Imagine you are leading a team. People have done excellent work over the past year, but you believe the team can move to a higher level. The team members are extremely professional, but you want to tap into their passion. Here are three steps you can take to enable people to perform exceptional work.

1) You can invite people to clarify their passionate contribution.

Great workers follow their passion, translate this into a clear purpose and achieve peak performance. How can you follow these principles in a team? One approach is to use the following exercise. It seems a bit scary, but I have seen it used to great effect. Set the scene by inviting each team member to imagine they are starting with a blank piece of paper. Then say something like:

“I would like you to do three things. First, describe the things you feel passionately about in work. Write all your ideas – don’t be restricted by your present role or even by this organisation. Second, bearing these in mind, describe the specific contribution you would like to make to the team or the organisation. Again, use your imagination. Third, describe the potential benefits to the team or organisation. Be absolutely honest when doing the exercise. We will then look at how to get, as far as possible, ‘win-wins’.”

Give people at least 30 minutes to do the exercise, then move onto the next stage.

2) You can invite people to share their passionate contribution.

There are several ways for encouraging people to share their ideas. You may prefer, for example, to meet each person in a one-to-one session. They can then explore their possibilities in this safe environment. I worked with one high-tech team, however, where people wanted to share their ideas in a workshop. The 8 people had already done considerable work on their strengths and wanted suggestions from their colleagues. I budgeted 2 hours for this part of the workshop – because there were several other topics to cover - calculating 15 minutes for each person’s presentation. The process actually took 6 hours and was remarkably fruitful. After each person had presented their potential contribution, I asked the other team members to answer the following questions:

* What do you see as the person’s strengths – the specific activities where they deliver ‘As’, rather than ‘Bs’ or ‘Cs’?

* If you were an employer - a Managing Director, Venture Capitalist, a leader or whatever - what would you specifically hire the person to deliver?

* What would be the benefits to the employer?

* What support would the person need around them to ensure they capitalised on their strengths and delivered successfully?

* Is there anything else you would like to add about the person’s strengths and potential contribution to an employer?”

People enjoyed the session, which was conducted in an encouraging yet realistic atmosphere. They reported it was good to look at each team member ‘from the outside’ - hiring the person for their ‘A’ talents and asking them to deliver something specific to an employer. You will, of course, choose your own way to invite people to share their ideas. Then move onto the next step.

3) You can help people to – as far as possible – make their passionate contribution.

Now comes to the creative part. Looking at each person’s potential contribution, keep asking: “How can we find ‘win-wins’: a) for the person; b) for the team and organisation? What will be the benefits? What are the steps we can take to make this happen?” You will find it is often possible to find positive solutions.

Air Miles, the loyalty company, took this approach during its early years. Every 12 months each person had a ‘career health check’. They explored the possible roads they could travel, such as: staying in their present role; re-crafting their role; moving to another role inside the company; moving outside the company; or whatever. They then worked together with the company to make clear contracts about their contribution for the next year. Sounds radical and it was, especially for the early 1990s when they took this approach. The company developed great commitment from its people, however, who used their strengths to develop the business. (This approach was changed new owners took over the company. But many of the Air Miles alumnae went on to develop fulfilling careers.)

Let’s return to the team workshop with the high tech company. Here are some of the results it produced. Dave, a techie, felt passionately about using technology to enrich people’s lives. An excellent keynote speaker, he made complicated things simple. Dave changed his role following the workshop. He now spends 50% of his time acting as an ambassador for the company - doing keynote speaking and working with the media. Esther felt passionately about giving people opportunities. Both her parents were teachers, but she had gone the technology route. The high-tech company has clients in both the private and public sector, so Esther now works with those in the education sector. She enables students to take more charge of their learning by using technology. Several other people changed roles after the workshop: all of them going on to developing their careers.

“Sounds fine,” a manager may say, “but can’t it be dangerous? What happens if everybody wants to do new things? How do you cover the gaps that are left in the team?”

Good leaders want their team to achieve peak performance. They help people to clarify their strengths, make clear contracts about their contribution and deliver the goods. They co-ordinate people’s talents and, where necessary, manage the potential gaps. (You can find tools for taking this step in The Strengths Toolbox piece called 3 tips for co-ordinating people’s strengths.) Sometimes it is necessary to create a ‘bridging’ period for individuals, however, when: a) They continue being professional in their present role; b) They start introducing elements of their passionate contribution; c) They move to their ‘perfect role’. You will, of course, take this step in your own way. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to help people
to make a passionate contribution are:

*

*

*

Good leaders want people to bring their energy to work. The passionate contribution approach is one way of making it happen. It must be done, however, in the spirit of finding ‘win-wins’. People can then use their creativity to achieve ongoing success – for themselves, the team and the organisation.

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