Franchise Conference Unveils The Keys To Passion At Work

I was the closing motivational speaker for a customer service franchise conference. The topic of the convention was passion. Apparently some franchise employees have passion and some dont. Why? What sets them apart?

It is true you can tell if someone has passion for their job. It's also rare.

Why are so many people disengaged and not passionate about their work? As all the speakers for the customer service franchise conference agreed it is because we let them be. As consumers, employees and managers we allow and even expect impassionate performance.

Passion is uncommon in organizations today. One of the motivational talks suggested investing in passion brings some of the biggest business benefits...

Benefits of Passion

* Provides direction and focus
* Creates energy and Inspiration
* Fosters creativity
* Heightens performance
* Builds loyalty
* Attracts employees and customers
* Unites the organization
* Provides a critical edge
* Brings the organization to a higher plane
* Inspires action and leadership

Gallup research of 300,000 businesses indicates that 75 to 80 percent of people are achieving much less and feeling far less enthusiastic about their work than they could be.

If all your employees were "fully engaged," Gallup says, your customers would be 70 percent more loyal, your turnover would drop by 70 percent, and your profits would jump 40 percent. The leadership speaker gave this reasearch in his motivational talk.

The research also found that consumers who felt fast food restaurant employees did a great job were five to six times more likely to come back to that brand. At banks where employees stood out, the customer was six to 20 times more likely to continue the relationship. A speaker for a franchise financial organzation suggested passion is the main reason leadership hire people. Train for skill, but passion is hard to come by.

Additionally, great employees also tend to engender "passionate" customers. For example, customers who praised associates were 16 times more likely to be passionate about the organization.

From listening to the speakers for the customer service franchise conference, here is my take on

Why passion is missing in many organizations:

Passion exists in many businesses but it is not consistent or compelling.

Leadership hire for abilities not for passion.

Passion isn't communicated or expected.

Rules and procedures come before passion.

Organizations leadership begin making decisions based on what makes sense rather than what really matters. They compromise their passion again and again until finally it fades away and is forgotten.

One of the biggest misconception about passion is it is a natural, spontaneous inborn but fleeting emotion that you can't control. Wrong. You can and should design, execute and expect passion. In a group passion must be shared to be effective so it must be planned, articulated and expected. In every business aspect people should know how to do it with passion. Passion is a force that merits respect and commands attention and we need to invest in managing it.

You can and should plan and expect passion in an organization. Make passionate performance a part of the job description, even if people don't love to work- they can Fake it