Insights
How to Build Passion at Work: What Self-Efficacy SCIENCE Reveals
Building passion at work starts with understanding self-efficacy — and why it matters more than confidence. Psychologist Albert Bandura's research shows that our belief in our ability to successfully perform a task is one of the key drivers of passion at work. The more evidence we gather that we can learn, adapt and succeed, the more likely we are to develop deep, lasting passion for what we do. Here's what the science says — and what you can do with it.
Fast Company: Fostering this one simple quality can dramatically improve your team’s performance
Read this latest article in “Fast Company” by keynote speaker Laura Best.
Disengagement is expensive, and most organisations know it. A 2025 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimates that disengagement costs about $5 million a year for every 1,000 employees 1 and that's before accounting for what's harder to measure. Teams deliver — narrowly avoiding burnout — but the creativity, the discretionary effort, the genuine spark of someone who truly cares? That's becoming a rare commodity in today's turbulent working world as AI continues its disruption.
Sure, most AI is exceptional at scale, speed, and synthesis. It learns from what already exists, optimises from the middle, and produces output that is arguably an average of everything that came before it.
What AI cannot do on its own is care. It cannot bring the specific, idiosyncratic passion of a person who is genuinely, deeply invested. It cannot replicate the creativity of a mind that views the world differently, the trust that builds when colleagues show up more openly, or the desire and persistence to solve complex problems.
Passion can be that capability; however, in most organizations it remains untapped, an invisible resource that is being asked to take a back seat.
Passion is the answer, and most organisations are leaving it completely to chance.
Leadership in the age of “job hugging”
“Job hugging” is showing up everywhere right now, and it’s pretty easy to see why.
People are holding on to jobs that they may not love, not because they lack ambition, but because the ground keeps shifting. Layoffs are happening in their thousands, the news cycle is always-on trauma, and technology is disrupting work faster than organisations can absorb.
So staying put becomes a rational response. There are mortgages to pay and kids to feed. This is real life, and many people are simply trying to hold it together.
What’s interesting is how job hugging actually shows up inside organisations.
It rarely looks like disengagement or poor performance. In fact, it often appears in teams that are dependable and professional. Work gets done. Deadlines are met. People are responsive and reliable. From the outside, everything can look fine.
What changes is the energy behind the work. Fewer ideas are offered. People stop volunteering for projects outside their remit. Learning becomes optional rather than expected. Contribution narrows to what feels safest and most familiar.
For people leaders, this can be hard to spot, because nothing is “wrong” in the traditional sense. Over time, though, organisations feel it as slower momentum and a growing gap between what people are capable of and what they are actually contributing.
The challenge for people leaders, then, isn’t simply how to motivate people. It’s how to shape work so it offers stretch opportunities in ways that feel supported, and that also help the organisation meet its goals.
Passion Chats
Passion Chats, hosted by Laura Best, features real stories from Passionados who are pursuing their passions through work, creativity or creating a positive impact for others.
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