Every effective leader is imbued with passion. An accomplishment is often in direct proportion to the amount and intensity of the leader's passion. Passion is contagious for followers. It sustains the leader in difficult times. Passion gives hope. I like this definition of passion: "Passion is concentrated wisdom with high energy in the pursuit of meaning." My theologian friend Dr. Ramesh Richard said, "First in life, decide on your passion. What is your first love? If you have multiple passions, you'll be ripped to pieces internally, resulting in a fragmented, random life. If anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ is your first love, you will fall into idolatry." This international proclaimer and professor verbalizes it this way: "to make God look good and Christ well-known. In this he demonstrates his first love, his central passion. Christ is to be the focus of passion, insuring integrity of leadership. The advantages of passion are multiple. It brings purpose, unity, intensity, concentration, assuring accomplishment. It gives intentionality to life. Passion gives depth, keeping us from the shallowness of mediocrity. Our life becomes a welder's torch rather than a grass fire. Writers have pointed out that Alexander Solzhenitsyn had an undying passion for truth and principle; Mother Teresa, a passion for the dying; Moody, Spurgeon, and Graham—a passion for souls. It was Edison's passion that kept him going. Churchill's indomitable passion of will gave the British their war stamina. In leadership, focused passion accomplishes much more than scholarly intellect. Passion comes from two sources. First, those with an extraordinary passion receive it as a gift, for they were created with the capacity for passion. They can unite the mind and heart and spirit. They have the ability to lose themselves in a cause, to dedicate their life to a single purpose, like Paul saying, "This one thing I do," and again, "I determine not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." I was listening to an older writer being interviewed by a younger one who asked, "If you had your life to live over, what would you do?" The older writer said, without hesitation, "I'd find something big enough to give myself to." The second source of passion is the vision. The clearer the vision, the more focused the passion. If the vision becomes blurred, the passion becomes dissipated and weakened. In an organization where everyone buys into and fully understands the passion and purpose, all effort is unified with high energy. An organization without passion is a car without gasoline, a rocket without fuel. Two organizations may have the same general vision, but the one with the deeper passion will have the greater accomplishment. Passion does not always express itself the same in each leader. One may be quiet, another effervescent. We must be careful to avoid identifying passionate leadership only with charisma. The expression is not as important as the presence. The purpose of our passion must have integrity. I have heard corporate leaders complain that their employees don't have the same dedication to success that they have. When you examine this carefully, you find that the executive's dedication is to his personal success, not the success of the organization. If he is honest with himself, he recognizes his ambition is a personal one; he wants self-satisfaction. In a sense, the employees by not going all-out are doing for themselves the same thing he's doing for himself—they are looking out for their interests, not his. Is the object of our passion worthy of our commitment? The apostle Paul, a man of exceptional passion, was willing even to be accursed if the purpose for which he was called was not accomplished. Self-sacrifice is the acid test of our passion. While passion supplies hope, tenacity, energy, and the like, it also increases vision, for it creates its own reality. It is passion that stimulates the imagination to believe "eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the great things the Lord has for those who love him." I like the prayer of the old saint: "0 Lord, fill my will with fire." He was asking for passion with a receptive, expectant attitude toward God. A pure passion turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Is my passion Focused
The importance of focusing passion to maximize achievement.
By Fred Smith
