“Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world.”
When it comes to job satisfaction, is it better to have passion, or the core skillset needed to perform the job?
Passion
We are conditioned to believe that job satisfaction is directly linked with passion. To enjoy our jobs, we must be passionate about the work we do.
Do you head off passionately to work each morning, convinced you are answering your true calling?
No? Well don’t panic. Just because you are not fulfilling some personal destiny, it doesn’t mean that you are in the wrong job.
Granted, growing up our careers advisors and the news and media told us to ‘follow our passion,’ and insinuated that those who didn’t discover theirs were predestined to lead dull and colourless lives in our society. The assumption that there is a ‘true calling’ waiting for each of us somewhere along the line can be counter-productive. It leads to much procrastination and deliberation, worried as we are that we ‘missed’ our true calling somewhere…
Every time things get tough at work, we have a bad day or we hear of somebody doing something more interesting, we turn inward, and head towards a personal crisis. This inevitably leads to anxiety and hopping between jobs.
Is it more positive, therefore, to focus on core skills as a motivating factor than passion?
Core Skills
Knowing that you are good at what you do, that you have the core skills necessary to achieve within that field, and that you are making some impact can be just as influential on workplace happiness than any notion of calling. This sense of fulfillment grows over time, and so you have to put in the time.
If you are always looking for passion, you’ll never stay in a job long enough to find that fulfillment.
When it comes to involvement, therefore, you may do better to apply your employees in areas where they skillset is most useful. The sense of achievement associated with being good at your job can be better for employee engagement than the abstract notion of ‘passion’.
If you would like to discuss how best to apply your employees’ skills, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.