Passion in Business

When I ask, “Why do volunteers burn out so fast?” or “How can we make the relationship between nonprofits and their board members better for everybody?” nonprofit people totally get it.  They know that there’s a disconnect in the way we want boards and committees to function and the way it actually plays out, no matter how much we follow the rules or study the experts. 

 Business people are more likely to think that either nonprofits don’t know how to appreciate their expertise and value their time or that they (the nonprofits) just don’t care as long as they have warm bodies on their boards and committees.  It’s matter of formula and job descriptions. Business people – potential volunteers - underestimate their ability to really make a difference.

 I was a presenter at a business conference in Bellingham, WA earlier this month.  I usually work more with nonprofit organizations, so it was interesting to talk with small business owners/entrepreneurs about my Enlightened Volunteers topic and hear what they and the other presenters had to say about success.

 One of the things I talk about - a lot - is passion, whether I’m teaching nonprofits and board executives how to recruit and retain leadership level volunteers or talking with the volunteers themselves – these same business people – about choosing a way to give back to the community and the world. There’s no down side for anyone when we can make those matches fruitful.  Enthusiasm and passion are certainly not the whole story -- and they won’t work their magic without communication and training and a plan -- but they’re a good start.  Passion and enthusiasm are good ways to measure at the beginning whether a volunteer will be able to stay engaged and inspired.

 So I was delighted, attending several other conference sessions, that we talked about passion in discussions of networking, branding, social media and PR.  It’s all about communication….and enthusiasm is contagious.  We’ve read it, heard it, we know it from our own experience -- and then we forget as soon as we begin to “talk business”.  We leach the excitement out of our bios, our service descriptions and our e-mails because we want to sound professional. But authenticity and passion play from any distance.  You just know when someone is being real and when his/her topic is important to her/him. When people talk about something they love, the passion holds your interest.  It accomplishes the singularity required of branding, and it sets the bio or blog or article…or intro or elevator speech… apart from the noise. Passion sells, passion motivates, passion keeps us inspired, passion communicates…and that’s what makes the world go around in business and in life.