Igniting passion can help your people match your promise

Shivani Gupta from the Passionate People Institute believes it is important to listen to your staff to ensure that what they are projecting is in line with your brand.

How many times have you phoned or visited a company and experienced a disconnect between the staff member’s behaviour and the promise of its marketing or brand?

Organisations often say that their people are their most important asset. Is this really true, and if it is, is this reflected in the way they run their business?

What about your business? Do you take the time to make sure your staff understand and fit your brand? Are they passionate about the brand and what your company does? If your staff, particularly those on the front-line, are not passionate about your business you can be wasting hard earned money spent on the brand. Many organisations spend a lot of money on their brand from advertising, to logos, uniforms, stationery, and premises.

In many cases, a disconnect can come down to the employee not being passionate about their work or their life in general.  I don’t know about you but I go back to restaurants and cafes where waiters are passionate about food or coffee and are able to, or care to recommend something on the menu.  The best sales people are passionate about money and making it, as well as being technically skilled in the product or service.

To help make sure your people match your promise, you need to be passionate about your employees and about your employees being passionate. An increasing number of businesses are thinking about their brand and their values as part of business planning. However if the values of the organisations are not in alignment with the employees, your brand will not come through.

As managers and leaders of business, we must take the time to understand what people are passionate about and then, where possible, try and match it to the company. Or, hire people who are passionate about the business because it is more cost-effective to teach them the skills in the long run than to create passion that is not there.  

My three tips for igniting passion to help your people match your promise.

1. Take the time to understand your people’s passions.

2. Don’t judge other people’s passion. 

3. Try and align your businesses’ brand with the passion of the individuals within it.

Shivani Gupta is CEO of leadership coaching firm Passionate People.