There is some great wisdom that goes something like this: champions aren’t champions on the field – they are just recognized there. They are champions because of the hard work they do off of the field.

So what do they do off the field that helps them realize their greatness? What helps them move from good to great, from ordinary to extraordinary? And what can this tell us about encouraging championship behavior in the workplace?

Champions first know their talents; their natural aptitudes start them out as “good.” What helps them achieve champion (exceptional) status is an intrinsic passion for what they do; this provides the energy, drive and focus to commit to the extra work, effort and disciplined achievement to move from good to great.

So let’s talk workplace. Good employees are those who can do the job. Great employees are those who have the passion to excel at the job. They do things both in and out of the workplace to improve, grow, learn and achieve. They excitedly go to training programs, watch videos and buy resources, even with their own money. They set goals for themselves that are many times greater than the goals their managers set. Passion drives excellence. Passion creates champions.

Marcus Buckingham presents in his book First Break All the Rules, that 65% of employees do just enough not to get fired. They are good, not great. They are not champions. Core to this is they are either in jobs that don’t play to what they are good at (the don’t feel capable or competent), or they are good at the job but don’t love it (the find it boring).

To learn how to activate your employees’ passion, you must first be able to connect through a regular and recurring dialog – person-to-person. In this dialog you learn about the things that move and inspire your employee. You start to gather critical information to help you realign an employee to a role that he is both good at doing and passionate about doing, or make modifications to an employee’s existing role to include more of what appeals to the employee.

Consider the following questions to connect with your employees and to gather critical information:
1. What do you love most (least) about this job?
2. If you could work in any area of the company, what area would it be and what job would you want? Why?
3. What are you talents, values and interests? What do you love to do outside of work? What matters to you in and out of work? What do you think you are capable of being great at?

These several questions allow you see into your employees to better understand what matters to them and what moves them. And when you know what moves them, you can activate their passionate response – the response that leads them to “championship” performance, because champions are what your customers and business need.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to show you how to activate the “champion” in your employees.