Passion to Profit: Pleasurable Work Makes You a Winner

Pleasurable work awakens passion that can drive productivity and profits up. Many organizations neglect their employees’ other hidden talents, that may not be required in their current role, but which could be even more valuable than what they were hired for. They thus leave value on the table.

HIDDEN PASSSIONS THAT COULD GROW PROFITS

Up to 79% of Organizations’ Talent and Passion is Wasted

According to Gallup’s 2022 State of Global Workplace report, 79% of employees are not engaged at work. That is why the story I am about to tell is a familiar one and I am sure you have versions of your own. At a Real Estate Agency I once worked for, there was a middle-aged office assistant and cleaning lady who had worked there for almost 30 years. We will just call her the office assistant. During my time there, as an intern agent, I noticed that she spent most of her lunch break on the phone. She was giving instructions to one person, correcting another, begging the next, and rebuking someone else.

Hidden Passion in Her Pleasurable Work

Every lunch time she transformed from an office assistant into a driven Events Manager.  The transformation was impressive, even her tone of voice changed as did her choice of words and gestures. Listening to her delegating, organizing and negotiating with partners, there was no doubt she was in charge. She was confident, eloquent and passionate and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Some Job Roles Conceal Passion

After the lunch break, she put her phone away and shrunk back into her role as the office assistant. Within the hour she had transformed from an executive – directing people and rearranging furniture – to being a docile person, seen and not heard, almost part of the furniture itself. At the agency, she was nothing more than a regular office assistant.

But once I had seen that side of her – the driven executive – I could never look at her the same way again.  I could not help thinking that her talent was wasted at the agency, and of how many other people’s talents were wasted as well.

More People with Hidden Talents

And as it turned out, there were others.  One estate agent was running a taxi business, another a general retail store, one a budding author in political affairs, and yet another a lecturer in Environmental and Nature Conservation. As for me, I was an author and an aspirant personal development practitioner. All of us ‘moonlighting’ as estate agents.

Before you question our loyalty to the employer for doing work outside the company, take note that the same company will lay us off in a heart-beat when market conditions get tough (See thousands of layoffs in 2023 for the tech industry alone). These passions become even more important in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), given the far-reaching job displacement that is set to ripple through the labor market sooner than expected.

The Pleasurable Work of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs

Steve Wozniak’s Day Job

I do not mean to single out that real estate agency, other organizations have the same challenge. For instance, while Steve Wozniak was working for HP, he designed a single player Pong game for Atari at the request of Steve Jobs and they both got paid for it. Wozniak loved it so much he used to return to HP after supper to moonlight designing a personal computer. He was inspired by the chip specification he saw in the Homebrew Computer Club that he belonged to. The conceived a personal computer, impressed Steve Jobs and the two of them teamed up again to create the first Apple computer.

Steve Jobs’ Day Job

After dropping out of college, Steve Jobs had gone to the video games manufacturer Atari looking like an untidy hippie kid with body odor. He refused to leave the lobby until they had given him a job. Lucky for him the founder of the company, Nolan Bushnell, took a liking to Steve, seeing him as intelligent and passionate about technology. The boss could see beyond the drop-out with quarks and poor hygiene. They hired Steve to work as a technician for $5 an hour. All that talent for so little.

So as not to offend the hygienic sensibilities of other staff he was put on the night shift. Seeing that Jobs was interested in both engineering and business side, Bushnell started mentoring Jobs. But I bet even Bushnell, open-minded as he was, could not have suspected how deep and wide Steve’s talent was going to grow or he would not have let him stop working under their roof.

While at Atari, Steve Jobs met Ronald Wayne who was a fellow employee there and was impressed with him because Ron had started his own company making slot machines. The company had failed, and Ron went to work for Atari, but Steve admired him for it all the same. He could see beyond the failure. It inspired him to start a company.

No Home for Their Pleasurable Work

About that company and the personal computer they were making, Steve Wozniak felt duty bound to offer HP a role, because he was an employee there. He wanted them to manufacture the units. They turned the offer down, deeming it a hobbyist product way out of place in HP’s high-end markets.

