Performance + Passion

As a coach, I work with successful leaders who feel they have more to contribute but don’t know how to get there. They want to empower their people to be the best they can be, to contribute their strengths toward the vision and feel fulfilled at the end of the day. Are you a leader who wants to accomplish this? You need to step back and take a deep dive into who you are as a leader and how you show up. Inspirational leadership should come from your authentic core with clarity about where you are strong and vulnerability in your weaknesses. Model knowing and leveraging your gifts and talents, vulnerability and being authentic. It gives your people permission to claim their gifts and talents and to be vulnerable about their weaknesses.

This is part 5 in this 5-part series on Passion and Great Leaders by Diana Gabriel, Certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

Ignite passion and diminish negativity by frequently talking about purpose and values. Click To Tweet

When you encourage a culture in which your team members take psychological ownership, even average teams can perform at high levels. Purpose and passion create meaning and excitement at work. You achieve workplace engagement when team members can apply their strengths, experience the energy and a sense of fulfillment and contribution to specific tasks that drive your organizations’ success.

In my experience working within organizations, leaders, like you, can more clearly communicate your vision and strategy. Include your team in what is going on with the business, even the financials.

One company that does this well is HCL Technologies, where their company intranet openly publishes strategy, budgets for all employees to see and even performance reviews of leaders themselves.

In Employees First, Customers Second, CEO Vineet Nayar recounts how he defied the conventional wisdom that companies must put customers first, then turned the hierarchical pyramid upside down by making management accountable to the employees, and not the other way around.

In doing so, Nayar fired the passion and imagination of both employees and customers and set HCL on a transformative journey making it one of the fastest-growing and profitable global IT services companies and, according to BusinessWeek, one of the twenty most influential companies in the world.

HCL managers must ensure that their direct reports understand how individual performance contributes to overall long-term success.

As a leader, you may believe you communicate well. However, leaders often tend to overestimate what they have communicated. The more frequently you speak to values and higher purposes, the more likely others will follow your lead.

“People are most fulfilled and happiest when their work is aligned with their inner passions. Personal passion, corporate purpose and business performance all go together.”
— John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.

Your passion is contagious ­­­– an energy force that encourages goodwill, collaboration, and interdependence. So, too, is negativity. Ignite passion and diminish negativity by frequently talking about purpose and values.

Passion abounds when your people believe their daily tasks have meaning and purpose. You energize your work environment when your people see that their contributions and accomplishments have a direct positive impact on team members, customers, the community and the business.

Where do you shine as a leader? Do you speak about values, purpose or passion? Are you open about sharing mission, strategies, and financials? You can reach me here or on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear what’s happening where you work.