Passionate Performance: Engaging Minds and Hearts to Conquer the
Competition
In today's hyper-competitive market, a burning question for most
companies is: "How can we achieve a significant and sustainable
competitive advantage in order to retain our customers?" After
all, keeping existing customers is five times less expensive
than finding new ones. That's good business in anyone's book.
Traditional competitive factors like product design, technology
and distribution channels are harder to sustain in a super-fast,
mega-networked world. In fact, the good old "Four P's of
Marketing" - product, price, promotion and placement - are
having much less impact for companies competing in today's
marketplace. A fifth "P" - people - has become an increasingly
important competitive factor. Consider this: About 70% of
customers' buying decisions are based on positive human
interactions with sales staff. Add to this the fact that 83% of
the U.S. gross domestic product comes from services and
information which are created and delivered by people. The
bottom line is that people buy from people, not companies. So,
your people - and the performance they deliver - are the
defining competitive advantage for your organization.
The Anatomy of Passionate Performance
When people are engaged in their work and feel a deep connection
to it, they deliver Passionate Performance. Passionate
Performance creates satisfied customers, and ultimately, value
for the organization. Think of the times you've gone shopping or
to a restaurant and dealt with service people who were visibly
excited to be in their jobs and to be serving you. Their words
jumped out of their hearts rather than being regurgitated from a
script. They probably surprised you with the extra effort and
thoughtfulness they put toward satisfying your particular needs
or questions - and they actually seemed happy to do it! Now,
consider how you felt when you left these establishments. Did
you buy more than you had planned? Were you likely to return?
Did you recommend these businesses to friends? You probably
answered "Yes" to at least one of these questions. That's the
beginning of a value chain that starts with engaged employees.
Some people are naturally engaged in their work and consistently
deliver Passionate Performance. The most effective leaders learn
how to bring these qualities out in everyone. They invest time,
energy and resources to engage their people because engaged
employees are more likely to:
- stay with the organization;
- perform at higher levels;
- influence others to perform well;
- promote the organization externally; and
- deliver unparalleled customer service.
When you discover how to actively engage your people to deliver
Passionate Performance, you start a powerful and
self-reinforcing cycle that builds value for your organization.
This creates a unique, sustainable competitive advantage. Given
enough time and resources, your competitors can replicate your
products, distribution channels and technology. However,
Passionate Performance cannot be easily duplicated by your
competition and creates a rock-solid wall of differentiation
between you and the rest of the pack.
Passionate Performance is achieved when employees are fully
engaged - when they demonstrate a strong, sustained intellectual
and emotional attachment to their work. You will know when
employees are demonstrating Passionate Performance because you
will feel the enthusiasm and see the results. Your team will
have more fun creating better outcomes. They will be fully
present at work, in the moment, in the flow. They will perform
at higher levels and be motivated to do more. They will feel
like kids again - a time when they had fun doing their very best
at whatever they were engaged in. In short, their work will feel
like play.
The key to Passionate Performance is found within the minds and
hearts of employees where basic human needs are fulfilled. It's
a simple but powerful formula: When my needs are fulfilled, I am
engaged and I perform at my peak ability. When my needs are met,
I'm motivated to help those who meet my needs. When my needs are
not met, I'm frustrated, out of control, unfocused, and
disconnected - in a word, disengaged.
We all have these basic human needs, and they have remained the
same amidst the tornado of external change. Times have changed,
and our world has certainly changed, but people have not. In
many organizations today, these basic needs still go
unfulfilled. It's up to you as the leader to fulfill them.
To meet these needs, leaders must first see them and acknowledge
them. In order to see them, leaders must view their employees as
people and not just workers. If you look at your employees as
people, you can identify these six basic needs - three
intellectual and three emotional:
Intellectual Needs: Achievement, Autonomy and Mastery
Emotional Needs: Purpose, Intimacy and Appreciation
These needs are interdependent. For example, to engage the minds
of your employees, you must fulfill all three intellectual
needs: achievement, autonomy and mastery. The same holds true
for the emotional needs. Therefore, achieving Passionate
Performance is a two-sided challenge: intellectual and
emotional. Successful leaders engage both the minds and hearts
of their people.
