Five Ways to Reignite Your Career Passion

Contributed by CEO Coach Henna Inam

Does this situation sound familiar? You have worked hard to climb the corporate ladder. You’ve had to burn the candle on both ends to get there. When you get to the corner office or the next rung in the ladder, after the initial euphoria of meeting your goal wears off, the grind remains. The rewards can seem a bit empty relative to the sacrifices made and the energy expended to get there. At various points in your career it is easy to burn-out. Or you decide to opt out by physically leaving or disengaging. According to a Gallup survey, 71% of US employees are disengaged. Your disengagement is not just linked to your productivity but also your health and wellbeing.

It’s easy for us to disengage either by leaving our work or leaving our full passionate selves at the door when we enter our workplaces. We ask ourselves, “Is the effort worth it to continue to climb the corporate stair master?” The answer to the latter question is very personal. However, one thing is pretty clear. As women leaders, our passion for what we do is a big part of our success and fulfillment, as well as our power. So how do we reignite that passion when it’s beginning to fade?

Here are five steps to reignite the passion and fall in love again with what you do. Remember the five P’s to reigniting the passion in your work.

1. Peak Experiences.

Get a journal and start to write about the jobs or experiences in your career that you absolutely loved or aspects of your current job that put a spring in your step. Look for the common themes. For me it was always situations where I had opportunities to coach and mentor my team, challenging and entrepreneurial assignments, and my time spent with my customers understanding how we could make their business better. What is it for you?

2. Personal Brand

A big part of our engagement in our jobs is whether we have the ability to fully express our talents and strengths in the job and connect the impact we are making to what is personally important to us. Take the time to articulate your personal brand. Reflect upon your purpose, strengths and core values. Here is a great talk by Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi about the importance of connecting with our purpose. The peak experiences exercise will help you articulate your personal brand by helping you identify not just how you create value in your job but also what brings you great joy.

3. Position Alignment

Connect the position or job assignment you are in proactively to your articulation of your personal brand. How can you bring more of your personal brand to be successful and fulfilled in your work? One of Gallup’s 12 statements they use to measure employee engagement deals directly with this topic. The statement is “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.” Do you fully capitalize on this opportunity? If your work is not fully aligned with your personal brand, find ways to transition into work that is more congruent.

4. People

This is one of the most important areas of reigniting your passion and engagement. Several of the 12 Gallup statements have to do with whether your direct supervisor and others around you recognize your contributions, encourage your development, care about you as a person, and whether there is a “best friend” you have at work. Ask yourself, who are the people that I work with and know who fulfill these roles for me and who I fulfill these roles for. Proactively seek out mentors and sponsors and play that role for others. Relationships are an important part of our fulfillment and engagement at work.

5. Past-times.

Find time for what energizes you. When you are fully energized you are better able to be engaged and engage others. Do the Energy Audit to see how energized you are. The energy that you generate from pursuing personal passions is contagious to what you bring to work. It lifts your spirits and it is essential for engaging, motivating and leading people around you.

I wish you great luck in re-igniting your own fire as it is an essential ingredient for your success, fulfillment and personal power. Do comment and let me know how you are utilizing these five P’s to bring more of your passion to your work and to your life.

Henna Inam is a CEO Coach focused helping women become transformational leaders. A Wharton MBA, and former C-Suite executive with Novartis and P&G, her passion is to engage, empower, and energize women leaders to transform themselves and their businesses. Sign up for her blog at www.transformleaders.tv.