Definition

1) To move quickly and vigorously; 2) To erase or change (an item in a program); 3) A strong emotional reaction.

Tips

Apply just one empowering people policy.  The only people policy an organization needs is: use your own best judgment; do what is right for the customer and company.  Do not use policies as “scar tissue on an error” – punishing all
employees forever after in the wake of one individual who made a mistake.  Designing the perfect Rule Book is no guarantee that errors will not be made again.

Remove bureaucracy.  When otherwise productive and innovative people become buried under top-heavy bureaucracies and unreasonable regulations, we squeeze the life blood out of the exact qualities organizations need for long-term survival.  Layers of rules cause soured attitudes, dried-up motivation, resignation on-the-job, anger and worse.

Stay away from the “inertia of cultural resistance”.  In under-performing workplaces, people have long ago given up trying to offer their employers any inventiveness or creative spark.  “What’s the point?” they question.  “We’ll only get shot down anyway.”  Imagine what is possible if we give people instead the freedom to perform in ways that energize and engage their very best skills and talents.

Apply deliberate action to create soul-inspiring environments.  Soul-inspiring environments do not happen by accident, but through a set of dedicated actions designed to build an extraordinary workplace.  If one truly seeks to build ingenuity and resourcefulness, then efforts need to be focused on creating cultures that eliminate inane restrictions.  Give people the latitude required for superior performance.

Distinguish between accountability and responsibility.  Leaders cannot suddenly wave a wand and declare: “You are now accountable.”  Such abdication of responsibility is as dangerous as over-control.  Both are flip sides of the same coin.  Encourage team members to take on greater responsibility through gradual delegation, training and coaching.  Without authority, people will shun accountability.

Install people-centric daily practices.  Organizational systems (both informal and formal systems like planning, structuring, recruiting, selecting, hiring, training, rewarding, communicating, decision-making) must be aligned to support vision/values.  Inconsistencies between high-performance objectives and corporate rules of the game are huge inhibitors to transformation.

Define how you want to treat people.  Create from a blank slate a set of Philosophy Statements delineating how you want to treat people and have them feel about their workplace.  Spend your time “reinforcing” these.  These statements would reflect such important messages as: respecting everyone regardless of title, welcoming all ideas and how to communicate positively.

Monitor strictly your own words and actions.  Leaders’ own words and actions are the make-it or break it ingredient in our zapping mix.  Empowering leaders see themselves more as coaches and champions than controllers and decision-makers.  They believe in self-directed teams and pave the way by providing guidance and clearing roadblocks.  They expect and get the best from others.

Empower in the truest sense of the word.  Empowerment is not something you do to people, though it is often defined and executed as such.  Empowerment is nurtured by creating an environment where every employee is supported to do what it takes to satisfy customers – thus illustrating the powerful connection between satisfied employees, contented customers and the bottom-line.

Questions For Reflection

How would you describe your expectations of those you lead and how might that be influencing their performance?

To what extent do you let your team decide on its own approach to assignments?

How do you get in the way of your team?  What can you do about this right now?

 

Definition

1) Strong emotional longing; 2) Eager; 3) Filled with compassion or tenderness.

Tips

Notice how many people view their work.  Have you ever wondered why most heart attacks occur at nine o’clock on Monday morning?  If we were honest, is this not how many people view their work world – never-ending slavery that only ceases once we are liberated through retirement (or a good outplacement package)?  It is the distress of work as a soul-deadening experience.

Recognize the soul’s longings.  The soul yearns for something more.  This longing to make a difference is fundamental to our core need as humans.  It is part of our eternal search for meaning and why it is so heart-breaking when people feel their work gives them nothing to strive for – evidenced also by the numbers who ‘coincidentally’ call in sick on Monday and Friday mornings.

Answer the soul’s cries through a lofty vision and uncompromising values.  If you protest that employers do not owe people a sense of meaning we have some ‘bad’ news for you.  If that is your philosophy, then you must also accept that your organization is operating at a fraction of its potential due to your failure to engage what is most important to employees.  There is a measurable and real cost to suboptimal performance.

Cease the burnout.  Never become the type of employer who is overflowing in your praise for people all the while that they sacrifice their personal lives to rescue you time and again, only to turn your back on those same super-performers the minute they are so burned out that they refuse to save your hide anymore.  People are not to be treated as slaves!

