Hidden Mojo

Kathy Sierra of the Creating Passionate Users has a fantastic post today entitled Knocking the Exuberance out of Employees.

In it, she says

Of course some argue that exuberance on the job is not necessarily a good thing. That too much passion leads to problems. I say BS on that one. Real passion means you love the profession, the craft, the domain you’re in…If you knock out exuberance, you knock out curiosity, and curiosity is the single most important attribute in a world that requires continuous learning and unlearning just to keep up.

Kathy is absolutely correct. Stifling your employees’ curiosity, and thus passion, is the best way to turn your business into a crappy place to work. And if you want to grow your business, it’s much easier to do if you have happy and engaged employees (and an enjoyable environment to work in!)

Kathy lists a bunch of funny and bang-on reasons why bad managers prefer robots (aka “team players”) to passionate, engaged employees. Robots ask fewer questions, take orders well, don’t have strong opinions, don’t mind being micromanaged, etc–basically they put their heads down and do their work.

The biggest problem with this management style is that it limits creativity, which is required in most types of work today. When your people are disengaged and don’t have the right information–because it’s being held hostage by the micromanager in the corner office–they will make poor decisions and won’t willingly go the extra mile.

So the question is whether your managers have the humility to let go, encourage your peoples’ curiosity and passion, and watch your company kick even more butt.