In Episode #48 of the Cultivating Business Growth podcast, we discuss passion pertaining to business. Specifically, we cover how to navigate your passion wisely, why passion is so important in your business, and how to share that passion with your team. To listen to the full episode, please visit the show notes page or search for the Cultivating Business Growth Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts!
What we cover in this episode:
- 02:38 – What TRULY drives you
- 06:34 – Navigate your passion wisely
- 12:44 – Passion can mean strong emotions
- 13:43 – Establish healthy boundaries
- 16:14 – Avoid burnout
- 22:57 – How to share your passion
- 30:17 – Communicate your why
What TRULY drives you
As a business owner, it’s common to be passionate about parts of your business while other aspects may lack passion. We understand! Jami Johnson, one of our fearless leaders at PJS & Co. CPAs, transparently shared with us that general accounting principles don’t light a spark in her. Nor do visually appealing financial statements. She also shared that her passion lies in helping people and seeing their success. General accounting principles, visually appealing financial statements and helping people are all part of being in the CPA business. For Jami, this works because she has a balance. The things you aren’t passionate about in your business are just as necessary as those aspects you are passionate about. Balancing the two is key.
If you haven’t sat down in a while and thought about your passion and what truly drives you, take some time and do that. It’s ok to pause and ask yourself questions like “What part of my business really brings me joy? What fuels me? What is it that makes me love doing this work?”
Navigate your passion wisely
When you know what you’re passionate about, that passion can easily be the fire that drives you, which can just as easily become an obsession. Riding the fine line of using your passion in a healthy manner while not letting it consume every aspect of your life can be challenging.
Passion can mean strong emotions
You want to avoid becoming consumed with the parts of your business you are passionate about. If you have your mind set on one thing and you only focus on that, the ability to self-reflect is inhibited, which can ultimately impact profitability. Your passion shouldn’t be in the driver's seat, you should. You are the one who can mold your business model, determine how it works, and make decisions. When you are involved, but not overly consumed, you can evaluate what works and what doesn’t. You are able to reflect on the good and bad the business has been through, and what you’ve learned from those experiences. Doing this sets you up to make decisions in the future from a place of confidence and peace. The path to a successful business requires some difficult decisions. When you are operating from the place where you are navigating your passion wisely without being consumed, you are able to remain focused on the big picture and the success of your business.
Passion may lead to strong emotions and emotions can become a roadblock if you aren’t careful. It’s inevitable. Someone, someday, won’t see your perspective and it may be very deflating. When this happens, be intentional and take a step back. Navigate your passion wisely and be open to criticism. This may be difficult but give your perspective an honest look, keep your emotions in check, and continue forward with your passion. Then, you can get to a sound place.
Establish healthy boundaries
Establishing healthy boundaries with all of your responsibilities can also be helpful. Healthy, intentional boundaries can promote productivity, structure, and deter you from spending too much time on one thing. You want to avoid getting trapped into one task/project and realize later you’ve completely ignored others. By intentionally establishing boundaries, you are in control of what you prioritize and where you spend your time.
Avoid burnout
If you love what you do, you run the risk of being roped into working all the time. When you are passionate about the work you do, being a workaholic may not seem like a big deal…until one day it is. There will be a day when you hit a wall and BAM! You’ve reached your burnout point. We don’t want you to get to this place. Having that passion is what keeps the endurance going. But, being so consumed with that passion maximizes the burnout and keeps your business from growing the way it needs to grow. Burnout limits you and your business.
To avoid burnout, we recommend focusing on honest communication and utilizing delegation. Communicate with your team, partners, and yourself. Share what you are hoping to do, how much time you may need, and where you may need to spend a bit more time. Ask if others are comfortable with this or if they have insight they want to provide. Keeping open lines of communication creates healthy relationships, shows others you care, while also holding you accountable. In regards to communicating with yourself, sometimes it’s beneficial to track where you spend your time. Then, go back and evaluate. Once you see the data in one place, red flags become apparent and you can see where you are spending/wasting your time. Communicating with your team also lets those you work with have an idea when you may need some help. Advance awareness helps them avoid being surprised when you delegate something to them. You are only one person and you have a limited capacity. Delegating responsibilities can be a necessity. Your business needs you to lead and you can’t lead if you’re always in the weeds. If you’re interested in hearing more about delegation, we cover that in further detail in episode #46.
We also recommend having a schedule and adhering to it. This may not be possible due to circumstances constantly changing, and that’s ok. However, if possible, schedule time away from work, with your family, even something as little as stepping away from your desk for 15 minutes. When you value your passion, do what you can to avoid burnout. Take care of your passion. Protect it and make sure it doesn’t fizzle.
How to share your passion
If you want to scale and grow your business, you’re going to need a team to support you. In order to make an impact, your team needs to consist of the right people who share your passion.
Let’s take a second and go back to the concept of valuing your passion because when you value your passion, you want to take care of it, including everything around it like your team. Taking care of your people includes listening to them, rewarding them, if they are expecting it or not, and appreciating them. All in all, if you value your passion you’ll value your people. When you value your people, they want to work for you. They take pride in their work and they put forth effort. When people take pride in their work and enjoy it, it’s obvious. People know when their leaders care about them and not just the bottom line.
Sharing your passion with others allows them the opportunity to come alongside you on your journey. When they understand your passion and are part of that, your people will feel good about what they’re doing and they will want to deliver, which is why it’s also important to be inclusive. People want to be part of something much bigger than themselves.
Communicate your WHY
When you effectively communicate your passion, you’ll be more likely to attract the right people for your team because when you talk about your passion, some people will light up. You’ll attract people who have similar values and want to be part of what you are trying to create.
Those are the people you want working with you. Those are the people who will respond to you and your leadership skills. Sharing your passion with others is sharing what you value. When what you value is shared with others, you’ll have a better opportunity to succeed because people who have those values will want to work with you.
Conclusion
Today we talked about passion in your business and how to navigate that in a sustainable way. Having passion about what you do is a good thing and we want to keep that passion alive. Sometimes it’s necessary to establish and implement some healthy boundaries in order to protect your passion because it’s important to share that passion with others. And finally, communicating your passion will allow you to find others who share the same values to delegate appropriately, which allows for growth in your business and ideally a more balanced lifestyle as the owner.
