Last week, I wrote a very geeky post on metrics. I wanted to think about measuring social media’s impact on career websites.
Out of the blue, Brian Kevin Johnston suggested that we measure passion. He capitalized it and added an exclamation mark.
- PASSION!!
My first reaction was strong. I’m a cynic and a realistic, and I thought there was no way you can measure passion in a meaningful way and demonstrate the result in an authentic, honest metric. It’s like forcing people to have fun. Just not possible.
Furthermore, I wonder if your organization has any business measuring passion. In my mind, passion is reserved for food, cats, and celebrity gossip. For some people, passion is reserved for love, sex, and beer. You can have a passion for great hotels and you can have passion for beautiful women. Passion for work is fine, but it’s yours. You own it. It doesn’t belong to the company, and I’m not sure if your organization should be measuring it.
Does anyone want to talk about passion, today? Is it a public commodity? What’s the role of passion at work? Should companies quantify it? Should passion be a metric? Is passion a competitive advantage for employees and businesses?
{ 1 trackback }
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, passion is absolutely a competitive advantage (I’ll take a passionate team over a disengaged one any day), but I agree with everyone above: measuring it is a fool’s game. I agree that measurement is key to credibility for HR professionals, but trying to measure something that cannot be quantified is a good way to make your HR team look like a group of idiots.
There are some great comments above about creating an environment where passion can thrive, which is certainly important for good leaders. Passion is an important multiplier to talent—teams with the most talent but no passion frequently underperform. Fire your bad managers, hire better ones, train them to be even better, and they will help get more out of their team. Maybe even some passion.
All measuring passion would do is give mediocre managers another buzz word to use ON those who work for them. It’s great if people bring passion to their work if it produces the actually result you want.
I’m not sure about passion as a tangible, measurable metric, but I do believe it’s an essential part of a strong, thriving culture. The more employees you have that have a passion for what they do, and a passion for the business in which they work, the more authentic, positive, and even collaborative culture you can sustain. So is it tangible…probably not. But important nonetheless…I think so.
Measuring passion is akin to measuring the stock market without knowing the tick values. You are certaining “measuring” something, but you have no idea of the amplitude of what you are measuring. Furthermore, the idea of measuring something is to get to some level of certainty about future outcomes, but passion, like the stock market, is not governed by certainty or rationality. And if your model or measurement is wrong, it can be very wrong with unforeseen consequences. I am all for measuring human performance, but let’s stay within the domain of things that are tangible, definable, and consistent such as skills.
Only measure if you are going to do something with the outcome, would be my advice. If measuring passion was possible (which I hope for the love of God that it is not) then it would be a lag not a lead measure.
You can’t make someone passionate – just ask my wife
– but you can put in place an environment where people can feel passionate. But as you say, they own it, it’s their choice.
If people know what the organisation is trying to do, if they understand the direction, understand the product or service and if you celebrate success, they are more likely to feel passionate. But that is as far as I would personally take it.
Like minds…I was going to write about this today. Score. The way some people talk about finding passion at work sounds to me like they expect the company or their bosses to provide them with the passion and the, cough, excitement, cough, at work. Have you noticed how some people can find passion in nearly everything they do and whatever job they happen to have?
I think I agree with HRD.
You can create the environment somewhat. Methinks the people are first.
Can you measure passion? Can you define art? Can you quantify God?
You can try, but you will always fail. There are certain things in life that, no matter how hard humans try to describe or measure them, we will always fail to some degree. Infinite things defy measurement and description.
You can measure the results of passion, or as @Mark said, human performance. Those with passion are likely to score higher on certain performance measures.
But to attempt to measure an undefinable construct like passion kind of reminds me of that question asked in The Sound of Music–”How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?”
Jenniffer and BZTAT nailed it….my add is that its a behavior or state of mind…maybe you can measure it with a myers-Briggs type psychological tool…but its not like measuring turnover or sales revenue…Ask the OD folks about the measurement possibilities…they probably already have ways to quantify it…
One things for sure its the passionate people who usually succeed…guess its the special sauce for winners!