Next it was Atari’s turn, Ron Wayne and Steve Jobs’ former employer. They wanted Atari to buy a stake in Apple to give them funding. Al Alcorn, the company President, was not impressed. He turned them down. Steve’s hygiene did not help the negotiations either. Next to woe was Commodore, the manufacturer of computers, whom Steve tried to get to buy Apple, but they would not touch it. The rejections left them to their own devices to continue to manufacture their personal computer at Apple.

No Room for Their Passions in their Day Jobs

The three friends, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne shortly founded Apple, whose market capitalization in 2023 was $2.7 trillion, 90 times bigger than HP ($30 billion) and Atari ($55 million) put together, and went on to change the world.

Their respective former companies had no idea what gems Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were and what bright future their product had. Company managers were blinded by the lowly roles of the technology and the young people behind it.

Illusive Talent and Hidden Passion Reward Finder with Profit

Generally, few people take the trouble to look for talent. They use the term loosely to refer to knowledge, skills and experience. The hiring job descriptions are a litany of skills, knowledge and years of experience that they want in one person which to be honest cannot usually be found in a drop-out like Steve Jobs at the time he was looking for a job at Atari. They are looking for a well-rounded person rather one with sharp spiky talent that stands out in a narrow space.

Furthermore, managers are pre-occupied with knowledge, skill and experience because the natural ability that forms the base upon which such knowledge, skill and experience is constructed is less visible and harder to detect. Yet, that is where the highest value of human capital lies. It is often neglected because it is too difficult to identify and assess. Still, it is the one thing that has a chance to survive the AI onslaught if we have any chance at all. Corporates are lazy to do the serious work of detecting talent and passion.

That is why there might be a “Steve Jobs” under your roof, and you may not get the benefit of his talent and passion if all you are focusing on are skills, knowledge and experience, all of which can be acquired by anyone and are fair game to AI’s replacing act. Creative innovation, from zero to something, requires passion and talent. That may even be a safer haven for human workers in the era of AI. Passion is a sign that the work is pleasurable. Pleasurable work is the future of human work. Learn to get the most out of a Steve Jobs and a Steve Wozniak and people like that cleaning lady while they are still starting off under your roof.

These hidden gifts were often expressions of passion. Gifts few people bother to explore, living under their organization’s roof.  Not to mention that there is probably more talent hidden and lying waste where those came from. Talent that, if explored and exploited, could no doubt advance the business.

I would be surprised if you did not have similar stories to tell about the hidden talent of people you know in your work environment. If that Real Estate Agency office, which is a small organization, was teeming with such unused talent, imagine what swimming in large organizations talent pools? They must be bursting with unexploited and underutilized talent and passion.

Underutilized and Even Wasted but It’s Paid For

A Gallup survey found that only 21% of employees are engaged at work. Companies that do not look beyond the worker’s current role are not tapping into the character strengths, unique talents, and natural instincts of their employees and are indeed leaving value on the table.

The goal is not to chase after every interest, hobby and side hustle that an employee has, but to focus on their passion. Passion is the priceless aspect of each employee. You can always imrpove on skill and knowledge through training. Similarly, you can create a conducive working environment.. The company can do all of this for its employees, but the one thing it can’t do is give its employees passion. Employees must bring their passion with them, and they do.

The company can combine their employees’ passion and job requirements to create pleasurable work. Pleasurable work is the intersection of passion and a job’s core deliverables. It is the unstoppable force of nature. If your employees find their work pleasurable, they will be more productive and your company even more successful.

Wasted Talent Translates into Lost Profits

When employees are not given opportunities to use their passions, they may become disengaged from their work and be less productive, which can ultimately result in lower organizational performance and profits.

The best way to avoid this tragic outcome is by taking a deep dive into your company’s talent pool to find your employees’ pleasurable work.

Discover What’s Hidden Deep Inside Your Talent Pool

• You can assign talents scouts to seek out each employee’s passion and marry it with a role’s core functions to create pleasurable work.
• They can fish in the talent pools inside your organization.
• They can also hunt in the talent fields outside the company otherwise known as head hunting.
• The goal is to bring up talents and passions that are overlooked and use them to the benefit of the company without creating role confusion.
• You may never look at your employees the same way again, and you might bring different teams from the usual, around the table, for problem solving.