Acknowledge the costs of resignation on-the-job.  When people resign on the job, others must inevitably pick up the slack and so too become demoralized themselves.  The ‘hard’ costs of this situation are in the form of decreased production while a full salary is being earned and increased rework as lack of caring so frequently results in expensive mistakes that take extra effort by others to fix.

Take ownership for your part in creating apathy.  It is such an unfortunate tragedy when employers will not take responsibility for their role in creating an environment where people have left, if not physically, then emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  If employers are willing to admit culpability, there is hope – hope to also restore lackluster marketplace results that go hand in hand with internal issues.

Stop deluding yourself about motivating through return-on-investment.  Monopoly-sized market percentages and jumps in customer satisfaction ratings do not resonate with people’s souls.  Rallying under crisis does not spark passionate commitment from employees to achieve the impossible.  Typical business accomplishments as measured by profit-based goals do not satisfy soulful yearning.

Avoid believing a solution is to pay more.  Humans were not created singularly for the pursuit of material success, although earning an acceptable living is fundamental to feeling successful.  But money should not replace leaders’ desire
to help employees lead meaningful lives.  You cannot buy your way to meaning, or choose to pay more and then expect to extract people’s last drop of blood.

Adapt to changing demands of what is meaningful.  “Generation X” has watched as both their parents spent years toiling in organizations only to be cast out in re-engineering blitzes later in life.  Now they are righting what they see as lack of balance between working and living.  They see work as a means to an end and are prepared to end it if it does not offer the means!  A dramatic shift in collective values.

Create a different definition of meaning at work.  Soul-inspiring leaders know millions are pleading through a universal cry for meaning, purpose and character in organizational life.  They see to it that time spent at work makes a difference rather than being mindless.  They answer people’s yearning to meet their deepest human needs through settings that create a sense of fulfillment and contribution.

Questions For Reflection

How would you answer the question: “My life is meaningful because…”?

List the accomplishments in your life to date of which you are most proud, noting how many involve work.  Are there too few or too many in this category, and what does this mean to you?

If you learned you had three months to live, in what ways would you reorganize your life?  If you would make changes, what is stopping you from living with this sense of meaning now, with your ‘whole’ life ahead of you?

 

 

Definition

1) Riches, abundant possessions, opulence; 2) The state of being rich; 3) An abundance or profusion of.

Tips

Adopt a new view of emerging future wealth.  New wealth will not be created from industrial infrastructure, but from knowledge and creativity.  Its potential is locked up in the hearts and minds – the very souls – of people.  As a result, the focus of any successful business must shift from wealth accumulation (a physical assets model) to wealth creation (a knowledge management model).

Be prepared for a major revision to future economic thinking.  Consider the underlying principles of how “dot.com” businesses have created, and will create, whatever wealth the markets ascribe to them.  Most have virtually no physical assets.  The phrase “our assets walk out the door every night to go home” takes on new meaning in most high-tech businesses today.

Study how wealth now gets created.  There need be virtually no substantial investment in physical assets when we talk of Internet businesses.  But they cannot get off the ground without considerable “sweat equity” from talented individuals working on a common goal.  More and more, it is about “mind power” working anywhere (home) anytime (unusual hours through technology).

Create new business models.  Enterprising minds of today are creating completely new business models and ways of interacting with clients never thought of before.  Many more future services are yet to evolve that we can only dream about today.  This creativity spurt will unleash new sources of wealth based on harnessing creativity and ideas.

Consider the timelines in which wealth is created.  It is far easier to take advantage of the promise of an enterprising idea today than it has ever been in the past.  This has allowed more and more people to access the means of wealth creation (their minds) and to rapidly create wealth for themselves rather than being dependent on others’ wealth in the form of wages.  This trend will accelerate.

Account for the shareholder’s role in wealth creation.  The appetite for capital has created a desire in management to please shareholders in the short term – often creating an unduly negative impact on long-term thinking in many publicly traded companies.  Intellectual capital will drive the future economy, changing forever the notion of investing by attaching a premium to knowledge-based enterprises.

Accept that people now have more choice.  They will decide where and when they work and with whom they partner to share their valuable store of knowledge and creativity.  This is the essence of the talent war so often talked about, a true shift in the power balance of the labour market.  They will choose to stay or go based on their degree of commitment to employers’ positive environments.

