Passion at Work Place

By

Nagaraja K
Senior Faculty Member, HR/Fin
Icfai National College
161/A, 2nd Cross, III Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore-560078
 

Introduction:

People at work place are considered to be multi-intelligent as they are recruited through time tested processes. They undergo various tests like IQ, EQ, TQ, SQ, PQ and other quotients decided by the HR decision makers. Knowledge, intelligence and emotional balance augur well once they are supported by the positive mental attitude of the employee. Every person works in an occupation, profession or vocation but the question is how much of it is he enjoying. Enjoying work becomes possible only when one exhibits enthusiasm, excitement, zeal or love towards what one does. These adjectives describe the passion at the work place.

Passion at work spot

The Training and Development department through their T & D programmes emphasize on the issues like " Sense of belonging", " Sense of ownership", "Love for one's work", "Pride of one's work" and the like. The question is: "Are these practised or felt by the employees at work place"?

The normal responses to a question, "why do you work in this office" would be: a) I am earning my livelihood, b) I am earning for the salary the company gives or c) I am working because my boss tells me to do this work. Rarely, we come across a response like "This is my company/organisation. I feel proud to work here. So I work". Can we get more and more responses like this? The answer lies in developing the passion in employees at work place.

Once I was passing through a retail outlet. Looking at some employees I could make it that they were students deputed for internship. I could overhear some arguments. "I am an MBA student. Why should I carry this carton box? Our college has sent for internship in this small outlet whereas other colleges have sent their students to……… .. Number one international company. The company trainer gave a fantastic reply. He threw open a challenge to that MBA student. He said: My dear MBA, Right now I give you Rs20 lakh and you start a new business. One of your employees is on leave and a reputed client of yours comes directly to you.  Tell me what will you do? Think this retail outlet or may the retailing industry is yours. Develop a liking for what you do. This is the first lesson. However, nobody compels you to do any job. You need to do a job which you like the most.

A new Chartered Accountant was given charge of despatch department in an insurance company. He felt discouraged. He said, this work can be done by any X standard pass student. Why did your organisation choose a CA for this job. The trainer coolly replied, "You are a new trainee officer. Only the bearer of shoe knows where it pinches. Moreover, for one month of training in the despatch department, you get a great opportunity of learning of what is happening in all the departments of this organisation. You can proactively work for making changes to achieve effectiveness". (cost control, expenditure control, audit, management control etc)

A labourer was working as a construction worker in a new building (under construction) which was meant for an educational institution. His answers were really enthralling and worthy of emulation. Referring to the building under construction he said "I AM CONSTRUCTING THIS TEMPLE OF LEARNING.

The above examples amply demonstrate that there is more to a man's work. An employee does more of something as compared to others. He puts his heart and soul in a job that he likes most not because it is rewarding or because the deadline is already dead, but because he has a PASSION for that work. The zeal, enthusiasm, eagerness, devotion, dedication and the love for that work are unimaginable. He derives pleasure from working on that job. He also does other jobs to fulfil the individual and organisational requirements.

Managers' role in identifying and developing passion at work place

The managers at the work place need to understand this and design and redesign the work processes in such a way that the employees love the job that they do. Employees of today want creative and challenging nature of work and not monotonous or drudgery work. HR Managers could do better to value passion more than the competence in an employee.

Passion brings home the desired behaviour. Passion is a self-driven behaviour modification process. The passion in an employee dictates the desired behaviour on one's own part. HR Managers could think well to decide whether developing a passion at work place would be a behaviour modification process.

By nature, some employees are multi-skilled. They enjoy talking and working with different sets of employees and different nature of jobs. They put their values, interests and abilities in a wide range of projects and assignments. They put up new ideas within the permitted parameters

Quality of product or service is reflected by the passion of the employees who produced those products and delivered the required service. Quality of service is a passionate desire on the part of the service deliverer to give the customers what they need.

It is a myth that the College degrees and high IQ are the major drivers of life. When we look at great achievers in life, many of them are not college degree holders. But the inherent passion in them gave all the success. The passionate people can inspire others around them.

People get immense satisfaction when they get a job where they get an opportunity to do what they wanted to do. Examples aplenty, we can examine one or two.

A sub-ordinate staff member in a bank was fond of driving the motor-cycle that too in the morning. He had also a knack of influencing the people by his talks. Manager has encouraged him by permitting the sub-staff to drive the bank motorcycle. The village visits gave the expected results. The sub staff got immense satisfaction. An employee who had put in around 20 years of service has learnt the knack of speed counting of cash and has a flair for the cash job. Manager can encourage him by giving him cash work instead of sending on to the field work which he may dislike.

Some employees are excellent communicators. They have a passion in creating copies for advertisement and writing small but effective slogans. They can be used as brand ambassadors to make effective presentations at various strategic locations.

Name the job. Passion adds value to the job as well as to the person. Successful departments or organisations can encourage their employees to develop a passion for the work that they are doing or can reallocate jobs in which an employee has a passion.
 

Nagaraja K
Senior Faculty Member, HR/Fin
Icfai National College
161/A, 2nd Cross, III Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore-560078
 

Source: E-mail April 14, 2008

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