The Deloitte Center For the Edge recently produced research results indicating that almost 90% workers work without passion. The number at senior leadership levels is an incredible 80% given the disproportionate financial incentives to which they are positionally entitled. Passion is what causes people to love change and challenge, learning and always high standards of achievement. Here are the five myths about passion the research challenges:
Myth 1: Only youth is passionate: Deloitte’s research shows that older workers are just as likely to be passionate as younger workers. Passionate workers are not concentrated in any age group. Myth 2: Small firms nurture passion better: Large firms are equally as effective, or ineffective, at cultivating passion in the workforce as smaller firms. Myth 3: Passionate workers congregate in certain regions. Deloitte’s research found that a worker’s place of residence did not influence the likelihood of worker passion. Myth 4: More education nurtures passion. The research showed that educational attainment overall did not have a statistically significant impact on worker passion. Myth 5: It’s the knowledge workers. While passionate workers are overrepresented at higher corporate levels (around 18-20 percent), some front-line workers reported being passionate (around 6 percent).
In my work with organizations, I think of passion as what emerges when people declare the possibilities they are committed to creating. I have see very few organizations invite and engage this actually accessible and powerful expression of passion that makes all the difference in performance.
