In today’s culture – especially post-pandemic – we often hear about employees feeling unengaged, disconnected, and unenthusiastic about their jobs. Burnout is high and employee turnover is common.
So, how do you know if your team is passionate about their work? How do you encourage them to be passionate and find meaning in their role?
Creating a passionate and engaging culture is the first step. Here are some ways to do that.
#1: Lead with vision.
Business owners, managers, or entrepreneurs help set the tone in creating a passionate work culture. The first thing you can do is create a strong vision and lead with it. Your company’s vision is the foundation of everything and guides what you do and how you do it. That vision should be used to inspire your team, so you can create a common goal and work toward that with a purpose.
#2: Don’t be afraid to set big goals.
Once you have a clear vision of where you want your company to go, don’t be afraid to create big goals and work to reach them. Get feedback and input from your team about what goals should be achieved, so they feel some ownership in them. Having goals helps your team feel motivated and driven and ultimately, can spur passion in how they can play a part in reaching those.
#3: Keep respect at the forefront, with an open line of communication.
Whether it’s marriage, a friendship, or a child-parent relationship, communication is key. When it comes to the workplace, the same goes. If you keep communication central to business operations and your employees know that they have a voice, they feel respected, heard, and more apt to use their passions and creativity to help the company succeed. So, keep your door open for communication – invite conversations, feedback, and critical feedback. This helps you get to know your employees and builds rapport. A more passionate work culture is the result of that.
#4: Remember that failure is a part of growth.
No one hones their passions without a little bit of failure along the way. So, as you are working to build a passionate work environment, remember that not everything you try or do will work. If something fails, have an open dialogue about why it happened. Don’t fear failure, either – failure helps bring the freedom to step out of the box and be innovative to create the type of passionate work culture you envision.
#5: Provide opportunities for growth.
Creating passion in the workplace is more than having summer barbecues, a ping-pong table in the lunchroom, or regular happy hours. Most employees want to develop their professional skills and advance the career ladder. So, provide professional development opportunities for them, so they can learn new skills and become passionate about them. They will take that back into their role, which will positively impact the work culture at the company.
Companies thrive with passionate teams. So, when you see your employees going above and beyond, or you see an employee really diving into their passion and walking in it, recognize that with an encouraging word. This is a huge opportunity for them to feel seen and heard, which can build loyalty and deeper bonds with the company and the team around them.