When it comes to Passionate Performance, the mind and the heart
go hand in hand. Engaged minds build your employees' performance
and engaged hearts build their passion. Performance without
passion tends to falter during tough times or in the face of
challenges that require sacrifice, significant extra effort or
unusually creative solutions. On the other hand, passion without
performance results in diffused, unfocused efforts.
Engaged minds build your employees' performance and engaged
hearts build their passion - they go hand in hand. You ignite
Passionate Performance only when all three intellectual and all
three emotional needs are fulfilled and you connect minds and
hearts.
Engaging the Mind
Engaging employees' minds tends to come naturally for many
leaders. The mind represents the intellectual aspects of people
that are based on reason, logic, and cause and effect. It
requires the science of leadership which is the focus of most
leadership training and education. Engaging the mind builds
employee performance. Elevating employees' performance by
engaging their minds involves the basics of leadership, but the
basics are often overlooked. Even the best professional athletes
can lose site of the basic skills of their sports: An all-star
wide receiver takes his eyes off the ball and misses an easy
touchdown pass. An Olympic downhill skier doesn't stay in a
tight tuck, catches a draft and eats snow. A world-class golfer
forgets to shift her weight during a tee shot and shanks it.
It's no surprise that, as leaders, we can also sometimes forget
the basics. The basics of our "sport" involve meeting employees'
three intellectual needs: Achievement, Autonomy and Mastery.
When you fulfill these needs, you create a self-reinforcing
cycle of improvement, growth and high performance for your team.
The mind is a muscle. It must be exercised or it will weaken.
Engaging the mind is a form of mental exercise - it strengthens
your employees' ability to perform. Engage their minds and watch
their performance grow!
Engaging the Heart
Engaging the heart tends to be more challenging for leaders than
engaging the mind. It's the softer side of leadership, but it's
often harder to get your hands around. Traditional leadership
development programs don't emphasize the skills necessary to
engage employees' hearts, and many organizations don't reinforce
these skills with their leaders. As a result, many leaders tend
to be less comfortable with this side of engagement because they
simply have never learned how or what to do. Emotional
engagement creates an advantage that is very difficult for your
competitors to duplicate, so it's worth learning to do well.
The heart represents the emotional side of people that is based
on connections. This side requires the art of leadership that
focuses on relationships. Engaging the heart creates passion.
Although we might like to think otherwise, the truth is that we
live in a world driven by emotional decisions. Remember that 70%
of customers' buying decisions are based on human interactions.
Likewise, employees are primarily driven by emotional and
personal considerations. When people go to work, they don't
leave their hearts at home. We may live in a high-tech world,
but leadership is still a high-touch job. How often do you hear
people speak with envy about companies with "real heart" -
companies like The Container Store, Southwest Airlines,
Harley-Davidson, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Chick-fil-A?
Outsiders are constantly looking for their "secrets" to success.
The secret lies in the hearts of their employees. These
companies have created connected teams and, as a result, have
built dominant businesses.
If you're going to engage your employees' hearts, you must first
meet their basic emotional needs: Purpose, Intimacy and
Appreciation.
When you fulfill these needs, you create self-reinforcing
connections - connections between your employees and you,
between their work and their purpose, and between each other.
These connections establish strong, intangible relationships
that yield amazing tangible results. Engage employees' hearts
and watch their passion grow!
Leading the Way
Leading the way to Passionate Performance for your team is a big
responsibility. As a leader, you're the only person who can
engage your employees. It's not your boss's responsibility or
Human Resources' - it's yours. Engaging employees is a personal
matter, not a company matter.
Meeting your employees' needs and engaging them is a long-term
process, and there are no shortcuts. You need to mentally
prepare for a marathon versus a sprint. And there may be some
bumps in the road. You may not see the sparks of Passionate
Performance until you are well into the race and feeling weary,
like you can't go on. That's usually about the time your team
seems to give it all back, and you see the positive results of
your efforts. It's like the "runner's high." Suddenly your
team's success appears effortless - you are in the zone. Only
you and your team can fully appreciate the simplicity and hard
work behind your winning ways. Best of all, everyone on your
team will deliver Passionate Performance every day. You will win
the race and conquer the competition!