Accept that employees will expect to share the wealth.  Workers in future will truly own their means of production and expect to share in wealth they create for others.  Granting ownership to all employees, not just founding executives is an early sign of this.  More and more, corporations will be forced through economic and competitive trends to become “benevolent” and share the spoils of wealth creation.

Questions For Reflection

How will the trend toward knowledge workers play out in your industry, and how does it impact you already?

How do you see management practices/thinking changing to acknowledge how important people are to the future creation of wealth?

How does your personal wealth impact your thinking about the ‘radical’ ideas this content is presenting?

Definition

1) One’s principles or standards; 2) One’s judgment of what is valuable or important in life; 3) The worth, desirability or utility of a thing.

Tips

Remember the hallmark of valueless workplaces.  We all recognize it – the beautifully crafted wall plaque prominently displayed, but nowhere evidenced in people’s daily work lives…the document word-smithed at exorbitant cost by consultants working with senior leaders in spare-no-expense retreat settings.  Puzzled, people see in no way how the values resemble what they experience.

Admit that so-called ‘little’ unsavory actions debase people.  It is not necessarily large-scale corruption that eats away people’s spirits.  Rather, it is the insidious effect of politicking, playing favourites, manipulating, jockeying for position that harm.  Like a “dead fish in the middle of the living room”, everyone sees its decaying ugliness and smells its stench, but no one is gutsy enough to declare the truth.

Handle difficult situations with class.  How people are ‘exited’ provides a perfect vehicle for practicing alignment between stated values and actual behaviours.  The degree of sensitivity and dignity applied to this emotionally-charged event speaks volumes.  When people are hurried unceremoniously out the door and employers fail to calm traumatized employees, we really miss the mark.

Watch for pressure to peel away the veneer.  Consider how layoffs, downsizing, plant closings and restructuring are handled.  Are frontline workers first to have their employment terminated while executives retain their full compensation?  Or, do top brass first cut their pay during tough times?  It is appalling how often the negative examples go on, while everyone colludes in turning a blind eye.

Be open to what gets dismissed as ‘soft’ values.  At this time, the possibility of spiritual values like harmony, humility and gratitude dominating business would seem far away.  Evidence the proliferation of war references at work – jungle, battlefield, enemies.  While not all values apply in all settings, there is underlying relevance in being selfless, expressing appreciation and basic respect. 

Balance results and values.  True accomplishment lies in getting results while remaining values congruent.  Many organizations tend to overemphasize results while underestimating the importance of adhering to values.  This creates a “results at any cost” culture that ultimately depletes long-term performance and diminishes true accomplishment.

Describe exactly what would constitute living according to values.  Well-communicated values definitions with behavioural statements describing exactly how people can demonstrate your values significantly help team members.  As does regularly ‘refreshing’ the values with employee task forces who provide ongoing communication about progress – the opposite of leadership visioning done in isolation.

Take responsibility for being a “values steward”.  Senior leaders must take visible pride in their organizations’ values, making sure their support is visible and consistent.  Such leadership commitment to practice what one preaches keeps hope alive.  Trust and respect are essential in accepting leaders’ vision; there must be unquestioned alignment between the talk and walk.

Deal with values discrepancies.  As long as reserved parking places and other titular perks separate the “haves” from the “have-nots” we cannot honestly think of workplaces as values-centric.  From employees’ vantage point, how would you perceive applying time clocks to some individuals but not others?  These are vital questions, given groundswell calls for values alignment.

Wake up to the real “new contract”.  Increasingly, people are voting with their feet, leaving valueless ‘dinosaurs for workplaces where their souls’ cries are answered through character-based leadership, impeccable morals and complete values alignment.  They will choose where they work according to personal integrity.  The reality is there are no longer “more where they came from”.

Questions For Reflection

What do you notice about the degree of alignment between your values and those professed by your organization, and do any actions suggest themselves?

To what degree would you be prepared to compromise your values until you had reached a point beyond which it would be personally intolerable?

How can businesses guard their values in the cold, hard, real world?

Definition

1) A violent or sudden change or disruption; 2) The act or an instance of lifting or rising up, esp. forcibly; 3) An upward displacement of part of the earth’s crust.