M
I agree that passion is elusive – and in the eye of the beholder. The book, Good to Great (Jim Collins) – describes companies like a bus where the passengers – decide together where they’re going and how to change course – instead of just buying a ticket to a destination and then hitting road blocks. It’s easier to be passionate when you have some say in decisions. That’s easier for smaller companies than larger ones. Even mighty Google has lost talent and had to take the reigns in different ways as it’s grown. A much different company when compared to its start. Companies change – jobs change – passion changes. Measure it? Good luck!
I don’t think passion can be measured in a tangible way. But I think someone who has passion for their work shows different results than someone collecting a paycheck.
Although passion comes from within, there are things companies and leaders can do to ignite that within others. Primarily, leaders should help employees understand their role in the big picture of the organization and how what they do makes a difference. Companies should have a mission, not a collection of words that are addressed in orientation and at the bottom of everyone’s email signature. A REAL mission that drives the organization, that leaders consistently live and employees can buy into. It takes a lot of effort, but I’ve seen it done & the results were amazing.
Passion is a discretionary metric. Discretionary metrics are great because they do not require any discretion. It is great way for executives to offset the results of hard metrics. Your favorite underperforming direct report now has “great” passion and a better review.
Metrics like passion are shovel ready. Or pitchfork ready. . . Or whatever tool you prefer to use when handling manure.
There’s a way to measure passion: Drug Testing!
Other than that, it’s an intangible attribute and it’s simply comes down of do you want it more.
Perhaps the “Passion” measure is not a measure at all. Perhaps it comes from the Inside Out rather than the Top Down. Sue, starts to venture into the space of passion when she refers to; Good to Great (Jim Collins) – describes companies like a bus where the passengers – decide together where they’re going and how to change course – instead of just buying a ticket to a destination and then hitting road blocks.
I actually have a Dream! (smiles) of a market where people actually CHOOSE the the company they want to be a part of…at that point the company engages the person in COMMITMENT (fostering rust and accountability) to the company, then together they move into the dance of CREATION, which is the space PASSION is born. Let’s not try to measure it rather, foster relationships with people, companies, vendors and the world where Passion is a by product without the need for measurement. Let the parts of the sum (the people) be the owners of passion and create accountabilities and conversations that will feed it. Remember to measure is to manage. I would argue the act of managing passion it in fact the death of it.
So Corporate America, are you a place PASSION can live, create and surpass all other measurable results?
Over the years I’ve attended a lot of SHRM conferences. The only times I’ve heard an attendee use the phrase “I’m passionate about ________” is at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference, and they fill in the blank with the word “recruiting.”
Passionate is very intangible, however running a retail store, I believe that passion can be measured in the long term.
Have conversations with your employees, can be an easy way to find out about their passion.
I found a past employee of mine loved his job and he would often tell me about sales online that I did not know we have.
Passion in the workplace is the extent to which an employee truly cares about the quality and impact of his work. As far as measuring it, “commitment to following up” might be one indicator.
Entrepreneurs have passion— bored corporate office workers have passion for the clock to hit 5 oclock! If you had a tool to measure cynical indifference– now that would be flying off the charts!! The only thing I truely have passion for is when I’m doing something creative (video, painting, etc.)— the feeling is indescribable to anyone who hasn’t experienced it—
How about this corporate trend of when you walk into the store, the employee is required to scream “Welcome to Jerry’s House of Pain!!! How are you today?? Can I help you with finding anything??!!!” with all the fake enthusiasm s/he can muster. Yea- yea– shut the hell up, alright— I just got here!!
“Passion” seems like a bad choice of words. Perhaps it’s just the romance-novel connotations behind that word. Those books often define passion, interestingly enough, as people who lose their sense of self and surrender to the will of others. A little groupthink? Drinking the corporate Kool-Aid? Not so different. (I’m guilty – I’ve had a big glass of the corporate Kool-Aid. I ended up with a purple tongue and a pink slip.)
