8. They draw people to them without even trying.
If you’ll excuse the cliché – passion sells. Well, it does. People want to be around people who are passionate about what they do, because it’s an infectious feeling. So, let’s take the hypothetical person who loves what they do–and they exude passion about how connected they are with the challenges of their day—and place them among a group of people far less directed, far less passionate, and frankly a little confused about why what they do means anything at all.
Some of those people are probably so jaded that nothing is going to change their perspective, but some of the others are going to take notice. And when they get a taste, they’ll want a bigger taste – and pretty soon, even if they aren’t exactly sure why—they’ll start feeling a strange, uplifting sensation about coming to work. That’s the infection of passion, and if you’ve ever worked somewhere without at least a little bit of it to go around, you already know how vapid and miserable the days seem. People who love what they do pass along what psychologists call “psychosocial contagions,” and just a few drops can change an office for the better. As this happens, those doing the infecting are affirmed by the infected, and a positive cycle begins.
