What are you passionate about? Is it appraising? Do you find that time just flies by when you’re working on an appraisal? Appraising has a lot of steps to it – do you enjoy doing every step or do you sometimes dread that next step? Maybe you’re passionate about appraising, but just not every aspect of it.
It’s important to discover our passions because the things we are passionate about are the things that give us joy and are usually very good at. As appraising transitions to a team approach, it becomes important to assemble your team with members that are passionate about the roles they perform.
For instance, a basketball team isn’t composed of just guards. A football team doesn’t have 11 quarterbacks. Each team member has a specific role to perform, and they have do it well if the team is to win or even function.
For instance, a new Ford 150 pickup rolls off the assembly line every 53 seconds. As you can imagine, the roles on the assembly line are highly coordinated. These people are very competent at performing their job. Some may be excellent at it. Some may even be passionate about what they do.
Imagine if every team member was passionate about their job. Performing that job gave them energy. So much energy, they could do it all day long. That’s a winning team.
You’re probably starting to see why it’s important to discover your passion. Assume you have a three-step process and you are passionate about doing step three. You want to be on a team where the other two members are passionate about doing steps one and two.
Now consider the appraisal process. Divide it into inspecting and analysis. For an appraisal team to excel, you want one member to be passionate about inspecting and the other to be passionate about analysis. Sounds simple, but there is a difference between being competent, excellent, and passionate about something.
We are all competent or excellent at doing things, but what are you passionate about? Here’s a simple way to discover your passions. Over the course of the next two weeks, track your activities, whether at home and work, and categorize them into one of these four “zones.” The Zone of Incompetence, Zone of Competence, Zone of Excellence, and Zone of Genius.
Zone of Incompetence: Activities in this category are things we know little to nothing about. We don’t like doing them. We don’t want to do them. It’s not fun. We usually fail when we try to do them. We are definitely not passionate about doing them.
Zone of Competence: These are activities we know how to do. Maybe its fixing a flat tire or doing repetitive tasks at work. We know how to do them and we do them pretty well, but they’re not something we look forward to doing.
Zone of Excellence: Activities in this category are things that you are very good at. You might have trained for it. You have lots of experience doing them. You probably get paid to do these activities, but they do not necessarily excite you. You do not lose track of time when doing these activities.
Zone of Genius When you do an activity that gives you energy, gives you joy, and you find that you can lose track of time. These activities are your passions.
So, for the next two weeks, track your activities and place them into one of the four zones. If you do this diligently, you will pin-point your passion. When it comes time to assemble your team, find team members that are passionate about doing their role. You will have an unbeatable team.
Good luck in discovering and following your passions.