Tips

Recognize that basic leadership skills are more important than ever.  Even in our wired world.  Much of what we learned at some distant point no longer applies.  Yet, no matter how quickly decisions must be made and implemented leaders still need to achieve their goals with numbers of very smart people on board and behind them.  There is no way to trick people on this point even if we are all moving more quickly

Be aware that not everyone embraces upheaval.  While leaders may feel that “advances in the industry” are positive, sometimes employees will see new technology as representing a scary skill set not easy for them to acquire.  It may have them conclude their life’s work is worth nothing, because everything they know is no longer valuable or necessary.  They could feel left out in the cold…

Teach people gently that we cannot avoid upheaval.  Rather than have reluctant employees valiantly try to resist change at every turn, recognize their fears and work with them to gently adjust to the coming inevitabilities.  Nothing changes about the imperative for increased speed and productivity.  However, leaders can use approaches that respect differing levels of comfort with upheaval.

Be certain that employees know their value to your business.  Make absolutely certain that those who have difficulty coping with upheaval know how much you value their wisdom and personal contribution.  Reassure them that while technology might alter what they do, they will not have to change everything about how they work.  They can transition over time and remain part of an extraordinary team.

Prepare people to cope with the changes upheaval brings.  For instance, send them for training, at the company’s expense and during working hours well ahead of time to start to prepare for changes.  Buy them cards saying “way to go” every time they attempt to learn a new skill.  Create positive situations to publicly praise these individuals for every step they take to make progress.

Appoint the reluctant as “process coaches” to assist others.  Encourage these individuals to work with the staff to ensure that technology changes, for example, do not become a substitute for a “personal touch”.  Use their gifts to balance “high tech with high touch”.  Let everyone know you need more than ever the attitudes and motives of all kinds of employees to succeed in a climate of upheaval.

Balance sets of apparently competing scales.  For example, the need to be “in control” while staying receptive – or, the impetus to be quick to decide and yet reflective.  Like a true paradox, both sides demand equal attention by causing a constant push-pull between these polarized priorities.  That is why no one specific leadership style can any longer be uniformly effective.

Apply the most appropriate leadership style to rapidly changing conditions.  If your organization is moving in “web time”, so too will any problems you face!  No matter how great the stress engendered by the “need for speed”, leaders must still take responsibility for slowing down long enough to respond to each individual’s needs, one person at a time.  This “slow down” approach ultimately allows you to go fast.

Questions For Reflection

When in your life have you wounded someone’s soul in the name of progress, even if it was not intentional?  Are there repairs to be made?

What is one immediate action you will take with a ‘resistant’ team member?

How can you harness the wisdom of longer-tenured employees to help you avoid the pitfalls of poor execution of the “need for speed”?

 

 

Definition

1) The study or use of the mechanical arts and sciences; 2) These subjects collectively; 3) Technophile = An enthusiast about new technology.

Tips

Derive technology’s benefits while limiting its negative implications.  When approaching critical technology decisions, soul-inspiring leaders put people ahead of technology by recognizing humans have natural limitations in adapting to advanced technologies.  They defer to the human side of the equation rather than tip the balance always in favour of deriving more cost-saving benefits from technology.

Beware the “productivity paradox” in making IT investments.  Watch out for increasing investments in IT for declining improvements in productivity.  For leaders who pay attention to the “people touch” (while attending to an efficient “computer touch”), the net result is often productivity and profit levels that meet or exceed those of competitors who emphasize technology over people.

Integrate technology and process with great people practices.  Advances in only one side of the equation will never yield the same productivity as a skillful balance between the two.  Even a very slight one percent reduction in process efficiency and a similar reduction in people effectiveness instantly yield an overall four percent reduction in productivity.  You cannot afford to ignore the impact of small issues.

Take care in how you improve front-line productivity.  Research carefully your technology investments.  Make sure they are not only advanced in performing routine transactions, at the expense of providing tangible assistance to employees.  What is deemed “too expensive” to build into requirements may just be the investment that will benefit everyone – customers, the organization, employees.

Realize technology does not replace performance dialogue.  Do not rely on ‘statistics’ generated by your systems, as if they would paint a complete picture of an employee’s overall performance.  Technology should never replace an active and vital performance dialogue, disabling the relationship between employees and management.  Otherwise, you risk the alienation of technology gone awry.