I think “engaged” and “invested” would be two better word choices. Engaged in the process, invested in the outcome. Good metrics, and a way to measure from the beginning to the end of a process.
@RJ Morris I love the comment and I love when people choose to bring passion to the workforce. I just wonder if you’re paying me for passion or if you’re paying me to do a job. Hmmmm.
@nelking Like measuring engagement or innovation. F_U buzzwords.
@Jennifer I dunno. I want culture in my life, but I’m not sure I want culture at work. I want work at work. When I hear the word culture applied to work, it commoditizes something that should be more important than the workplace.
@Mark Agreed. PS I think measuring the stock market is pointless for most of us thanks to Larry Kudlow and the fools who ruined thoughtful and prudent investing.
@theHRD Only measure if you are going to do something with the outcome, would be my advice. That would wipe out 99% of HR metrics.
@GL We’re always doing that to one another. It’s like we read the same blogs and we’re influenced by the same conversations. Maybe I should move on to cat blogging.
@BZ OMG, Sound of Music is like my least favorite musical ever — but your point is well taken! “How do you solve a problem like Mister Scrubby?”
@Mark Don’t even get me started on Myers-Briggs. Nope.
@Sue I’m going to say something totally unrelated to your comment but it’s been on my mind — we need a new Jim Collins. Who’s the next one? Is it Daniel Pink? Is it Grant McCracken? I wonder who it will be.
@Alicia I think passion needs to emanate from yourself and I worry that leadership’s role is overstated when it comes to the role of passion.
@Salescomp “Shredder-ready.”
@Tracy LOL.
@Inside OUt I hate a call to action from Corporate America. Always disappoints us.
I may be the odd person out, but I think you can measure just about anything…
To measure passion, first you have to break it down. How does your organization define passion? What behaviors are you looking for? Is it initiative, continuous improvement, entrepreneurialism, dedication, etc. Once you define those behaviors, you can include this in an employee survey to ask the population how well these terms describe the behaviors of the organization. By aggregating responses to the terms you use to define passion, get can get an overall measure.
The hills are alive, With the sound of Scrubby, with songs they have sung
For a thousand years…
[Sung with PASSION]
I think that “passion” should be reserved for love/hate relationships characterized by far more intensity than work should have unless you are a true evangelist (religious or otherwise).
“Enthusiasm” or the boring but easily measured “satifying” are much more appropriate work words.
@Robert I think people who are passionate about staffing are NUTS. Yes, I said that. To an audience comprised of staffing professionals.
@Cole I cannot be passionate about the work I’ve done in the retail world. Nope. Not at all. Not for those wages.
@Ken Commitment to following up — is that just about a work ethic and integrity?
@MattyMat I walked into Eddie Bauer to look for warm socks, a few weeks ago, and the staff practically crawled down my lungs. I felt bad for them. That’s mandated passion, and it’s phony.
@Patrick Yes, passion seems cheesy. Who likes cheese? Gallup says you can measure engagement but I dunno. I’m still skeptical on that one.
@Michelle No you are right — you can measure anything. I guess maybe we should ask, “Why measure passion?”
@Laura Corporate linguists often take important words and turn them into ‘businesspeak’ and I really hate that. So I’m with you. Passion sounds rather intimate. Like a late-night setting. Dark corner of a room. Or hotel room. Or to Patrick’s earlier point — a romance novel. I dunno. Keep passion private, IMHO.
I think the idea of measuring a non-quantifiable & non-necessary element @ work is silly.
Non-quantifiable: If passion = strong/compelling emotion, then it may be experienced/observed but cannot be measured.
@Michelle: what you describe sounds like a buzzword making process – make list of arbitrary elements, slap on newly appropriated word (passion), declare a manhunt, and voila!
