KEITH ABRAHAM The 4 Steps to Building a Passionate
Performance Based Culture
During the last 18 years I have been fortunate enough to look inside over 265 organisations in 20 different countries
and 30 different industries to see firsthand how companies can create a passion based culture.
Firstly what does a passion based culture look like? It is where the majority of the people in your business are
engaged, enthused and energised. They believe in the purpose of your business and prepared to add value beyond
their pay packet to achieve the goals and objectives of the business?
What we have discovered is that most businesses fall into three categories.
They are either in survival mode, in other words not getting ahead or going backwards. The second type of business is
successful at what they do; they are good at what they do and are making money. The final group are great at what
they do, in other words they have become significant in their market place. Recognized by their clients, community
and companies they work with and their colleagues at being great at what they do in their fields. To be significant at
what you do you need to create a team of loyal, passionate people.
Here are the 4 Steps ...
Have a Big Reason: Your people want to work with and for someone who has a bigger reason than just profits. They
need a bigger reason and why? They need to do work that is meaningful, matters and makes a difference. You have to
sell the story and purpose of your business. The majority of people want to belong to a company who have a purpose,
a plan and are passionate about achieving it. So you too need to have a clear direction, write out a manifesto of what
you want to be famous for and what you stand for.
Define Your DNA: Every business has a culture, sometimes created by choice however most of the time created by
chance. You want to create a culture that brings the best out in your people. So it is critical to identify your DNA, in
other words what you stand for, what is acceptable, what is not acceptable and what is not negotiable. If you could
have the perfect team culture that would naturally create passionate, proactive and productive people, what would
you have to do?
Create Progress: All too often an environment is created where people are too focused on creating perfection, rather
than making progress. Too many people within businesses are avoiding making a decision for the fear of being wrong.
So what do they do? They defer, avoid, procrastinate and attend another meeting. Get your people focused on
measuring progress, not perfection. Have them implement 1% improvements to everything they do and your business
will evolve and grow and your people will become excited about moving forward.
Assist Your People to Define Their Dreams: Most people spend most of their life earning a living; very few people
desire a life. For most people days blend into weeks, weeks merge into months and months collide to create years.
Rarely do people stop and think about what is important, what matters and what is most important to them and for
the people who mean the world to them.
The greatest gift you can give them is the opportunity to clarify their goals and then the permission to pursue their
passion.
Keith Abraham CSP has become the
world’s premier thought leader on
passionate performance and building
passion based cultures. Since 1995,
Keith has inspired people around the
world to create over 12 million goals
as a best-selling author of 4 books
and a multi-award winning
professional speaker engaged for
international conferences.
Email him at [email protected]