Stay away from an inspection mentality.  While some executives might believe that “employees respect what management inspects”, it can actually have the opposite effect.  It risks to cause employees to disconnect and disengage from anything other than the desire to be seen as perfect.  They “hit the wall”, creating customer-impacting slowdowns where there had been none.

Ensure your treatment of people matches your policies.  If your policies and procedures manual talks about “valued associates” while your application of productivity improvement initiatives feels degrading, employees will obviously fail to respect you.  Their attitude in turn becomes: “Not my problem…customers will simply have to wait a little longer”.  Talk about a backfire!

Test technology decisions for employee and company benefits.  Soul-inspiring leaders always ensure technology is humanizing rather than dehumanizing.  Second, they consider their rationale for investment to ensure balanced outcomes (between people and technology).  Use technology to improve your speed of response to team issues, and watch the difference.  You will see productivity levels soar!

Questions For Reflection

When you have had a bad technology experience, what made it that way, as contrasted with factors that contributed to a positive technology experience?

Does your organization emphasize technology/process or people, or a balance of both?

When you have fallen into technology/people practices traps, and how can you avoid them in future?

 

Definition

1) A devoted follower; 2) A person willing to serve another; 3) A person who serves or attends to the requirements of another.

Tips

Accept that servant leadership is the ultimate leadership.  When leaders are servants to a vision, rather than to themselves or their agenda, it opens up the possibility to attain lofty goals and work in a soul-inspiring setting.  This emphasis shift in a company’s leadership model creates power and authority structures that breed confidence and encourage people.

Avoid being egocentric or self-serving.  Indeed, in many historic acts of leadership that would fit this model, it was not clear the act of leadership itself promised much reward for the one leading.  Consider Martin Luther King Jr. – an oft-cited model of strength.  His utter devotion to the cause and unceasing efforts to change the civil state of an entire race is servant leadership in action.

Articulate the vision’s benefits clearly and engagingly.  Like Martin Luther King Jr., the servant leader has a “dream” – a dream that many can naturally share and then follow into a better future.  There was never much debate, except among King’s enemies, about his right to lead.  He personified the cause.  Nor is there concern about credibility; the servant leader’s acts are pure of intent and selfless.

Come at vision “pure of heart”.  As an organization, ensure that your vision’s very existence does not have unintended negative consequences on the environment or world health.  It is about balancing profits with philanthropy.  The concept is simple: the vision must be balanced with a sense of not being promoted in one’s best interests alone.

Insist that service be demonstrated by all leaders.  Organizations must find ways to ensure that all those endorsed as leaders truly exhibit commitment to the cause.  Leaders must understand the cause is always more important than self-interest.  Wayward leaders, no matter how skilled otherwise, cannot be allowed to destroy achievement of the vision through misaligned behaviour.

Stop tolerating behaviour from leaders contrary to the greater interest.  It is the single biggest organizational risk.  This is why people breathe a huge sigh of relief when senior managers boldly declare that actions incongruent with stated values will not be tolerated.  Terminating those individuals’ employment sends unequivocal signals, while condoning unacceptable practices destroys hearts and shatters morale.

Install leaders who have earned the right to lead.  Only appoint leaders who have demonstrated credibility with those they will be expected to lead.  People desperately want to believe in and trust their leaders.  They admire and seek out qualities like integrity and trust.  Natural leaders in history often rose from the ranks, anointed by followers as inspiring examples – a model for business, too.

Seek out the right attitude.  A leader can possess all the greatest skills in the world, but if not accompanied by the ‘right’ attitude, this individual can wreak tremendous havoc within the organization.  While skills are important, they are not the be-all and end-all.  If you first find leaders with the right attitude, skills can be acquired and taught.  Better yet, find a leader who has both.

Questions For Reflection

Think about your ideal historical leadership figure, and about a a leader whom you admire in your business or professional life.  What most stands out about these people that makes these choices so easy?

Are you generally a “pleaser” or not, and how does your style impact on your ability to lead others?

What does serving others mean to you, and how does thinking of yourself as a servant leader sit with you?

Definition

1) A connection or association; 2) An emotional association between two people; 3) Kinship.

