Passion to Performance:

After a couple of days of reflection, meaningful meetings, and conversations with former colleagues, this fantastic network and new connections, "passion" resurfaces as a key descriptor of my leadership. It reflects my desire to create a meaningful impact, prioritizing it over titles and positions. I'm encouraged by my shared commitment to passion within leadership with Anna Stenbeck , recognizing that while it's easy to talk about, visualizing it can be challenging.

Imagine being invited by the great and inspirational leader Catharina Skommevik , CEO of Zmarta, to lecture on Passion on Valentine's Day. I accepted with great enthusiasm, only to realize that articulating how to approach and describe passion to all leaders in the organization was a challenging task. What is passion? How can it drive personal growth, inspire others, and yield sustainable results?

My son's passion for football comes to mind. While he loves playing with friends, it's also about the games, goals, and winning. Instead, we emphasize the importance of having fun, playing good football, and being a good team player. When these elements are in place, the goals come, and the victories follow.

But your value is not based on your achievements. There's no need to demonstrate your worth continuously. But passion is indeed a powerful force.

The force of passion

Passion involves not just enthusiasm but commitment and disciplined training. The crucial distinction between passion and performance lies in the goal and its journey. Passion resides in the vision, whether you're a team player or a corporate leader. Genuine passion comes from growth and development, achieving the goals possible.

Incorporating passion into performance is an art that requires commitment, resilience, and unwavering belief in one's vision. When passion drives every step, performance becomes transformative. Understanding this potent force can inspire teams to excel and enjoy the journey to success.

Passion is the relentless spark that ignites accomplishments and transforms lives. This powerful force empowers leaders and organizations to effect profound change. While it may not always be immediately visible, it underpins every exceptional achievement.

Imagine a leader passionately believing in their vision, a vision that propels them forward and inspires others to follow. They radiate enthusiasm and articulate their organization's mission's impact. Dr. Mary Kay, leadership author of 'It All Starts with YOU,' emphasizes that passionate leaders possess unstoppable optimism, involve people, and know how to recharge. Passion distinguishes exceptional managers. They work diligently, with cheerfulness and compassion toward others, in their tasks and beyond.

Passionate leaders know “the why” of the organization, can communicate it effectively, and can inspire others to share that vision. As such, they effectively dialogue with employees at all levels and express their message in a manner that demonstrates their conviction, desire, and hunger to meet objectives. In so doing, they take others with them on the journey.

Passion is more than engagement; it energizes individuals and teams. Envision a workplace where passion thrives, purpose drives every person, and success is an exhilarating journey.

Simon Sinek wisely notes: “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.”

Great leaders ignite passion – inter alia:

• They make dialoguing with people a priority.
• They express their message to demonstrate their conviction, desire, and hunger to meet objectives.

Here’s a word cloud representing the top words used to describe great managers when respondents were given an open-field question and prompted to provide three words?that came to mind when they thought about great managers.

Finding your passion is a lifelong self-reflection, exploration, and commitment journey. Some infuse it into their work; others pursue it during leisure. It enriches life, fuels curiosity, and fosters personal and professional growth. These are causes that allow us to leave a legacy.

Albert Einstein once said, "I have no special talents; I'm only passionately curious." This curiosity keeps the flames of passion burning.

How then?

The answer lies in crafting your passion portrait. Returning to where I began, Anna Stenbeck and I believe it's easy to speak of passion, but visualizing it is the true challenge. Yet, if we can envision it, it must be tangible. This is where Anna′s great idea shines – to breathe life into your passion through visualization. With this powerful tool, you can imbue new learnings with lasting impact, etch them into memory, personalize them, and paint your journey through the vibrant strokes of your passion portrait.

In conclusion:

Passion is a dynamic force, not just an emotion. It propels you to make a difference, infusing life with meaning, happiness, and excitement. It leads to the ultimate destination of fulfillment and success, personally and on the football field, as well as in leadership.

I would appreciate hearing your perspective.

Would you agree with my thoughts?