Find some passion in an employee

The other day I was lunching with an entrepreneur who was doing something that business owners do all the time – whinge about their staff.

“It’s killing me,” this entrepreneur said.

“I want to hand parts of my business over. I need to hand parts of my business over. But my staff just don’t care as much about the business as I do. Where is their passion?”

Internally, I rolled my eyes.

“Of course your staff don’t care about the business as much as you do, my friend,” I said.

“You’re the founder, the soul of the business – no one could ever love it as much as you. But you’ve got to get over this or it will drive you crazy forever.”

The secret, I told him, was to try and find people as passionate about the business as possible.

“But how,” he asked.

It’s a great question and unfortunately there is no set answer. Different entrepreneurs (and HR people) have different tricks to try and unearth passion, but one technique I have used is to ask what the potential staff member is passionate about outside their work life.

If you are already questioning their passion, and they don’t have anything they are passionate about outside of work – such as a hobby or a sporting pursuit – then it’s probably a bet they’re not going to adopt your business like it’s their own.

It’s not foolproof, but a passion test like this is worth applying.

Get it done – today!