By Lee Colan
June 24, 2010

Consider this: About 70 percent of customers’ buying decisions are based on positive human interactions with sales staff. Add to this the fact that 83 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product comes from services and information created and delivered by people. The bottom line is that people buy from people, not companies. So, your people – and the performance they deliver – are the defining competitive advantage for your organization.

Think of the times you’ve gone shopping or to a restaurant and dealt with service people who were visibly excited to be in their jobs and to be serving you. Their words jumped out of their hearts rather than being regurgitated from a script. They probably surprised you with the extra effort and thoughtfulness they put toward satisfying your particular needs or questions – and they actually seemed happy to do it!  Now, consider how you felt when you left these establishments. Did you buy more than you had planned? Were you likely to return? Did you recommend these businesses to friends? You probably answered “Yes” to at least one of these questions. That’s the beginning of a value chain that starts with engaged employees.

Passionate Performance is achieved when employees are fully engaged – when they demonstrate a strong, sustained intellectual and emotional attachment to their work.  The key to Passionate Performance is found within the minds and hearts of employees where basic human needs are fulfilled. It’s a simple but powerful formula: When my needs are fulfilled, I am engaged and I perform at my peak ability. When my needs are not met, I’m frustrated, out of control, unfocused, and disconnected – in a word, disengaged.

To meet these needs, leaders must first see them and acknowledge them. In order to see them, leaders must view their employees as people and not just workers. If you look at your employees as people, you can identify these six basic needs – three intellectual and three emotional:

Intellectual Needs    Emotional Needs
   
• Achievement         • Purpose
• Autonomy             • Intimacy
• Mastery                 • Appreciation

Engaging the Mind
Engaging employees’ minds tends to come naturally for many leaders. The mind represents the intellectual aspects of people that are based on reason, logic, and cause and effect. It requires the science of leadership, which is the focus of most leadership training and education. Engaging the mind builds employee performance.  Elevating employees’ performance by engaging their minds involves the basics of leadership, but the basics are often overlooked. Even the best professional athletes can lose sight of the basic skills of their sports.  Have you ever seen an all-star wide receiver takes his eyes off the ball and miss an easy touchdown pass?  So, it’s no surprise that, as leaders, we can also sometimes forget the basics. The basics of our “sport” involve meeting employees’ three intellectual needs: Achievement, Autonomy and Mastery.

When you fulfill these needs, you create a self-reinforcing cycle of improvement, growth and high performance for your team. The mind is a muscle. It must be exercised or it will weaken. Engaging the mind is a form of mental exercise – it strengthens your employees’ ability to perform. Engage their minds and watch their performance grow!

Engaging the Heart
The heart represents the emotional side of people that is based on connections. This side requires the art of leadership that focuses on relationships. Engaging the heart creates passion. Although we might like to think otherwise, the truth is that we live in a world driven by emotional decisions. Likewise, employees are primarily driven by emotional and personal considerations. When people go to work, they don’t leave their hearts at home. We may live in a high-tech world, but leadership is still a high-touch job.  If you’re going to engage your employees’ hearts, you must first meet their basic emotional needs:  Purpose, Intimacy and Appreciation.

When you fulfill these needs, you create self-reinforcing connections – connections between your employees and you, between their work and their purpose, and between each other. These connections establish strong, intangible relationships that yield amazing tangible results. Engage employees’ hearts and watch their passion grow!

Igniting Passionate Performance on your team is a big responsibility. As a leader, you’re the only person who can engage your employees. It’s not your boss’s responsibility or Human Resources’ – it’s yours. Engaging employees is a personal matter, not a company matter.

Engaging leaders know that Passionate Performance is the secret sauce to conquer today’s competition.

Lee J. Colan, Ph.D. is a leadership advisor and author of 10 rapid-read books including Passionate Performance:  Engaging Minds and Hearts to Conquer the Competition.  He can be contacted at www.theLgroup.com