You might consider me the last person to argue this point but I think in the NDIS space we need to reassess the notion of ‘doing it for the right reasons’ and glorifying ‘passion’. Seems a bit jarring but hear me out!
As someone who has operated as a business owner and leader in the NDIS space for years, I’ve come to realise that passion is a nice-to-have but is not necessary for doing good work with participants and the industry more broadly; yet we seem to demand it more than any other quality in our innovators and workforce. Here are the problems with it.
Being passionate about something doesn’t mean you’re good at it.
You can be passionate, but with the wrong attitudes and beliefs that result in poor outcomes.
NOBODY is passionate every minute of every shift. In fact, some of the most passionate workers I know (me included) burnout regularly and have days (weeks) they’re not feeling it.
Most importantly – after hours and hours of co-design sessions with participants, passion rarely came up at all and certainly not in the top 5 most desired traits.
So, is this gatekeeping? Unless you have disability somewhere in your backstory and willing to suffer financially you can’t sit with us?
I think this attitude is a relic of older charitable attitudes and mindsets we once had about this industry. A sense of older sibling protectiveness I don’t remember being asked to provide.
I don’t believe the NDIS space needs more passion I think it needs more innovation, fresh talent, bold ideas, execution excellence, operational savvy and more pathways to participant-led and owned enterprises and businesses. Instead of passion, I’d much rather see professionalism, quality of service and innovation in the workforce. Good businesses in any industry listen to and respect their customers.
In fact, speaking to some people with disability about this notion was pretty funny – stories of workers who were way too intense or excited. I know my brother would cringe at someone being ‘passionate’ about working with him.
But so many successful founders in this space are clearly passionate?
Passion is an important ingredient in the makeup of any entrepreneur or executive. In any industry. As someone who has built a business from scratch, working late nights, and screaming into the void. It was passion that got me through it. It got me through the process of building a business not navigating or working in the space.
Inclusion is about treating everybody the same unless there’s a reason not to. For me, I don’t really care if anybody I hire to do something for me is ‘passionate’ or ‘doing it for the right reasons’, and I’d challenge us in this space to begin aligning ourselves with the rest of the country in this regard. It’s nice to have, but only on top of quality service, fair pricing and ethical operations.
Again, passion is a good thing, it’s just nowhere near the most important thing. Just a do a good job and behave professionally and we’ll get along fine.