SmallBizResource Blog -- Productivity

Passionate Workers Better Than Workaholics. Or You Can Try The Stickk

Posted by Fredric Paul Monday, Jan 21, 2008, 10:10 PM ET

The smaller the company, the more important each individual employee. But some say you don't want to hire workaholics, you want to find "passionate workers." Or you could use the "Stickk" to motivate them.

As I sit writing this at 7:30pm on what was supposed to be a holiday, it occurs to me that I may not be the best judge here. But I recently came across a blog thread about the difference between workaholics and passionate workers.

According to Seth Godin, the former works out of fear, while the latter works out of passion and curiosity:

The passionate worker doesn't show up because she's afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it's a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation... because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it's a lot more fun than watching TV.

Sounds like the perfect employee, right? Not so fast. That kind of dedication can be a one-way ticket to burnout hell, or at least a bit of trouble with work/life boundaries, says Web Worker Daily.

So Anne Zelenca offers 5 Boundary-Setting Tips for the Work Obsessed, ranging from the obvious (find a hobby) to the obsessive (set personal, not just work goals; schedule dates with other people that will pull you away from work) to the technological (separate your work/life email and IM accounts, so you're less tempted by work when you're trying to do something for yourself).

Heck, that one seems to have the added benefit of not distracting you with personal stuff when you're trying to work!

I'll leave it to you to decide where you fall between passion and addiction to your work, but I'd wager that most small businesspeople are pretty passionate about what they do. Having a stake in the business tends to have that effect.

But if the carrot of potential success isn't enough to get you -- or your employees -- going, you could always try the Stickk. This new site is designed to give you the discipline to meet your goals by letting you make a public commitment and weekly reports on your progress. But the real nudge is that you can put your money where your mouth is, making a financial commitment that is returned when you succeed but donated to a preselected charity (or even a rival or cause you detest) if you fail.

(More on the economics of Stickk from Steven Levitt at Freakonomics.)

I don't think I'd use Stickk myself, but it might be an interesting motivational innovation for small businesses, even with nominal financial commitments (yours and/or theirs) -- as long as it was done carefully and personally with each worker involved. Those kind of challenges often work: my brother finally quit smoking when his wife bet him $100 he couldn't do it. And those charitable donations could also be a way to give back to the community.

Productivity