Follow Your Passion - job satisfaction - Brief Article - Column

Editor's Note: Transforming Work is a new column concerning workplace issues that will be published monthly in the New Mexico Business Journal.

HOW MANY MEMBERS OF YOUR COMPANY ARE THE living dead? That is, people who are alive physically, but are dead emotionally, mentally, and spiritually? Perhaps you have employees who show up on Monday but take no initiative, just wait to be told what to do, and yet constantly complain about your company, its leadership, and their own lack of enthusiasm for its future. Or perhaps you have the opportunity to form a whole new enterprise from top to bottom. What would you do?

We have been studying passionate work since 1999. Hundreds of people have told us what destroys and what stirs their passion for jobs, careers, and life itself. When we began we had no idea that this topic would strike such a responsive chord with every audience to which we have spoken. We shouldn't have been surprised. Every person we asked said that increased passion means increased productivity. Passion resides in every person. It only needs to be released.

Paul Shirley agrees. Shirley, along with co-founders Robert Van Allen and Sherm Seltzer, created SVS, Inc. in 1993. Each founder kicked in $1,000 to start the company. SVS was named the fastest growing New Mexico technology company in 1997 and 1998. Also in 1998, Forbes magazine named SVS the 28th fastest growing privately held technological company in the country and INC. magazine named the SVS the 122nd fastest growing privately held company in the country Today, SVS is a world-class leader in directed energy pointing and tracking systems.

Starting in 1993 with no employees, $3,000, and a dream, SVS was sold to the Boeing Company on July 9, 2000 as one of the premier technology companies in the world.

Paul Shirley, founder, and former CEO, attributes much of the company's success to its passionate employees. We asked him how SVS successfully created a passionate work environment.

PASSIONATE LEADERSHIP

"We started with something we loved to do," Shirley explains. In May of 1992 each of the founders met and brought a list of what he would really like the company to do. At the end of the meeting all three had agreed to two things. The first was that it had to be fun. The second was that it had to make a difference.

After the meeting Shirley was so excited that he went home, talked to his wife, and told her how cool the new company was going to be. She asked him, "How are we going to pay the bills?" That's when we added to our vision, he says, "Oh, and by the way, make a profit." Those three elements -- having fun, making a difference, and "Oh, by the way, making a profit" formed the company's vision statement.

"If you start with that foundation -- the leaders of the company -- you have a serious shot at making a passionate workplace," he says. "I was willing to sacrifice just about anything." And he almost did. The company was so financially strapped at one point that he, along with another of the founders, had to put second mortgages on their homes to keep it alive.

SVS has always pushed the limits, which is another reason people came to work enthused. "People were interested in attaching themselves to the balance -- living on the edge and yet still being grounded in some reality." About the time everyone felt comfortable, Shirley and others always put something new on the table. Taking risks is a key part of passionate work.

Getting and motivating the right employees helped SVS always make it through those challenging times.

GET THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES

"We were careful about who we brought into the company. We made mistakes. Some didn't fit. In most cases I asked them to leave," he says.

SVS looked for two qualities in potential employees. They had to be competent, and they had to be trustworthy. "If we ran into trouble later," he says, "it usually related to breaking the trust. "That's a cancer," he says. "If a person was not trustworthy it was imperative to take action." One way SVS kept those talented employees was by making them feel they were part of something important.

MAKE EMPLOYEES A PART OF SOMETHING LARGER

SVS adopted the slogan, "Who are those guys?" from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. "We liked to take on the big guys. We loved being the underdog." SVS took great pride in being innovative and responsive.

"We hired the best and the brightest and we shared with them that they were the best and the brightest," Shirley says. "We honored them as people." They also went for national awards and intentionally sought recognition. "If you can, give people an environment where they feel that they are part of something larger." He adds that "People are looking for vision and dreams."

HELP EMPLOYEES IDENTIFY THEIR PASSION

Some organizations ask their employees to design a company career plan. Not SVS. "We asked several folks to write their life plans. I was amazed at what came up. I had an understanding of their passion. They'd spill their guts. They had to trust us a lot." Then together they had to figure out how their life plans fit into SVS. "We wanted to help them identify their desires and see how those were in part met by SVS."

For Paul Shirley and SVS, the keys to creating a passionate organization were: passionate leadership, getting the right employees, making employees feel a part of something larger than themselves, and helping employees to identify their passion.

PATRICIA BOVERIE, PH.D., IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO. SHE AND MICHAEL KROTH, PH.D., OWN BOVERIE, KROTH & ASSOCIATES. THEIR

BOOK: TRANSFORMING WORK: THE FIVE KEYS TO ACHIEVING AND SUSTAINING TRUST, COMMITMENT, AND PASSION IN THE WORKPLACE WILL BE PUBLISHED BY PERSEUS PUBLISHING IN DECEMBER.

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