a way to move this employee out. We asked the manager to go back and find out what the primary motivation of the salesperson was. She stated that she knew it was recognition. We asked her to find out what was meant by that. She discovered that recognition to this salesperson was being considered for and being groomed to be a sales manager. We then asked the sales manager to go back and have a discussion with the salesperson regarding the probability of that passion being fulfilled given current performance. Today, that salesperson is having a robust year and is getting most of the new business from the existing customer base. Linking passion, priority, and performance works.