Organizational Leadership: Passion & Peace
Do you remember how you felt on the first day of your current position? It was a time of excitement for a new opportunity to undertake a meaningful challenge. A new adventure. A fresh start. The sky was the limit. This new role was the perfect intersection of your passion and your peace regarding working with those experiencing homelessness. Yet, there may have come a time in your career when your passion lessened or even disappeared. Knowing how to address this challenge in the employees you lead is critical.
Maintaining an energized workforce is critical to providing quality services to clients who are unhoused or housing insecure. Further, an energized workforce will have lower turnover and lower sick leave utilization. Understanding “passion” and “peace” is essential to maintaining an optimal workforce.
Passion, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept”. Of the words in this definition, the one I like best is “devotion”. It is not unheard of to describe someone as devoted to their job. The readers of this post likely fall into this category!
Passion is the result of a calling. Whether one is a spiritual person or not, many people in the field of homeless services feel called or even compelled to work in this field. A calling fills a need held deep within a person. Often it was brought about by an experience or an encounter with a person experiencing homelessness such as a chance encounter or an internship while in college. For me, it was interacting with people who had no place to live when I was a police officer. The fact that I had so few options to support people was distressing and it bothered me to the point that I found other ways to address those issues.
A calling, and especially a passionate calling, has several key traits:
1. The call is compelling – there is a real need for the person’s involvement.
2. The call persists and it does not go away easily.
3. The call is personal as the employee closely identifies with their work.
4. The call is feasible in that the person has the access and ability to live out the call.
When a call matches these four conditions it elicits passion. It also brings about peace. Peace, defined by Merriam-Webster is “the freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts and emotions”. This does not mean the work is devoid of stress; it means the stress is either productive or manageable.
Losing Passion & Peace
Many employees, sadly, move along an arc that begins with passion and peace, then into disillusionment, and finally into either burnout or their passion being lost altogether. We all know from the high turnover rate that many people do not recover and either leave the field or remain but burned out and bitter.
Elizabeth (not real name) has been in the field of homelessness for four years. She was exposed to the field during a randomly chosen internship and immediately determined that was her calling. After graduation, she was hired as a case manager by the same organization where she interned. Filled with energy, it was not long before she was promoted and became a supervisor. As time progressed, she started to become physically and mentally tired and frustrated by her peers who did not seem to care as much as she did. After 6-months of being in a first-level management position, she became extremely discouraged and even began to wonder if she had chosen the right profession.
Passion is Normal
People are hard-wired to be passionate – about their significant other, family, work, or hobbies. To go through life otherwise is a sign of depression. Of course, passion comes in different forms and does not have to be expressed overtly as some people are more reserved. That being said, passion is normal and unfortunately losing that passion is all too common as well.
Missing Passion
An early sign that a person’s passion is in jeopardy is when they observe that their peace has been disturbed. This might include:
1. Being unusually tired
2. Feeling discouraged
3. Being at odds with colleagues
4. Not doing as much for clients as before
Helping Staff Recover Their Passion & Peace
Below are 5 tips to helping staff reclaim their passion and their peace:
1. Help Staff Members Revisit Their Passion and Find Their Peace!
It is easy to assume that your employee’s passion, when you hire them, will remain. However, people change. We all do. One of the best ways to broach the subject of how an employee is doing is to ask “Are you happy?” I have never once had a person push back on that question. In my experience, this question often brings out strong emotions and frustration. The fact that you are willing to ask the question speaks volumes.
Remember, a passion is rooted in a call, and for the call to be authentic it needs to be compelling, persistent, personal, and feasible. These are the primary points to touch upon with the employee:
· “How do you feel about our mission to work with those who are experiencing homelessness?”
· “This work can be difficult. Do you feel you have the support to remain persistent. What can I do to support you?”
· “Is the work so much that you have a hard time leaving it at the door at 5:00 pm?”
· “Is the workload you have possible – have you been given an impractical or impossible task?”
2. Focus your thoughts on your passion and not your responsibilities
A disadvantage of losing your passion is that there is a tendency to focus on responsibilities since that is all the employee may have the energy to do. However, this only reinforces that their passion is missing. So, instead of orienting 100% of your meetings with a direct report on “accountability,” focus on coaching the employee. After all, this person was an up-and-coming superstar not too long ago. The former focuses on the deficit and the latter on passion and peace. If you restore their passion and peace the work performance will return.
3. Avoid Negativity
Avoiding negativity is key. Regular meetings can start with a discussion on clients who are showing promise today and what can be done to help them find their passion and peace.
This can be difficult if your employee’s co-workers have lost their passion. This is also an opportunity for you as a leader to project your passion and peace – or help restore your our passion and peace! I know from experience that I too am more successful “acting my way into a new way of thinking” than trying to “think my way back to passion and peace.” This requires projecting a positive spirit and I will often tell the story of what motivated me to work in the field of homelessness – a story that reinvigorates me and is an easy way to inject energy authentically.
4. Find Passionate People
Connecting newer and discouraged employees with senior and motivated employees for coffee and support can be helpful when it comes to helping an employee who has lost their passion and peace. It is easy for the employee to meet with people who are passionate by simply calling them, inviting them for coffee, and asking for advice on a particular topic. The passion will wear off on your employee who is feeling down.
5. Start Small
Trying to restore the employee’s passion and peace overnight is not likely to work. After all, the employee’s passion and peace did not disappear overnight and it is unlikely to return in such a short time frame. Helping people in this situation is not easy. It takes time but is far less disruptive than having a negative employee or turnover. Both of these alternatives negatively impact the organization and harm morale.
Do Not Forget About Yourself
As a leader it is easy to forget about yourself or even willingly ignore yourself out of a desire to help others all the time. That is what you were hired to do, right? No. You were hired to run the organization or its major programs effectively and efficiently. This requires you to be at your best – not where your own passion and peace have been disturbed.
You cannot give what you do not have, and this is super important to remember. All the comments and recommendations made above apply to you as well. Finding someone to meet with, either as a coach or simply as a professional friend, is critical. The ability to share your frustrations and successes is key to maintaining your passion and peace!
“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart