Does Purpose or Passion Predict Performance?
Aaron Hurst
Founder US Chamber of Connection, Taproot Foundation, Board.Dev & Imperative
When it comes to performance, what matters more: purpose or passion? Do you want employees who are enthusiastic about their work or feel it has a broader meaning and helps other people?
This is the question University of California Berkeley Professor, Morten Hansen, wanted to answer for his new book. To do so, he surveyed 5,000 employees and then associated their responses with performance scores from their employers. This enabled him to see the connection between performance, purpose, and passion.
He found that people without purpose or passion are very low performers - bottom 10th percentile. Similarly, he found that those with high passion and purpose were outstanding performers - 80th percentile. No headline there.
What he found that has surprised leaders is that purpose is far more important than passion. If someone had passion but little purpose, they fared only a little better than someone without either - 20th percentile.
On the other hand, if someone had low passion but high purpose, they saw a major jump in performance - 64th percentile.
Purpose trumps passion.
In Dan and Chip Heath’s latest book, The Power of Moments, they explain this simply. “Passion is individualistic. It can energize us but also isolate us, because my passion isn’t yours. By contrast, purpose is something we can share. It can knit groups together.”
They go on to explain the findings of Yale’s Amy Wrzesniewski, who inspired much of our work at Imperative. “Purpose can be cultivated in a moment of insight and connection.” They recommend that leaders cultivate a sense of purpose - “to unite people who might otherwise go in different directions.”
That has been our mission at Imperative since we founded the company. Our SaaS platform unites teams and organizations using the science of purpose. It creates the moments of shared purpose that helps everyone see that their work matters.
Schedule a demo of the Imperative Platform and see how can you become a purpose-driven employer with inspired performance.
CEO and Co-Founder at NORY
2 年Great reminder Aaron. Perhaps this is why "be purposeful" is our company's first & foremost Way of Being (www.nory.co/value). I will share this with my team.
20+ Years In Purpose Work | Help professionals who want to find work that is not only about a paycheck | Work with leaders who care about having a positive impact as much as making profit
2 年Love it. I always felt like my passion fuels my purpose. Like it is the "energy" side of my purpose.
Personal Performance Coach. Non-Violent Communication trainer. Freelance CPD Trainer for business & schools on de-escalating conflict, reducing people's anxiety, using clear, kind and effective communication.
7 年Kinda obvious that people with passion interwoven into their purpose will usually be outstanding in some way...application, focus, teamwork.....but for me, it's a great point to make.
Portfolio, Program, Project Management / Mobile Applications / Digital Transformation
7 年Can i suggest Purpose + Passion = greater sum of the two combine. A leader that can cultivate Purpose with an outcome of strong Passion towards the Purpose will result in higher performance outcome.
Church Elder-Deaconess @ Living Praise Ministries | Respiratory Therapist
7 年Passion will win out every time.