Tips

Notice what has enduring value.  If you have witnessed retirement speeches, do you observe how seldom tasks and assignments figure into parting employees’ remarks?  Hardly.  Rather, people remember the lingering friendships begun through work, and how those relationships will sustain them in their lives.  Meaningful connections (not work) hold a lifelong place in their hearts.

Look for commonality of viewpoints.  Think of two workplace relationships of your own – one positive and one challenging.  Chances are, relationships make all the difference.  Where there are difficulties, we find upset and insufficient relatedness.  Where there are smooth-flowing relationships, we find mutual trust and respect.  Relationships underpin everything we do.

Put relationships first.  Our conduct when entering organizations speaks volumes about personal integrity and dignity.  Because our ability to build solid relationships forms the foundation for all that follows, it impacts directly upon the ways others subsequently listen to and treat us.  We can either enter as bulls in a china shop or we can glide gracefully into new surroundings.

Devote time first to social engagement.  In cultures where relationships are sacred, human connection is recognized as a valued pillar of business success.  Western leaders must examine their learned belief systems if they are to survive in the world of cross-cultural commerce.  Our shrinking global village (happily) insists North American leaders accede to alternative forms of business wisdom.

Treat people as professionals.  Unlike cattle, we should not need to continuously prod them.  To focus on task is for us to focus on that which should be a given in performing the job.  Relationship-building is the means to leveraging results.  It is integral to and not separate from goal attainment – unlike the belief systems evidenced by singularly task-focused managers.

Use relationship-building to attain goals.  Or, do you believe relationships result from successfully completing work?  In some ways, it is a chicken-and-egg scenario.  While it is certainly possible to achieve results without relationships, we suggest that by team building first, results will naturally ensue.  In other words, authentic team spirit derives from developing true relationships first.

Create connections that honour others.  Perhaps intuitively, soul-inspiring leaders recognize the “oneness” of humanity.  Realizing we are profoundly interconnected, they see themselves as one with – not separate from – their followers.  Neither independent in Lone Ranger fashion, nor dependent in dysfunctional ways, they achieve results by interdependently collaborating with others.

Create deep belonging.  Soul-inspiring leaders build relationships based on true partnership, rather than mouthing “we’re one big, happy family” platitudes while employees feel alone and forgotten in the overarching quest for results above all else.  They know it takes some leadership courage to depend for their results on relatedness rather than employment contracts.

Questions For Reflection

What percentage of your typical workday do you devote to tasks versus relationships, and would you change your focus in any way?

Can you say something personal about each of your direct reports?  If not, how can you make a concerted effort to develop such a relationship with each person?

What if you considered every interaction with the people you work with to be your last?  How would that perspective change the quality of your relationships?

 

Definition

1) A sentence worded or expressed to seek information; 2) A matter to be discussed or decided on; 3) A problem requiring an answer or solution.

Tips

Stop listening to the incessant chatter inside your head.  It results in missing most of what happens in conversations.  Rather than ask, we tell.  Instead of being interested in others, we are more amused by how interesting we are.  Rather than listen, we prepare our responses while others talk.  Try spending more time listening than talking!  Listening is a critical skill that must be developed.

Demonstrate genuine interest in what others have to say.  True leaders make others feel special.  They invite people to lower their defenses.  With an unmistakable desire to get to know the real you, they actively seek to find out what you value, believe, need and want.  Realizing all of us fear rejection and hope for acceptance, they look for opportunities to make colleagues feel treasured.

Ask what you can do for others.  Profoundly committed to making a difference in people’s work lives, soul-inspiring leaders continuously ask: “How can we do things better for you – make it a better company, live up to your expectations, or anything else you need?”  Standing for transformation of the workplace, they will stop at almost nothing to act on what they learn.  That is dedication.

Ask more questions than give answers.  In fact, the fewer answers you have, the better! “Being in charge” does not equate to “being in the know” – a fallacy the myth of the mighty would have us believe.  The best way to develop answers is to seek input and counsel from the many rather than the few.  Real leaders ask questions in order to bring forth others’ innate wisdom.

Avoid asking questions with the correct answer in mind.  Stop asking questions as the expert; start asking without having preconceived opinions.  It is the distinction between asking questions to obtain data versus to unearth personal needs.  Interrogation yields uncomfortable justifications while open-ended listening offers authentic clues about others’ motivation and removes barriers.  Avoid “gotcha” questions.

