Lead Passionately, Part 2

With all this said, we get down to the crux of the matter…how do you Lead Passionately? By first discovering what YOU are passionate about. What is YOUR big dream? For years, I had a quote taped to the inside of my Daytimer [in case you’re too young to remember what that is, it is a paper version of your PDA] that read 

“find what you love to do so much that you’d do it for free…then figure out how to get paid for it.” 

After all these years, I don’t even remember where I read it or who said it – and Google didn’t help – but I do remember what it said and have asked it many a time to myself, friends, family, colleagues, and clients. After 40 years…I do know and I am doing it!

The process to discovery is easy, but the journey may be difficult; and at times, long. As you begin to explore what your passion is, if you’re like most, you are faced with the challenge of balancing your current employment and job with this passion. I am not at all advocating that you go in tomorrow and quit your job! But I am encouraging you to begin to put some time into the process of discovery. Once you discover your passion, it becomes easier to pursue it and pursue it even within the confines of your current job. 

You could simply add a couple of tasks to your job (with your boss’s knowledge and blessing, of course) that will aid in the pursuit of your passion. You may find a way to volunteer at your passion. My best friend of over 25 years absolutely loves live theater and he is quite talented in it. He also has a very good-paying job. How does he “marry” these two? He works his daily job and pays the bills to live, but enjoys living by being involved in several community theater productions each year. Will he ever leave the corporate paying world to give full-time to his theater passion? We’ll have to wait to see. Is he an effective leader because he is pursuing his passion – Absolutely! Both in the corporate world, as well as in other areas of his life – he lives and leads passionately.

If you believe that people, including you, do their best at and enjoy the most of that which they are passionate about, then discovering WHAT that is, will accomplish many things:

1. Allow you to “rise to YOUR occasion.”

2. Allow you to lead passionately, since you are LIVING passionately.

3. Most assuredly, allow you to make an impact on those around you; leave your legacy.

Today's Opportunity:

1. Read Wilkinson’s book “The Dream Giver.”
2. Discover YOUR passion and big dream. 
   
3. As you are having those more intentional face-to-face conversations with your employees, begin to challenge them to discover THEIR passion and Big Dream. Then, find a way to help incorporate that into their current job. Let’s see if their work attitude improves.