Ignite the passion!
By Sidsel Lindsø - CEO of ExploCrowd
What gets you out of bed in the morning? Are you going to the office, excited to maximise shareholder value or enable your boss to meet his KPIs and be rewarded with a high bonus?
No? It’s just not enough anymore, is it?
Perhaps we live in a part of the world where societies have developed to such a degree that we have the luxury to not only focus on having a salary to pay for our house, food and family, but in fact can take it to the next level?
Most of us want to meet good colleagues at work, do something that we love, use our talent and grow - and work towards a goal that is meaningful to us. Most regretfully, not everyone has that privilege, but isn’t it time that we start thinking about how to get there?
Many people have a calling: the teacher, the police officer, the scientist, the nurse, the doctor, the journalist, the artist, the politician, the soldier, the social worker, the musician, the opera singer, the caretaker at a hospice. Helle Hedegaard Hein has written a great book where she describes her studies of what motivates different people and how you can ignite their passion. She also explains how you can kill it. When I read her book Primadonna Leadership where she studies artists from the Danish Royal Opera, I realised that the majority of the exploration geologists I know from the community across the world, belong to the group of people who have a calling.
But what is passion or a calling to me, personally? Besides working with people, observe how they grow and expand their capabilities while building confidence, and experience how satisfying it is to see them excel in project meetings - I love my science.
I love diving into new geological regions, dive deep and discover the underground. I love to study and recognise patterns, use my cognitive skills connecting the dots and integrate all the necessary disciplines. There is not much that is better than exploring new data and expanding your understanding - except doing it together with colleagues who have looked at the same area, but with a different perspective, and together find out that you actually did uncover new secrets. I simply love the detective work aspect of this process.
“Together” means something. There is something about overcoming challenges and solving problems that haven’t been solved before, as a team. To achieve something that feels extraordinary. It brings us together, and gives us a feeling of belonging, which again provides us with more energy. It is quite easy to get out of bed in the morning when you feel that you are going to achieve something extraordinary today.
But there is no way that external motivation can take you to that point - because it is about so much more. The external motivation in the shape of compensation needs to be there and be appropriate, because that is about respect and recognition, and that is the basis of a trust based relationship. When that is in order, it is really about passion.
Of course, there will always be boring tasks such as administrative obligations, compliance and making sure that all data in a project is quality assured and in good order. But those details matter, and they are a necessary basis for creating the necessary trust - why they become meaningful. Then it’s about putting some loud music in your ears and getting it over and done with.
I fundamentally believe that people who get to do what they love will do it well. If you have a group of people, working together and using their different talents and strengths to make each other better, then everyone reaches further. We reach the next level. Together.
In ExploCrowd, we share the great passion for science. We take pride in the possibility of achieving something bigger than ourselves together with our partners. And we are happy to bring our clients along on the journey towards creating the best businesses for the future.