Respect differences by asking non-aggressive questions.  Summarize what is being said, check understanding and validate the feelings being expressed.  Instead of asking why, use open-ended questions (what, where, when, who, how).  Become comfortable with silence – it is a powerful conversational tool.  It takes far greater leadership courage to step back rather than impose your world on others’.

Seek to understand.  It results in being listened to.  Knowing they will be given ample air time, employees no longer compete for your attention.  Listening without interjecting gains more information.  Deep listening wins trust.  Organizations cannot afford not to listen, given how desperately they need each and every employee’s creativity and initiative.

Open doors to exploration, discovery and insight.  How tremendously uplifting could our exchanges be if we listened with a generosity that dignifies the individual?  What extraordinary learning could be unleashed if we asked meaningful questions that promote self-actualization?  All is possible when we mine team members’ innate wisdom, for asking questions in this way leads to far richer results.

Questions For Reflection

How interested are you, as far as approaching conversations with a genuine desire to understand people better?

What do you notice about others`reactions to your questions in terms of body language, facial expression and other clues (are they defensive or not)?

What factors support or detract from your listening, and what actions can you take to listen at deeper levels?

 

Definition

1) Strong barely controllable emotion; 2) A strong enthusiasm; 3) A person or thing arousing this.

Tips

Witness those who demonstrate true passion for what they do.  It is a very different energy from that shown by those who are simply “at work”.  In the latter situation, passion and its associated energy is replaced with passive acceptance of the assigned task.  It is unfortunate when passion comes from activities outside of work (e.g., personal causes, hobbies) – given the amount of time people spend working.

Learn to diagnose the level of passion in your organization.  Passion is a form of energy, and we can pick up so much about the energy “atmosphere” in a company just by paying attention to our feelings as we look about public places like lobbies and reception areas, as well as by observing people’s informal interactions.  Contrast in your own mind staid workplaces you have visited with those alive with energy.

Tap into people’s energy potential.  Soul-inspiring leaders possess a unique ability to draw out potential from stakeholders, employees and customers alike.  This elusive quality distinguishes almost boundless opportunity from the constrained thinking that inhibits people, eliciting only a portion of their energy.  It is the difference between being “at work” and “working at” something.

Notice your impact on employees’ souls.  Expecting people to speak and behave in hushed tones drains their life force.  It crushes spirits and turns human beings into walking automatons.  Inviting passion makes people come alive and has them stride about with unbridled energy and purpose.  Where would you rather spend the half of your life that you are working?

Encourage passionate performance and be a winning organization.  Did you ever notice what happens to organizations that create zeal for their products and services among an intensely loyal following of customers?  When this magical mix occurs, financial returns follow and shareholders become passionate advocates for the stock, supporting the company with additional capital flows.  The passion is evident to all.

Restore passion alongside the desire for productivity.  Organizations can no longer count on productivity alone.  If they are to attract and retain talented workers and get the full value of their contribution, they must learn to respect employees’ desire to be passionate about what they do.  Otherwise, they risk not being able to attract sufficient qualified talent to survive.

Unlock an “atomic explosion” of energy.  Soul-inspiring workplaces consistently operate at peak levels, and they reap the rewards that come with embracing passion.  They do not typically pay better or offer extra benefits or more vacation.  These workplaces do not buy passion, since it is not for sale – and cannot be bought. Profitability and people practice are in complete alignment.

Realize passion is not simply a series of how-to steps.  A key ingredient is a leader’s evident passion for the enormous potential of their organization.  It is a feeling that calls forth a genuine emotional response among team members.  The actions required to evoke this response must be felt and transmitted to others based on the leader’s commitment to this ideal.  It is about personal persuasion.

Avoid manipulation of passion.  The outcome of any empty effort will be a cynical and listless workforce devoid of passion, perhaps forever.  While a manipulative effort may yield temporary short-term results, people will quickly see through it.  When they discover the ruse, their reaction will be swift.  Passion is a set of committed ideals put into practice.

Questions For Reflection

How much passion do you feel about your workplace – is it an “atomic explosion” of new ideas, or has your company’s idea reactor been mothballed?

What are you passionate about, and what do you notice about what stokes your passion?

Are you prepared to tolerate a work life that you are not passionate about?  What does this imply?