Trend Towards Pleasurable Work

Our Brain Children Will Inherit Unpleasant Work

Pleasurable work is set to become more important as advancements in technology continue to change the nature of work. Our brain children (the products of our minds) in the form of technology, automation and artificial intelligence, continue to take up brutal, back breaking, and mind-numbing work. They love the jobs we hate.

Our Biological Children Will Inherit Pleasurable Work

As our brain children gobble up boring and repetitive work, our biological children will inherit pleasurable work. Pleasurable work is not about the environment and peripherals surrounding the job, which can vary from company to company and from time to time. The work itself must be pleasurable.

The paradox of pleasurable work is that any work can be pleasurable. Ultimately, what makes a job pleasurable, and fulfilling is subjective and can vary from person to person.  This means that within an organization, there is pleasurable work for everyone, and it is nearly impossible to run out of it.

This also means that you can build strong teams made up of pleasurable employees. Each member is in the team because it needs their unique blend of passion and role.  Each member brings a different piece to complete the puzzle.

PLEASURABLE WORK IS THE FUTURE OF HUMAN WORK

The evolution of human work has been such that our brain children have been inheriting unpleasant work and our biological children inherited more pleasurable work. Put simply, if humans don’t like it machines will inherit it. This trend will continue until the only work left for biological children is pleasurable work. Pleasurable work will last because we never want to give it away. It is, therefore, the future of human work.

Pleasurable Work Can Make You Successful

Pleasurable work can make employees successful in several ways:

• Increased performance
• enhanced creativity and innovation
• Improved job satisfaction
• Better mental and physical health
• Overall career satisfaction

In more detail:

• Increased Performance

When employees are doing the work they love, they are naturally more motivated and engaged. This can lead to improved performance and productivity. They may also find that they are able to work longer hours without burning out, as they are more energized and passionate about their work.

• Improved Creativity and Innovation

When employees do work that aligns with their interests and passions, they are more likely to be creative and innovative. This can lead to new ideas, solutions, and approaches that can contribute to their success and the overall success of their organization.

• Enhanced Job Satisfaction

When they are happy at work, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and this can lead to increased job satisfaction.

• Better Mental and Physical Health

Enjoying work can have a positive impact on employees’ overall well-being. Which can result in better mental and physical health.

• Overall career satisfaction

When they are happy with their career, employees are more likely to stay in their current role, seek out opportunities for growth and development, and take on new challenges that can help them achieve their career goals.

Overall, following a pleasurable work strategy can lead to greater success and fulfillment in any career. By aligning your employees’ work with their interests and passions, you can tap into their full potential and achieve company goals with greater ease and enjoyment.

PLEASURABLE WORK IS KEY TO WINNING THE LONG GAME

The age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the age of pleasurable work. Anyone who has tried the new AI tools like ChatGPT knows that they take the pain out of work, making it a pleasure to produce at speed. We are going to achieve more with less people, and even more with the kind of people who find their work a pleasure. As technology advances to take up unpleasant work, organizations built on pleasurable work architecture are more likely to win the long game. Businesses, investors, employees, and customers benefit in several ways:

1. Value of Pleasurable Workers

Building a team of passionate employees can lead to a more engaged and productive workforce, which can ultimately lead to greater success for the organization. The culture must be talent focused with phrases such as these being common among employees and their bosses:

Manager: “I think you are good at …”

Employee: “I find pleasure working on …”

2. Value to Investors

Investors may find companies that prioritize building teams around pleasurable work to be more attractive investment opportunities, as they are more likely to have a motivated and productive workforce that can drive business growth.

3. Value to Prospective Hires

Employees may start to prioritize companies that are committed to building teams around pleasurable work, as they are more likely to find a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment in their work. This can help companies attract and retain top talent, which can further contribute to their success.

4. Value to Customers

Customers may also be attracted to companies that prioritize pleasurable work, as it may signal a commitment to high-quality products and services, delivered by a motivated and engaged workforce.

Companies that are not tapping into the character strengths, unique talents, and natural instincts of their employees are indeed leaving value on the table. They will be vulnerable to losing market share to their peers who have chosen to aggressively implement a pleasurable work strategy.