Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a
thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with
your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will
accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the previous post we
discussed the importance of a clear mission to a leader. In our public
agencies, a clear mission is essential if we ever hope to get our followers to give
us more than the minimal amount of effort necessary. We need a mission our
followers can embrace and are willing to pursue with the same enthusiasm we, as
their leaders, have.
As public sector leaders, we
must embrace a mission that we can personally be passionate about. Because without
passion, our employees – our followers – will be indifferent about the work. There
is no universe where indifference leads to high-performance.
Passion, for leaders, has a few
meanings. It can refer to our conviction to the mission. It may be our love for
what we do. It may also manifest itself in our belief in the significance of
our public service role.
Think of any successful business
leader… Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Donald Trump, Richard
Branson… They all achieved great successes in their own way, but one thing they
all had in common is a strong sense of conviction to what they were trying to
do. Imagine other highly polarizing individuals – Rush Limbaugh, for instance.
They are hugely successful with those who love them (and notoriously famous
with those who don’t), because of the strength of their convictions. Each of
these are examples of individuals who believe so strongly in what they are
doing and are passionate about the results, that they amassed a following of
people to help them achieve their goals.
Of the great many things my
father always told me, “Son, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day
in your life.” He was absolutely right. I have been blessed to find myself in
careers where I loved my work and I never hated what I was doing. I never begrudgingly
woke up each morning and dragged myself to work to count down eight hours until
I could leave again. When one loves what they do, it just doesn’t feel like
work. Those individuals who love their work are naturally passionate about it
and, as just noted, followers can’t help but embrace passion – it is
infectious. Think about loving your work this way: if you, as the leader, aren’t
passionate about what you are doing, where
are you leading your followers?
Public service work is unique
in that it is important to society. Because of the things we do in the public
sector, citizens have access to clean water, roads are built and maintained,
recreation areas are available, the environment is protected, and our children
are educated. What we do is significant and it has meaning. It is easy to be passionate
about doing something so important, and leaders who are passionate can instill
that same sense of significance and meaning in their followers. It has to
become about more than just a paycheck, otherwise our employees will leave us if
somebody offers them another $0.25 per hour.
Here’s a question: Are your
employees merely showing up to put in their 40 hours and collect their
paycheck? If you reduced their pay by 10%, would they keep showing up? If your Council or Board of Directors
reduced your pay, would you
keep working? (Okay… that was three questions).
Certainly all of us believes we
are worth more money (at least we want
to earn more money), but as a leader, if your salary is the most important
thing to you, you will find yourself with uninspired followers.
Obstacles to Finding and
Following your Passion
Larry Smith, an economist and professor at the University of Waterloo
(Ontario) and advisor to the original Blackberry startup, Research in Motion, offers
a number of reasons why people don’t follow their passions. Among them,
- “You’re too lazy” (Shouldn’t we just assume someone in a leadership role is not lazy?)
- “It’s too hard” (This is a reasonable obstacle)
- “You’re afraid to fail” (So is this)
See Larry Smith's humorous take on passion in his Ted Talk, "Why you will fail to have a great career."
In the public sector, the odds are often against us when trying to
infuse passion into our objectives. It is definitely hard to go against the
grain of the status quo. Our industry is known for tradition, incrementalism,
rigid rules and procedures, “red-tape” and any number of other factors intended
to not bring public scrutiny on ourselves. Just because it is hard does not
mean we shouldn’t do it, though. Remember the old phrase, nothing worth having
comes easy.
Failing is probably the biggest obstacle for most people. No one likes
to fail and everyone thinks they’ll look like an idiot if they do. But we have all
heard the stories of wildly successful people who failed before they found
fame: Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford,
etc. Isn’t it easier to remember lots of famous and successful people than
anyone who has ever failed?
Seriously… In time, no one will remember you tried and failed to do
something.
What’s Next?
This blog is for leaders who are not content with a “good enough for
government work” mentality. We strive for excellence and high performance. We
perform essential services for our communities and we take the responsibility
seriously.
No matter the size of your public agency (from the White House to a
small town’s animal shelter) or the (perceived) significance of your mission
(environmental protection or driver’s license office), we public sector leaders
must find a unifying mission our followers can embrace and exude passion about
it to inspire them to follow us. As a great public leader once stated:
John,
ReplyDeleteI love this post. I even feel the passion in the post itself that's how good it is. You point to a very important factor in leadership and one that often gets overlooked when people aspire to achieve new leadership roles. I know, for instance, in my profession we often here a promotional opportunity comes about, and the very first thing everyone says is, "I'll be able to make over $100k a year!" No one person, not once, not ever, have I heard someone say that they are "passionate" about their job or their desire to lead. Interestingly enough, anytime a person cites money first, their leadership leaves much to be desired and that eventually rubs off on the followers. Passion, I would argue, is a trait one is born with, and is a key ingredient to leadership.