Have Passion
Leaders know an inspired, passionate person can achieve great things.”
Opening Case Study :
Mother Teresa –A Truly Passionate Leader
Mother Teresa was born in 26 August 1910 in Uskub, Ottoman Empire. Her father was involved in Albanian politics but he died of illness when Teresa was only 8 years old.In her youth, she was very enthralled by stories of missionaries and ministers and she aspired to become like them when she grew up. At the age of 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary.
She first went to Ireland to learn English before return to India to teach in a convent school. However, she was disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta.She felt the call to minister to the poor, and she left the comfort of her nunnery in 1948 and into the slums. She first started a school, and then started tending to the needs of the poor. She sacrificed even the promise of the basic necessities in the nunnery and lived her life very much like the poor and destitute people in the streets.
Her work was noticed by many Indian officials, and they appreciated her efforts.In 1950, she started the Missionaries of Charity, with a mission to care for those people that no one else cared for. After her initial opening of the Missionaries of Charity, she went on to start even more schools and as well as a Missionaries of Charity Brothers.
By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.Shesuffered her first heart attack in 1983, and she would go on to have another health issues, all the way till March 1997 when she finally stepped down from her leadership position and she passed away in September 5, 1997.
Most leadership literature talks about having the big vision or big dream you want to achieve, but Mother Teresa focuses on faithfulness in the smallest things. While we think about loving the whole world, she urges us to love our neighbor. While we aspire to do great things, she focuses on doing small things with love.
Instead of focusing on what big things that your organization can accomplish tomorrow, it may be better to focus on the simple daily tasks that you and your team is tasked to do.Are you already doing the tasks given to you faithfully and with excellence? Ultimately, it is these small things that will determine if you will achieve anything big in your life.
Mother Teresa gave everything she had of herself and became a world changer and a history maker. At some point in her life, she decided that the needs of the poor people in India was far more important than her comfort level, and it launched her into her work of ministering to the poor, sick and destitute.
The more you are willing to sacrifice and give up of yourself, the greater fruits you will see in your life. This is the principle of sowing and reaping. The more you sow in terms of your effort, time and money, the more you will reap in your life. Mother Teresa gave herself fully to alleviate the poverty around her by touching one life at a time, and she accomplished so much by the end of her life.
Passion is a profound positive feeling for something that is deeply and personally meaningful.Passion is about vision, and also contains energy, excitement and enthusiasm.Passion inspires others to join and identify with your vision. No one has ever been inspired by a leader who is not passionate. Passion – and alternatively, the lack of passion! – is contagious. If you want to have a passionate, inspired workforce, it begins with you: the leader.
Turning vision into reality requires passion. Passion elevates productivity and ensures employee commitment to your vision. Passion is born out of something that is intensely meaningful to you. It is not a general hobby or a fleeting interest; rather, it is core to who you are.
When you are passionate about something, you can’t help but think about it, work at it and be excited about it. Your passion influences your daily choices and activities. What you do and say centers on your passion. Passion eventually leads to mastery and success, in large part because you are always thinking and working on the thing you are passionate about. Most successful leaders don’t just have a job – they have a passion.
The desire of leaders and organizations to make a difference may not always be immediately apparent. But when you look closely, you can usually find that aspiring to make a difference in the lives of others drives passion. To make a more useful product or to provide a better service, one must be passionate about making a difference.
True leaders have the innate ability to motivate staff to achieve better results. Leading with a passion is what separates great leaders from the “wannabees.”Some people come to work every day, do their job and then go home. Their heart isn’t really in it, but they need the money, so they see their job simply as a means to an end — money. As a result, they do the bare minimum to get by, and their work — and your customer service — suffers.
So how do you inspire your team to deliver superior results? Here are five ways to ignite the passion in your team.
- Passion Starts With You: To inspire passion in others; you must first be passionate yourself. People follow someone who is passionate versus someone who is just going through the motions. First, believe in what you’re doing and that conviction will spread. You can’t ignite passion with a wet match.
- Understanding Your People: It’s impossible to know how to motivate people until you know what motivates them. You can’t expect that everybody is motivated by the same things. You can’t expect that the same things will always motivate the same people. So, learn about your staff as individuals so you can become a better leader. Ask them about special talents, hobbies, and goals. Then tailor your behaviors accordingly
Try to incorporate some of this extra talent into worthwhile projects in the office. People who feel appreciated and acknowledged are happier and more likely to stay motivated. They will feel proud of what they do and work harder because their heart is fully committed.
- A Positive Work Environment: Nobody likes to go to work and face an endless stream of tedious tasks, day in and day out, with no inspiration in sight. Most people want to do the best job they can and are practically begging for somebody to bring back the spark.
Creating a positive “buzz” in the office radiates energy and makes people enjoy coming to work. Banish negativity and you’ll increase productivity and motivation at the same time.
If it’s appropriate, encourage your team to personalize their work environment to reflect the team personality. If you have a few teams, you may even encourage some friendly rivalry.
Having fun at work makes it a happier place to be and keeps the team motivated if they see that you care about their happiness as well. Taking your job seriously is not the same as taking yourself seriously. Have some fun in the way you deliver exceptional customer service. Customers like dealing with happy motivated people.
- Ongoing Training & Coaching: The best leaders regularly provide their teams with opportunities to improve skills, maintain team spirit and provide input into aspects of training and the working environment where they see opportunities for improvement.
It’s very important that your team is fully prepared and able to deal with any issues that customers may have. If their training is insufficient, they may feel inadequate. This can cause problems in the level of service and allow negativity to creep in. Encourage an open-door policy with the team so they feel that they can ask for training or coaching without feeling stupid or inadequate.
- Encourage A Level Of Autonomy: Nobody likes the feeling that a boss is looking over their shoulder all the time. While you have the responsibility for the work that’s being done, allow people to do their job and don’t micromanage them all the time. Give them the opportunity to take ownership of a project and receive the accolades of doing a great job.
They will develop a better sense of self-worth and will work hard because they want you to know that they are reliable and will get the job done. People get a chance to shine if they can roll up their sleeves and work hard to achieve the assigned tasks — and receive the corresponding praise and recognition for a job well done.
CONCLUSION:
To inspire passion in employees, leaders need to be vocal and excited about why the organization matters, and employees need to see that their leaders are passionate about this. In turn, employees will become more passionate.