Non-necessary: Many people do excellent, even award-winning work without passion. Yes, it happens. A lot. Like MattyMat, I also only really experience passion when being really creative, which is usually not in work situations. So from this worker bee to the firm: focus on operating while I do my part and keep your paws off my passion.
Passion…it’s fruity.
Seriously though, I like passion, it is not quantifiable because it is measured in other forms and most often revered as “motivation” (gag).
I think that Patrick is spot on with his groupthink comment. If I’m executive in a large company who needs to make a splash; having a bunch of people that will happily and tirelessly work around the clock to implement my vision seems very appealing.
Plus it is so much easier to slip into unethical and/or illegal behaviors when everyone is passionate to an organization or company.
Lots of business executives talk about having passion for their work, exuding passion with customers, or having workers who are – or should be – passionate about the business mission. But what one sees as passion, another sees as “just doing a job that I love,” yet in a non-passionate way. It’s not just a matter of what makes you tick, it’s also how you express it. So, no, it’s not something you can measure.
I don’t want to imagine measuring passion at my employer. it would probably depress a small percentage of the country.
@Geekette Perfect.
@High Priest Motivation = gag = you are right.
@Salescomp Patrick is awesome. #fact
@Rick It’s not just a matter of what makes you tick, it’s also how you express it. I like that.
@Jay I know you’re passionate about doing something different.
Great post and comments today…
To quote the rapper Ice T, “Passion makes the world go round, love just makes it a safer place”… More relevant in the romantic sense, but still applicable.
Last weekend I spent 16+ hours cleaning up dog shit at the humane society. I hate dog shit, but I have a tempestuous passion for the cause, and will help in any way I can.
HR can’t measure passion, but they can try to find people who have it. Granted, it’s hard to get passionate about working at a paper company… but people can get passionate about the company’s practices and principles. If I knew the paper company donated x amount of money to plant trees or otherwise showed great corporate social responsibility… that’s something I get fired up about. If I respect the company, I will do my best… almost to fault sometimes.
Passion is SO much more than being engaged, motivated, or invested. Those are all slimey corporate words that make me want to barf. Don’t even try to measure passion, you either have it or you don’t.
“you know the Nazis had pieces of flair they made the Jews wear….”
Hard not to think of Chotzkies when contemplating a passion metric.
Love this site!
Love this one, too:
http://www.realworldjobhunting.blogspot.com
@Meg Thanks!
@Scott Office Space for anyone who STILL has not seen that movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/quotes
@Jess OMG, Ice T. This may be his first appearance on my blog. Love it.
I don’t want my passion measured.
Maybe that’s because my real passions have very little to with my work. My work is interesting, I like it and am good at it, but it will not ever take the place of cooking, talking politics or any of the other things that *actually* give my life joy. And I don’t want it to.
I agree with other posters that passion is part of the secret sauce but…
Well, with some much nonsense going on in workplaces today, do we need this? To get a job now one must not only be skilled and willing, but lucky with good timing and connections in this economy. And now we are going to have to be passionate about it too?
Couldn’t we just focus on making sure that everybody is competent and plays well with others? Please?
Sorry, but I don’t think my company has any right to ask employees for their passion, and they will never get mine again. I was impacted by a reduction in force and hired back into the same function it in a different role two months later. The entire experience made me think about what organization truly deserves my loyalty and my passion. I enjoy the work I do and I know that it does make a difference. I am grateful to be gainfully employed by a company that encourages learning gives me work that challenges me, but most of all it affords me the salary and time away to do the things that I am actually passionate about.
BTW – I work in HR.
ok, dint bother reading through everything.
1) you cant measure passion
2) you can define “passion indicators” and observe and measure that
so what are examples of passion indicators? hmmm that i havent figured out..
As an employee, of an organization. I am not in management nor HR therefore, I am not privy to this side of the discussion until now. Thank you for having it, I am enlighten.
