How important is Passion?
[This was recently posted on my nonprofit blog.]
It seems that everyone is looking for passion. Employers want passion from their employees, coaches want their teams to be passionate, speakers, preachers, and salesman all seek to motivate and create passion in their audiences. New nonprofits often exist because someone is passionate about a particular cause. But how important is passion to the overall success of our business, team, church, or nonprofit?
Having been a coach for several years and a sports fan forever, I have witnessed many "upsets" of favored teams by a "passionate" opponent. Most of us can pick out one or two of these instances when the underdog fought off the odds and exceeded their potential - coming away with a victory even they did not expect. The real question, however, is how did those teams do after that victory?
While a single passionate victory can do a lot to motivate or inspire success, those victories seldom change long-term outcomes, if that victory is built on passion alone. Passion built on knowledge and understanding, however, can sustain you. A team that is passionate because it understands what is necessary to win will win more often. A business whose employees are passionate because they know their company is a quality company with a good plan to be successful will be passionate for the long-haul.
More important, a person whose faith is built on knowledge and understanding will be sustained through the good times and bad because their faith is not dependent upon passion alone. Likewise, a nonprofit that involves people who are more than passionate and willing to invest themselves in the mission, will find itself more successful.
The bottom line is that passion without understanding is shallow at best and seldom sustains. As a leader of your business, church, or team hang your future on passionate people who bring with them the tools they need to support your mission even when their passion is lacking. If you do, when the down times come (and we all know they will) you will find the dip in enthusiasm will have less effect on your overall success.
Having been a coach for several years and a sports fan forever, I have witnessed many "upsets" of favored teams by a "passionate" opponent. Most of us can pick out one or two of these instances when the underdog fought off the odds and exceeded their potential - coming away with a victory even they did not expect. The real question, however, is how did those teams do after that victory?
While a single passionate victory can do a lot to motivate or inspire success, those victories seldom change long-term outcomes, if that victory is built on passion alone. Passion built on knowledge and understanding, however, can sustain you. A team that is passionate because it understands what is necessary to win will win more often. A business whose employees are passionate because they know their company is a quality company with a good plan to be successful will be passionate for the long-haul.
More important, a person whose faith is built on knowledge and understanding will be sustained through the good times and bad because their faith is not dependent upon passion alone. Likewise, a nonprofit that involves people who are more than passionate and willing to invest themselves in the mission, will find itself more successful.
The bottom line is that passion without understanding is shallow at best and seldom sustains. As a leader of your business, church, or team hang your future on passionate people who bring with them the tools they need to support your mission even when their passion is lacking. If you do, when the down times come (and we all know they will) you will find the dip in enthusiasm will have less effect on your overall success.
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