In my observation, only 10–15% of a company's employees truly burn with passion for their work. They do everything they can to perform it well — not because they fear punishment or crave rewards, but simply because it is their inner need, shaped by exceptional natural gifts and the whole of their life experience. These people are responsible. Even if something constantly wounds and humiliates them at work, they find it difficult to simply abandon what they have started and walk away.
It is precisely these people who share your ideas. It is precisely these people who are so hard for you to replace. Leaders usually give little thought to their human vulnerability, but are very much invested in their high performance.
The personal traits and lifestyle of valuable employees are usually the cause not only of their professional success, but also of their illnesses. Burning with passion at work, such a person lives in a state of chronic stress, and at some point their body may simply give out.
I have noticed that leaders often underestimate the degree of their influence on the emotional state and on the lives of their most valuable employees. Ask yourself three questions:
Do I want to keep this employee?
How do I affect their emotional state?
What can I do to preserve their effectiveness, motivation, and emotional equilibrium?
Here is one example from my experience working with leaders and their teams.
My client M., 39 years old, was a lead programmer at a company specializing in innovative IT projects. In his case, it would even be wrong to call his work "work" — it was a way of life, a way of communicating with the world. M., to put it plainly, was a genius. The business owners were very pleased with his work, paid enormous sums, and gradually increased his workload.
Warning Signs
At a certain point, M. stopped sleeping. He would close his eyes, but his brain kept solving the next puzzle. But this was no longer a joy. M. started looking unwell, his eyes had an unhealthy gleam, people irritated him. His immune system plummeted sharply — one cold was followed by the next. And the owners had a new idea on the way. M. felt trapped. On one hand, he himself could not tear himself away from work; it drew him in like a drug. On the other, he was hurt by the exploitative attitude from management. And finally, he felt deeply bound to his boss. He felt that he simply could not abandon him at such a critical moment. The boss, as if sensing the programmer's vulnerability, repeatedly told him that no one else could pull this project through.
The situation reached a boiling point. At one of our sessions, M. said that he had cried all night out of desperation and helplessness. And he no longer wanted anything at all. Tangled in a knot of his own internal conflicts and contradictory motives, this extraordinarily talented person lost the energy not only to create, but to live. This was a genuine depression of hopelessness. Antidepressants did not resolve the situation, but they did lead to a semi-vegetative state. It was necessary to change the paradigm of his life and stop being a victim.
Ultimately, through our work together, it turned out that all this person needed for balance was three working days in the office, personal time for his girlfriend, music, and taking care of his home, and every three months — going away for a couple of weeks to the mountains to completely clear his mind. Solitude, nature, and new impressions quickly healed this clearly introverted person. Remarkably, the hardest part for him was understanding his own needs. The process of fulfilling them raised no objections from his boss.
Leaders, often without realizing it, have a profound effect on the emotional state of their employees. But a thoughtful boss can, through their actions, not only support but even turn a valuable employee back toward life. And thus win that person's devotion to the business and a loyalty that cannot be bought for any amount of money. At the same time, a leader with a limited level of emotional intelligence can, without meaning to, simply finish off the goose that lays the golden eggs. Leaders need to occasionally step back from their grand objectives and think about their valuable people. They are your capital. Some of them need and can be helped.