Good leaders and great leaders are distinctly separated by a range of well-sharpened traits, one of which is undoubtedly passion.
It can be difficult to find out what passion looks like in practice, but once you know, it is impossible to miss, as its unique benefits find their way into each and every aspect of the business arena.
If you happen to be a leader yourself, or you are an aspiring leader who wishes to take your skillset to the next level, it is worth thinking about the power of passion and what it means to your employees to see you demonstrate it in your work.
Passion is Exciting
Passion fosters excitement in the workplace, and if your team is excited about their work, you will likely see a big boost in productivity across the entire workplace.
Excitement creates a wonderful buzz around a project – it enables employees to take on responsibilities that yield an output that they are proud of. Job satisfaction is incredibly important in today’s world, particularly when you consider the rise of the great resignation that plagues so many modern businesses.
Excitement inspired by your passion can prove to be the driving force behind real success. No matter what success looks like to you or your employees, it can be achieved when everyone shares the same amount of excitement for the role they need to perform.
When you create an environment in which people are excited about their job, you can start to attract a higher quality of candidate to your ranks. Conversely, an environment in which your team feels stagnant will probably not be one that people want to be working in.
Passion can be demonstrated in many different ways too, both in and outside of the working environment – it is always exciting and speaks volumes about your character. The highly successful Mike Savage in New Canaan is a great example of this – he is vocal about his love for muscle cars, and this translates well into his achievements as a CEO.
Passion Represents Dedication
If you are passionate about your work, you can showcase your dedication to the company. This can help you foster a sense of mutual trust in the workplace, as your team will be able to see that you believe in the nature of the work and you want the operation to be a success.
There are plenty of hands-off leaders that are leaders in name only, and this does little to inspire productivity in a team that needs to remain cohesive in order to achieve a common goal.
If that common goal is something everyone believes in (as a result of the passion coming from the top), then that goal may be much easier to achieve.
The best leaders inspire, and if you can use your passion as a form of inspiration, you may be able to enhance the quality of your finished projects.
It is not enough to simply possess passion either – your passion needs to be communicated to your employees, and this is doable both verbally and non-verbally. Facial expressions, posture, movement, and many other forms of paralinguistics can work wonders in showcasing your passion to others, so make sure you practice your communication skills whenever you get the opportunity.
- Top Tip – Good communication requires good listening, so make sure you listen to your staff’s concerns at suggestions at all times.
Passion Improves Decision-Making
When you can direct your passion and control in a way that informs your decisions, the results of those decisions are likely going to be much more impactful. This is partly because passion can increase your willingness to make tough decisions, and potentially even reduce the amount of apprehension or fear you have in the heat of the moment.
Using your passion to clear your head and unveil the goal at the end of the road can help you keep your achievements in sight and reveal the trajectory you and your team are on. If that trajectory is fraught with pitfalls, a passionate leader will find a way to avoid them.
It is worth remembering that passion can have the opposite effect and end up clouding your judgment if you are not able to see the path in front of you. Using your passion to enhance your critical thinking rather than stand in its way is a must. Passion can be fantastic, but not when it prevents you from making sensible business decisions, particularly ones that are powered by reliable data and solid support from the rest of the team.
Passion Helps You Stay Motivated
There is no doubt that some aspects of the working world can be immensely monotonous at times, and this can greatly inhibit your ability to stay motivated if you aren’t careful. Even the most tedious of tasks can be weathered if you are passionate enough about the bigger picture.
While it might not seem like you are fully utilizing the best advantages of your passion in the moment, staying motivated enough to achieve the end result you desire is essential. In many ways, passion can act as a perpetual loop of energy, allowing you to take on any task, no matter how small or large.
If your team can see you perform smaller mundane tasks with the same passion and energy you have for visibly more impactful ones, they might be inspired to push themselves and strive to attain their full potential at every opportunity.
Leaders need to set a good example, even when the work is tough and the days are long. In fact, it is in these moments that a great leader has the chance to show their true resolve.
Passion Has the Edge on the Competition
When competition is fierce, you need every trick in the book at your disposal to make sure you come out on top. Passion can be your secret weapon in this regard, as it enables you to stay sharp, creative, and innovative at key moments in your career.
Customers connect with passion – it is immediately recognizable, and because of this, its absence is especially notable. If you can always showcase your passion and your drive, even when your competition is tough, customers might be more willing to side with your services.
Passion also represents reliability, and it can speak volumes about the quality of the service or the goods that you provide. Setting yourself apart from the competition is crucial, and if the way you can do this is through your passion for your company, it looks incredibly good to the customer.
Passion and Perseverance
Leaders that can persevere in the face of overwhelming odds are leaders that inspire and achieve at the end of the day. When work starts to drag on endlessly, or the road to achieving your goal is exceptionally long and convoluted, others will look to you for support and guidance.
If you lack passion, then there is every chance you will struggle to see the work through, or at least, see it through to a reasonable standard. Reasonable is not good enough for a great leader – not when they aim to be exceptional.
Passion can be the difference, the driving force, and the tool behind perseverance, despite the toughest of challenges.
Often, the biggest achievements and the hardest goals to reach require the longest waits, and this might not be possible if you have not got the passion for the company, the work, your colleagues, or your industry.
Passion Quells Your Fear of Failure
No matter how good you are at being a leader, there is every chance you will need to face failure head on at some point in your career. Failure is, of course, an important part of what it means to learn and grow as a professional, but only if you know how to use it to your advantage.
In many instances, fear of failure can be just as damaging as failure itself, as it can prevent you from making the right decisions at the right time. If you are afraid of failing, then you may lack conviction in your skills or decisions, and this is something that your team will likely notice, and your work may suffer as a result.
Your passion can override your fear of failure, enabling you to make the decisions necessary, no matter how tough, to carry on in the right direction.
Passion can help you accept failure, understand the path that led there and help you keep sight of your ultimate goals should it end up happening.
Great leaders know that failure is not the end – they know that there are important lessons to be learned from it and that their passion for the people around them can carry them through the most difficult times.
If you are passionate about what you do, whether that happens to be the impact of your work, the success of the team you manage, your own personal standards, or any aspect of your working life, then you can use it to help you take your career to the next level.
