Up Your Business is an exclusive GEARS Magazine feature in which I share stories, insights, and reflections about real business and life challenges.
At this year’s Powertrain Expo, I’ll present a workshop titled Pea Soup: The Cure for Entrepreneurial Split Personality Disorder. I’ve compiled some practical tools to conquer the two-hat challenge that I wrote about in my Up Your Business column in the May 2016 issue. These tools will help you take your company exactly where you want it to go. You’ll learn the secrets for managing things and leading people.
This month’s article, discusses Passion, one of the primary ingredients in the “Pea Soup” recipe for entrepreneurial leadership.
WHAT IS PASSION?
Most people think of passion as an invisible emotional force that exists within a person and drives them to do the things they do. While it’s usually thought of as a positive force, passion applies to a wide range of emotions that are in stark contrast to one another, such as love and hate or joy and anger.
When it comes to leadership, it’s easier to recognize a leader who doesn’t have passion than one who does. I recently read an excerpt from an article in Entrepreneur magazine, “If you’re trying hard not to show it, but you’ve lost that loving feeling for your business… it’s time to rekindle your passion and renew your entrepreneurial commitment.”
When a leader loses his passion, he also loses his motivation, vision, creativity, energy, and may even burn out. When a leader’s passion is lacking, his leadership is contrived and ineffective, and the people he leads sense it. They often feel manipulated, forced, and threatened, and lose trust, motivation, and drive.
But when a leader’s passion is high, his leadership style is so naturally effortless that it’s often transparent to the team. The result is a sense of security, peace of mind, and freedom while under the motivating influence of a highly effective leader… a leader with passion, vision, creativity, and confidence.
WHY PASSION IS IMPORTANT
I believe passion is the single most important asset for leadership success. Whether success is measured in terms of money or accomplishment of a mission, passion is the ultimate differentiator over time.
Leaders are often identified by characteristic traits, such as bold but not boastful; confident but not cocky; persistent but not stubborn; focused but not narrow-minded; inspiring but not pushy; energized but not unbridled; and purposeful but not inflexible.
Because of their passion, when the waves of adversity roll in, passionate leaders grab their surfboards.
Passion is a key part of who you are and what causes certain things to resonate with you at your core. You need to tap into your passions as they relate to your personality, natural talents, and gifts.
Likewise, as a leader, you’ll need to become skillful at helping others discover and understand their passions so you can place them in roles on your team that contain the motivational forces that flow from their own inner passions.
5 RESULTS OF PASSION
Here are just 5 beneficial leadership results that come from finding and focusing on your passions:
- Passion drives vision. Vision is the common denominator assigned to great leaders. Vision is what you see as the leader, but passion makes what you see important. Vision without passion is mechanical while vision with passion is inspirational. Passion without vision usually shows up as intensity while passion with vision is marked by conviction. Intensity says, “I really want you to believe this.” Passion says, “I really believe this.” The leader’s passion is the fuel that drives accomplishment of the vision. The vision of the leader should be frequently and passionately communicated to the team members.
- Passion produces energy. A leader who has passion is driven by the energy it produces. When it comes to leading yourself and others, passion and energy are essential. Leaders who have passion bring energy to what they do. Donald Trump says, “Without passion, you don’t have energy; without energy you have nothing.”
- Passion ignites others. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone showed up for work as passionate and energized to get the job done as we think we are? Be honest with yourself: Aren’t we all suffering from mental and physical demand overload? Just like you, your people face energy drain from life’s challenges outside the workplace.It’s been said that passion can’t be taught… either you have it or it’s caught. It’s the same with energy. We’ve all been around someone whose energy is contagious. A person’s passion can ignite other people’s passions and bring energy into their lives, especially if it’s accompanied by compassion. Sometimes a little compassionate conversation can reenergize a person. When you make a difference in someone else, it makes a difference in you.
- Passion increases influence. People aren’t as influenced by what you do as they are by why you do it. Passion and vision shape your purpose or the why in your business. Ultimately, purpose helps define your business. The combination of passion, vision, and purpose brings your team together. The combination of their shared passion, shared vision, and shared purpose motivates them, gives them a sense of belonging, and excites them about being a part of your business. You gain more influence with others and they want to be a part of what’s going on. To raise your influence, be a passionate leader.
- Passion increases potential. Passion brings new opportunity and opens doors to greater success for everyone. It’s important to recognize the difference between interest-based and business-based passions. Neither is better or worse than the other… they’re just different.
- Interest-based passions are usually a source of pleasure or fun: golf, tennis, painting, camping, etc. These passions are often connected with activities that flow from a combination of interest and natural ability or acquired skill. We tend to like doing them because we’re good at them or we’re good at doing them because we like doing them.
- Business-based passions are related to achieving the vision and purpose of the enterprise. While interests, skills, and abilities are still factors in achieving success, the passion is usually centered on achieving the overall vision and purpose of the organization’s leader.
When the organization’s potential isn’t being achieved with respect to its vision, you might not have the right combination of passion, purpose, and people. You should consider whether you have the right vision but wrong people or the right people the wrong vision.
NEXT STEPS
Build a team that shares your passion, vision, and purpose. Tap into the interest-based passions of your team members and align them to the needs of the business. Explain how their role in the business directly relates to or can indirectly and positively affect their interest-based passions.
Setting spirituality aside, most people would agree that Jesus was an effective leader, and his passion is undeniable. He provides a great example of aligning interest-based passions with business-based passions as he began his ministry (his business) and recruited the first four disciples.
It’s written that as he walked along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew, casting their nets into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And they immediately left their nets and followed him. And going from there he saw two other brothers, James and John, in a boat mending their nets. He called to them and they immediately followed as well.
I hope you’ll forgive my rather loose translation of the Bible, but my point is that Jesus quickly and clearly aligned their respective passions with his by saying, “Hey guys, let’s go fishing.”
You need to do the same thing with your team members. For instance, if one of your team members loves working puzzles, influence him in the direction of becoming a troubleshooter or diagnostic specialist.
Or if one of them likes camping, you might work out an incentive reward for him to receive occasional 3-day weekends. It could come in the form of a reward for accomplishing a proficiency goal within the scope of his job or by learning a new skill that advances the team’s cause.
In any case, to do this, you’ll need to spend time with each team member and get to know them on a deeper level. Learn about their passions: what excites them and what they would like to accomplish in their careers. Develop a passion for caring about them.
A side benefit of these private conversations is that they’ll feel more respected and appreciate that you cared enough to spend time with them on a personal level. It’s been said that people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.
In conclusion, I don’t think I’ve seen a better description of the importance of passion than what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Passion is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without passion.”
In the meantime, don’t forget to make plans to attend the upcoming Powertrain Expo. Hope to see you there.
