A Passion for Leadership

“So what is positive passion?” he began again. He let the question dangle for a few seconds, just long enough for it to sink in. When Walter saw people beginning to lean over to their neighbors whispering, he knew they were beginning to think about his question. He didn’t want an answer just yet, though, so he began speaking as soon as he spied a young man in the audience who appeared about to shout out an answer. It was not that Walter did not want audience participation. It was that he wanted to make his perspective clear and concise before he opened it up to questions. 

“I will not give you a one-liner explaining what positive passion is. Instead, I am going to give you a plan for leadership that will make your lives much easier. The big bonus is that when you master this principle, your branches will be even more profitable than they already are, and you will have more time to focus on managing that growth. Your current staffing challenges will be reduced and your ability to deal with difficult situations will be enhanced. Positive passion is about clarity and awareness. It is about understanding people. You already know everything there is to know about the tire business. You already have the hard skills: Inventory, Accounting, Marketing, Sales, Installation, Parts and Service. Those are the activities that we do, where we spend ninety percent of our time along with ninety percent of our training dollars. However, my friends, if we don’t have happy, loyal, positive employees we won’t grow and we won’t maintain our position as the best employer in the business with the strongest balance sheet. If you don’t know how to make a difference in the lives of your people, you will fail just as surely as an eagle that tries to fly with a broken wing. That majestic bird will not be able to get the lift it needs to take off because it simply cannot use all of its strength to move the air past its body. No matter how majestic the performance of your branch is today, the strength of your organization is in your employees, and if you don’t have all of them giving you the positive lift that you need, you will come crashing to earth just as surely as that injured eagle every time it tries to take off.” With that Walter took a deep breath and surveyed the audience. You could hear a pin drop as the Joshua’s managers waited for Walter’s next comment.

“So now let’s take the term positive passion and try to understand why it has such great meaning for me. You all know what passion is. To me, it is an overwhelming feeling of desire and attraction for something or someone. When we are passionate, we are consumed by the object of our passion and every fiber of our being is dedicated to it. Passion actually creates pleasurable physical changes in our bodies as our endorphins take over. Human beings have passion for many things: their spouses, their cars, their favorite sport and even their jobs.” On that comment, Walter strode over to the table that held an overhead projector and picked up the remote control that was waiting there for him. When he pushed the button, the first slide came up with only two bright white words on a stark field of dark blue: POSITIVE PASSION. Walter looked up at the screen momentarily as if to assure himself that the slide was correct before walking toward the front edge of the stage. He felt the need to get closer to the audience in order to emphasize his next words.

“Given my explanation of what passion is, you might think the term positive passion is an example of poor use of the English language. After all, how could passion be anything but positive? Furthermore, how can the word passion be used in a phrase without a specific subject to apply it to? I don’t care what my high school English teacher might think!” Walter stated confidently. “This is not a literature lesson. The fact of the matter is that I want you all to be positive in everything you do, and I want you to be passionate about your positivism. Make no mistake, people; nobody ever became successful by being negative. Negative energy is wasted energy. If you remember only one thing from today, remember this: Choose to be positive. Choose Success!  Remember, too, that without positive passion in your life, you will never progress from ordinary to spectacular or from mediocre to great. Positive energy is easy on the mind and kind to the soul. It makes you feel good and it makes your life better. Negative energy is abrasive and exhausting. Nothing good can come from it, and it can turn your life into a fragile shell shrouded in misery.”