When Mr Cake, aka Chris Holmes a former UK Agency worker, iced his heart-felt resignation on the top of his home-baked cake, it was clear for all where his passion really lay.  He wanted to devote time and energy to his blossoming cake business and to his new role as father.  He wanted to follow his heart.

Mr Cake’s resignation is a feel-good story, a tale of an employee who resigned with as much creativity as he did integrity.  It is also proof of just how motivated we are when we uncover something in us that makes our heart beat a little faster.  In the case of Chris Holmes, he chose to leave his employer in order to follow his heart.  But for many employees, leaving is not an option. Instead, these employees continue to do their jobs well and to all intents and purpose are ‘performing’ but with one, notable exception: their hearts aren’t really in it.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t work hard – it means they just find it harder to give the very best of themselves every day.

If we want people to consistently deliver their best and bring their passion into the business instead of exiting with it, we need leaders and managers to help people work out what they want, what they need and what really lights the spark for them. Exploring what makes someone’s heart beat a little faster may sound idealistic, but my evidence shows that people who see a correlation of significance and meaning with their own values and those of the organisation are more likely to stick with the business and perform consistently.  

So how do we uncover what really lies beneath someone’s skin? In a world pressurised by targets and performance, making time to talk beyond the transactional details and into deeper, developmental waters is something many managers struggle with.  Often it’s because the culture lacks the support and resources to help managers dedicate time to personal development and coaching.  Even the most motivated managers can fail to make time for others if this precious insight is swept aside in favour of more important, pressing urgencies.

But, for companies that do inspire, support and coach managers to unlocking the deeper purpose and passions of employees, the rewards can be phenomenal.  One senior, global leader I worked with dedicated over 10% of his time to coaching others across the organisation.  His commitment to spending time, energy and focus with others was mirrored across the company by his leadership and management team and, as a result, the region reported double digit growth during this period. Impressive stuff.

Of course, it’s one thing to uncover someone’s deeper purpose, it’s another to put that insight to good use and align it to the bigger purpose of the organisation.  This is where managers need to think more strategically about how they will use such insight to build an engagement plan for every member of their team.  It doesn’t need to be complex: it’s about noticing the subtle ways people light up or switch off around certain tasks, situations or people.  It’s about knowing your people beyond their job specs and their last set of sales figures.

If the managers you work with aren’t sure where to begin, help them start with small steps that bring them closer to their team. Can they spend 15 minutes having coffee with a team member they haven’t spoken to for a while? Can they walk over to their colleague’s desk and chat instead of emailing them?  It’s not the big, sweeping gestures that will have the most impact, it’s the everyday interaction and interest that managers take in others that allows the barriers to come down and the real person to emerge.