You can’t fabricate passion. As a leader, it’s possible for you to cultivate it in others, but you can’t spawn innate desire in someone. It’s easy for followers to get sucked into stoking someone else’s fire, but that will always result in more frustration than anything. Even if you can light an initial spark in someone, whether that spark lights an explosion will always come down to one thing: a person’s character. The more I look at what passion does for people, the more I realize that my role isn’t to fabricate or cultivate it, but rather to facilitate it. That’s why we decided to roll out an initiative I’ve been eagerly anticipating: The Dellutri Passion Project.
My hope is that The Dellutri Passion Project will have a lasting and meaningful impact on our communities and our employees. At The Dellutri Law Group, we make a concerted effort to focus our lives on more than just work. That doesn’t mean we don’t strive to be better at our jobs every day — on the contrary, actually. The more we focus on other people, the better our perspective becomes. The Dellutri Passion Project aims to capture the hopes of those who work at our office and give them viable avenues to make a positive impact in the community.
All of our employees get one day a year in which they can volunteer for the nonprofit organization of their choice. We did this to demonstrate our commitment to our employees because what’s important to them is important to us as a firm. However, we realize that even this gesture is just that — a gesture. Rather than just show support for our team, we want to make a meaningful difference in the lives of everyone in our community. So, we decided that we will promote the charity of choice for each team member on a mass scale. The nonprofit they choose will be featured on each team member’s website bio; we will promote it to all of our Facebook followers, and we’ll link the website to increase exposure as much as possible. Every organization will get their time in the spotlight, and every employee will have the chance to explain their reason for choosing that specific nonprofit and to share their passion for helping others with our clients, friends, and families.
After Hurricane Irma tore apart the homes of so many people last year, and the more recent devastation from Hurricane Florence, I personally chose to support the Midwest Food Bank. We hosted a canned food drive in partnership with them last month to aid hurricane victims both near and far. While we saw firsthand the impact of Irma on our offices in Florida, the damage was nominal compared to other areas that are still struggling to recover to this day, and I wanted to do whatever I could to help. The path to support is paved with awareness; so, while the success we had with the event was terrific, the exposure in our community was much more significant. People donated food, but thankfully they didn’t stop there. We had so many individuals looking to volunteer their time and help in other ways. It was a wonderful reminder of the triumph of the human heart, and it gave hope to everyone involved that, together, our community could overcome anything.
If you want to learn more about The Dellutri Passion Project, follow us on Facebook. You’ll see each employee’s charity showcased, and you’ll also learn more information about how to help us help the community.
