Soulfulness is a quality that’s hard to describe. However, businesses that lack soul are easy to spot. People are busy doing what they do. Departments fight each other. Employees do only what they need to. Contrast that with an organization where people seem to have a "fire in the belly" for what they do. They get up every day and tackle their work with passion and excitement. These employees solve their challenges creatively with enthusiasm and are unafraid of embracing the next problem. They love customers and thoroughly enjoy working with their colleagues.

That's soulfulness—and there isn't an employee in the country who wouldn't want to work for an organization with it. In a soulful business, people feel like they are growing and serving others. They feel that they are "kicking butt and taking names," and that they are at war with the competition. Imagine an employee coming home to his or her spouse and saying, "Oh boy, honey, I can't wait to tell you about work today. Today we performed—average. Can you believe it? Oh boy!!!" Everyone prefers going home and sharing their successes: how they helped the customer or solved a big problem.

Soulfulness comes naturally. However, things happen within organizations that   can snuff out that fire sometimes.   Here are some examples of things we do to stomp the soul out of our companies:

Lack of appreciation . We learn to stifle that little voice from our childhood that says, "Look at me, Mom!" Stifling it doesn't make it go away. We just learn that it is a bit awkward to beg our coworkers for attention and appreciation every day. Even our own mothers don't applaud anymore when we take a step. But that doesn't erase the need. Innately, we all want to be adored and appreciated.

Indirect conflict . When two people disagree, it creates an opportunity for them to show off their maturity and wisdom. Unfortunately, when that maturity and wisdom don't rise to the occasion, people tend to talk about the conflict with everyone except the person involved. The person under discussion (dissection?) is demoralized and unable to defend his or her position maturely. Coworkers get sucked in and lose energy too. In the end, the person who is sharing the information looks the worst because, eventually, he or she will be discovered and confronted.

Conflict avoidance . When conflict happens in my life, I prefer to close my eyes, click my shoes together, and hope I end up in Kansas. But I’ve discovered that conflict avoidance and "hoping it will just go away" only fuels the fire. Conflict creates an opportunity for growth for the people involved. It takes emotional maturity and guts to play with the cards on the table.

Politics . As organizations become more organic and flowing, with fewer layers and more accountability, the hope is that the old political problems will go away. Many will—only to be replaced with new political problems. People are political creatures. Managers need to carefully analyze what is rewarded and what has potential to become a political problem. For example, if compensation is based on a ranking system, employees sabotage their peers. Or if you reward a good quarterly performance, long-term investments are then sacrificed. Or if complainers get the most attention,   exactly the behavior you don't want is reinforced.

Crazy management . Does the direction of the organization change weekly? Is it TQM this month, customer satisfaction training the next, and re-engineering the next? Do managers preach one thing but reward the opposite? All these inconsistent messages are killers to motivation and confuse employees. The only clear message is what a manager does.

Warriors . A culture is destroyed by one or a few people in the break room who sabotage all of the organization’s positive efforts. These are warriors at work. These aren't the occasional complainers who feel they have an idea on how to better the place. Oh no! They're killers. They attack from behind, take prisoners, and eat their kill. There are always a few people in the world who seem to be here for the sole purpose of making everyone else miserable. If you have any warriors in your workplace, find out what the motive is for the war. If there have been several wars recently, it isn't about the current issue. They don't need training; they need therapy! Put on your armor and let them know that you won't stand by and watch them eat their kill. Either they're in—or they're out.

Soulfulness is a necessary part of an organization. All employees, from the CEO on down, are responsible for promoting and inspiring passion for their work. Without soul, an organization will die. With it, everyone and everything thrives .