Passion, when you got it, you got it...when you don't...Yuck!
Passion for one’s work is one of the most endearing factors that I appreciate in a business owner, employee, customer, volunteer…whoever! Seeing someone know what they really want and then go after that is such a magnet for me. I want to find a passion for it just because they have so much passion for it! Baseball is my favorite sport and the Boston Red Sox my favorite team in large part because of the 1986 World Series, where the Sox had a pitcher from a small town near mine and I saw so many people so excited and passionate about that team that year. Golf is a huge passion of mine. Don’t get me wrong, I suck, but I had an older cousin passionate about the game. He would always be practicing his swing off to the side at family events. He let me tag along for 9-holes long before I could play at all. He gave me my first club, a pitching wedge that I still have to this day. I’m hooked for life now!
Many of us probably find that when someone is passionate about their work, know their craft and invest in themselves we find it easier to respect them more than someone passive in their craft. I took note of this in an internal reaction I had recently. There are two drug stores, each a national chain, that I frequent. The one is a few blocks from my house the other a few blocks from my kid’s school. The one has an open check-out with many registers right next to each other and nothing to obstruct you from the cashier. The other has a high obstructed view of behind the counter, as the line forms, right up to where the cashier actually scans your items.
At the latter, 9 times out of 10 times the cashier is behind the obstructed area with only their head slightly above it. The top of their head is nicely visible as they are clearly looking down at something, in an all too common neck-bent posture. Wonder what they are looking at? Anyway, when they see they actually have a customer they quickly gather themselves, put something down, move to the unobstructed area, and usually without any eye contact mumbles something that might have been, “How’s your day” or “Did you find everything ok?”
The other store, on the other hand, has the cashier that have to awaken neck-bent customers (hand-raised, “Guilty!) to invite them forward because they are ready to serve the customer earlier than expected.
The check-out is not the only difference. The store where the employee seems most excited about getting back behind the obstructed view to get back to Fortnite (I’m just guessing) is less clean and organized with seemingly several isles of unshelved items waiting to be put away. Whereas I’ve found the other store to be better stocked, cleaned and employees moving around and available and quick to return to the cashier spot from
I’ve noticed that I dread going to the one and enjoy going to the other. I only go to the one when I have to and find reasons to go to the other when I’m close to it. The pharmacy was never a problem and I even had a personal connection one pharmacist at the one close to my house, but I even recently moved my prescriptions to the other store. I’d mostly use the drive-in before, now I walk in.
While these difference may be more a factor of store management, policy or loopholes and not lack or existence of passion, but we’ve all seen passion exist in situations where it isn’t always easy for it to exist. And it makes a huge difference when it does.
Take my shoeshine experiences if you will please. I really like my shoe shines. It is like a
Salt Lake has the true treasure though! In terminal 1 there is J.C. He is a tall, proud gentleman worn be years of hard work. It’s clear that he once stood taller but the decades of bending for this craft, 6 days a week, have had an impact on him. He treats your shoes like old friends that he has missed. J.C. respects you as a customer, but the shoes are who he is there to serve. At the end of a shine he invited you to treat them better if feels you need reminding; not with his words mind you but with his eyes. You remember it because J.C. doesn’t overdo the eye contact.
I’ll never forget him stopping at the beginning of a shine. A long pause and then he looks me in the eyes. “Have you been shining these shoes in Denver?” He knew the answer, which was clearly the wrong answer. I think I only replied, “I’m sorry” and then sat silent the rest of the shine. I think J.C. apologized to my shoes for my neglect and mistreatment. He took extra care of them that day and got an extra big tip.
I hope I have half as much passion about anything I do as J.C. has about his craft. As we create an environment that allows and excepts our employees to have a passion for the craft and product they are delivering customers will feel it and reward us for it.
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