Essentials: Building Great Teams - Part 2: Passion

In my last article, I wrote about how the four fundamentals of building and maintaining dynamic teams are integrity, passion, ambition, and humility. We took a deep dive into the topic of integrity and explored how without it, everything else is meaningless. True success, truly dynamic, engaged teams embody and epitomize integrity. If you missed it, you can read it?here.

This week, I want to explore the second element of the Essentials – Passion. Great teams are full of passionate people. They’re the ones who care the most. They’re the ones who you may have to pull back on occasion. They’re ones that exude a genuine joy for what they do. They relish the challenge and are committed to?being?challenged. These are the people who spur others on. They spread a sense of possibility. Passion is what keeps people coming back.

As a leader, it’s important to identify what people are passionate about. Sometimes it’s as easy as asking that direct question, but I often find that while people may know what they’re reticent to talk about it. It’s your job as a leader to draw that out of them. Ask them about what’s important to them. Ask them what they like to do outside of work. Ask them about what causes they support. These are the keys to unlocking passion.?

Which is exactly the leadership challenge: passion is something to be unlocked, not manufactured. I started my career, like many tech folks, on the helpdesk. It was a wild frontier of building computers by hand, swapping out ISA cards, and configuring IPX, but it was?exhilarating. Then we started working in web development and databases and we swam in an ocean of opportunity – all because of an unquenched curiosity running rampant through our brains. We wanted to know not just “what”, but “how” and “why”, and many of our happiest moments were those where we were able to tinker, explore, create solutions, and?learn. We found, or unlocked, our passion. When we worked with and for leaders who understood, embraced, and supported that passion, the results for the company were exemplary – we were soaring. When we were put into a box and told to stay in our lane, we dried up like water in the desert.?

So how do you unlock the passion of your team? The first question is this: Are you approaching leadership as something?you’re?passionate about? You can’t expect a team to be passionate if its leader is indifferent. Like integrity, passion is contagious. While you can’t manufacture it, your passion can draw out the passions of your team. They will go as you go. Whatever you’re passionate (or indifferent) about will catch on – both positively and negatively. To unlock a passionate team, you must first be a passionate leader.?

Secondly, it’s about channeling that passion into what is constructive for the business, and you must insist upon alignment with the company’s vision, strategy, and goals. If the company has a goal to sell 10,000 of Item A, and you have a person who is incredibly passionate about selling Item B, those passions don’t align. Similarly, if you are trying to sell Item A, and a person is passionate about rescuing animals, neither do those passions align. This is why these concepts are essentials – they must be present together. Integrity, combined with passion, aligns and channels it constructively. Your job as a leader is to identify those passions on your team and use that energy to positively impact both the person and the organization.?

Almost everyone knows a person devoid of passion. We have words for them – “Debbie downer”, “killjoy”, “wet blanket”, “apathetic” – and we all know these are the people we don’t want on our team. We don’t want to rely on people who are passionless. They suck all the energy out of the room. They pay more attention to the obstacles than the goal. Success, should it come, isn’t celebrated. As a leader, you owe it to your passionate employees to weed out these people. This isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes (in my experience, often), these are your most tenured folks. Interestingly, tenure tends to breed cynicism. Honest conversations and realistic expectations are key to communicating effectively with these folks so you can help them unlock (not manufacture) the necessary passion to be successful.?

Where integrity is the foundation for character, passion is the foundation for movement. As a leader, you need to make sure you’re insisting on the presence of both. When coupled with the final two essentials, ambition and humility, the combination creates an unstoppable momentum that teams can leverage for unparalleled success. That’s what you will have the privilege of leading.

Next time, we’ll dive into ambition, examine what it really means and how you as a leader can identify and capitalize on it.