CEOs: A personality like Travis Kelce's should be hiring requirement #1.

{This was initially presented as a "post" since I'm a LinkedIn Luddite. It was intended to be an article.}

When I was working at Harvard Medical School I gave supervisees of mine who intended to become couples' therapists only one pointer: "You'll see two types of couples: (1) those who scream and toss ad hominem accusations at one-another and, (2) those where the husband [this was before gay marriage was legal] blames himself for all the problems in the marriage." I then asked them, "Which couple will you be able to help?" Answer: "Just imagine what the husbands do after the session and you'll know."

I claimed that the husband from couple #1 would be likely return to whatever he was doing prior to session #1. The husband from couple #2 would doubtless (based on my experience) meet his paramour for a tryst, or do so soon thereafter. Oh...from the moment he next saw his wife until she acquiesced and forgave him for past offences, work tirelessly to convince his wife that couples' therapy is pointless since, going forward, he'll change his behavior in order to please her.

When people feel authentic passion for a person, a team, or a business, they will feel angry when that which they are passionate about wounds their self-esteem. The husband in couple #2 had no passion for his marriage and, therefore, wasn't hurt by the problems in it. He precluded feeling hurt by investing his ego elsewhere. Yes, couple #1 didn't have an idyllic marriage, but both parties felt it was worth fighting for.

Hurt is what Travis Kelce felt when, prior to the halftime break in Super Bowl LVIII, his team trailed the 49ers and he went nonlinear on Coach Andy Reid. To the untrained eye Kelce looked like a raving lunatic that needed to be subdued by a shot from a tranquilizer gun. But if you understand anger born of 100% healthy passion, unequivocal commitment to a team effort, and a boundless desire to excel, you understand that what caused Kelce to blow-up: A conviction that if he was given more involvement [playing time] in the game, it would lead to a successful outcome.

How can you blame him? Kelce is arguably the most talented tight end in the NFL, he and Mahomes have the most touchdowns for a duo in NFL postseason history with 16 but, more to the point, individually Kelce holds the record for most receptions by any NFL tight end in their first 10 seasons of with 814 catches, and his record of 4,896 yards after catch--that is, running through and over would-be tacklers--it is clear that his passion for achieving success for the KC Chiefs is boundless.

Reed {wisely} understood Kelce's outbursts, ignored them {to his credit}, and modified his game plan to give Kelce more touches in the second half. Is that why the Chiefs won? Who knows? Was Kelce's anger justified? Absolutely.

Head coaches, CEOs and the like must realize that the gravest danger to the success of their enterprise is not posed by those who "get in their face" with the intention of improving team performance, but by sociopaths who, when slighted, feeling impotent, shamed, or simply angry that "things aren't going their way," yet smile, act decorously, and then try to ruin the person(s) they find responsible for evoking their feelings of impotent rage.

In my consulting practice I have seen countless instances of how sociopaths get away with murder. My most recent encounter with a man who allayed his feelings of impotence by slandering his boss was never seen displaying a single negative emotion during business hours. Yet, after the workday ended worked long and hard to undermine the stature and legitimacy of the firm's founder. This man whose personality was defined by his countless instances of impotent rage in all aspects of his life, used an anonymous email account to send slanderous comments about his boss to all the employees in his firm. If that weren't enough, the sociopath sent slanderous emails about the CEO to the firm's clients, often including totally false accusations against his boss's most loyal executives in an effort to strengthen his claim, "the CEO must go."

I'm not the first to note the incontrovertible benefits of passion. Revelation 3:15-18 claims that Christ said, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!?So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Kinda feisty for Jesus, but spot on.

How do you protect yourself against cancerous sociopaths who endeavor to kill you and the most devoted employees in your company who are passionate about wanting to see you achieve success? Hire more folks like Kelce. A "Travis Kelce" will not only confront you with good intent, but will confront with overt, incredibly intense hostility (while endeavoring to and make their life miserable), all sociopathic saboteurs who slander you and sabotage your business behind your back.