When reviews are performed and I’m rated or coworkers are rated on numbers- production numbers…in the back of our heads (at least my head) I do wonder if my boss or the HR department considers how “passionate” I am about my job. How I care about my clients. How I treat my clients with respect and sometimes have “hand-hold” them through the entire process.
Moreover, I am not the employee who believes “trash in…trash out”. My desk may not be clean at the end of the day (in fact it is organized chaos)…unlike my fellow co-workers who have spotless desks, and no passion, and do not care or empathize with their clients.
None of the above counts or is counted in my reviews. I am a cubicle rat that has to produce numbers with or without passion…just produce. No questions asked, reach the magic number and everybody is happy (expect me because I short changed somebody, somewhere–including myself and my personal standard).
Laurie, thanks for such a stimulating post. It has generated quite a buzz. While you may not be able to specifically measure Passion, passion many times manifests itself in employee engagement (an employee’s willingness to go above and beyond normal expectations) – which is measurable. Engagement has been shown to directly impact business results including stock price, so it shouldn’t be arbitrarily dismissed. Employers should carefully consider the culture they’re creating and ensure its one that inspires both passion and engagement – otherwise they simply employ workers, not business partners. Ignoring both is likely to result in a giant sucking sound as top talent migrates once the economy begins to turn. I recently wrote a related post on the dangers of talent loss you might be interested in at http://bit.ly/ctxa5H.
Being “passionate” about your work really only means taking an interest in the quality of outcomes. That puts you at odds with those who don’t. And often (in large companies, at least) this means being at odds with senior management, who are more interested in conformity or career progression rather than in what is actually best for the organisation.
Being “passionate” at work is simply a great way of saying “downsize me”…
There are ways to measure just about any emotion, including passion.
And you did it the last time you were disappointed with your husband, wife, lover, child, father, mother.
The measurement of an emotion is a judgment.
Funny thing about being judgmental; you can’t influence somebody else when you are judgmental. Sure, you can control them, for a while, but never influence them.
Know what: If you are a leader – your job is to influence, not control. Control things, but influence people. Influence is another one of those areas where people say “it can’t be measured”, but it can.
The world, inside and outside of business, is a place filled by people who walk around with a big pair of big judgment glasses on, attempting to alter the behavior and beliefs of others. Those people get frustrated when they don’t get their way. And we all do it. As I listened to the State of the Union address the president, while attempting to influence, came down and was judgmental about those who did not agree. And after the speech he was by who he shook hands with, and who he didn’t.
To close – do I want passion in the work place? Yes I do. I want to be surrounded by people who love what they do, not do what they love. I want to see the passion that drives respect of the co-worker, the subordinate, the boss and the customer. We are human beings, and human being have emotions. I want to work with human beings, and I choose to work with human beings, because those human beings enrich my life, bring value to my life, bring joy to my life. I have passion for everything that I do, even if it is not something that I like, because with the passion of making sure I get every ounce of joy from it I can I can do anything.
Passion is hard to fake just like love… Essentially people have to love their work–maybe not their bosses or teammates or even the industry, but at least they love what they do around those elements…
You HR people need to get over yourselves and stop using this word “passion”, as if you’re all judges on America’s Got Talent. I have passion for my wife, for life, for living it with integrity. If I ever have a passion for working in a call center, or selling whatever it is my job to sell, or waking up at ungodly hours and driving an hour each way to get my ass kicked all day for subsistence wages and no health benefits, please shoot me.
For any job that requires a human resources department to do the hiring, passion does not apply. This is yet another perfectly good word from the English language that has been abused and rendered meaningless by people trying to impress their boss or sell product. If you are a pastor or a soldier or a teacher or an investigative journalist or a great musician, maybe it ought to be a job requirement. But otherwise, by demanding it and selecting for it you are only engineering a process that favors artificiality, dishonesty and empty speech. One need not exhibit any passion at all to do their job well and energetically and with due concern for company and coworkers.