Pacesetter Matrix - Passion
In part four of the Pacesetter Matrix, we examine the importance of Passion for high performing and high potential talents.
One of our passions at 20 Two North is basketball. It seems appropriate that we should be discussing passion today, as we remember and mourn the loss of one of the most passionate players in the history of the game, the iconic Kobe Bryant.
Veteran Los Angeles Lakers coach Gary Vitti, head trainer for 32 years, commented the following about Kobe Bryant:
“Kobe was talented, but what if I told you he wasn’t the most talented guy out there? I’m telling you, and I’ve had them all, there’s nothing really special about Kobe. I mean he’s a big guy, but he’s not that big. He was quick, but he’s not that quick. He’s fast, but wasn’t that fast. He was powerful, but he wasn’t that powerful. There were other players that had more talent than he did, so what was there about him that more talented players had zero rings and he ended up with five?”
Vitti said that the answer is that Kobe simply outworked everyone. He not only worked harder than anyone else, but he also worked smarter and was “intellectually brilliant at his job.”
So what led Kobe to work harder and smarter than his contemporaries? Passion.
Kobe was famed for his ‘Mamba Mentality’.
“To sum up what Mamba Mentality is, it means to be able to constantly try to be the best version of yourself. That is what the Mentality is. It’s a constant quest to try to better today than you were yesterday.”
Kobe defined passion as:
Devoting yourself to a goal through relentless commitment and dedication.
To him, passion was the cornerstone of the Mamba Mentality.
Simon Sinek, in his best selling book Start With Why, and one of the most popular Ted talks of all time, comments that all great achievements start with passion. Passion is what motivates you, and what shapes your purpose in life and in business. Shared purpose creates a culture, brings people together, gives a sense of belonging, and a belief to achieve shared goals.
In August 2009, Netflix Founder & CEO, Reed Hastings published the Culture Deck online, a 124-page slide deck, entitled “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility”. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook says, "It may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley," she says. This document has been the inspiration for companies the world over. Netflix prides itself on having a culture that embraces the two pillars of freedom and responsibility. It lists nine qualities and behaviours that it values.
Number seven is: Passion
You inspire others with your thirst for excellence
You care intensely about Netflix's success
You celebrate wins
You are tenacious
Passion and enthusiasm go hand in hand. An enthusiastic person will take advantage of every opportunity, be a learning sponge, and will ultimately do whatever it takes to be successful. A study conducted by Deloitte revealed that over 87% of America’s workforce is not able to contribute to their full potential because they don’t have passion for their work. Passionate workers are committed to continually achieving higher levels of performance.
Employee engagement is different from having passionate employees. Employee engagement is typically defined by how happy workers are with their job, their relationship with their colleagues, manager, and the wider organisational culture. Employee engagement is important, and improving it typically will give a firm a bump in performance. However, workers who are merely engaged won’t actively seek to achieve higher performance levels, to the benefit of self and firm; passionate workers will, though.
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” – Aristotle
So how can we identify passion?
Deloitte define passion consisting of the following 3 characteristics:
A long term commitment to a specific domain that is goal oriented and unruffled by short term turbulence (Domain)
A questioning disposition where they are always seeking knowledge from new challenges (Questing)
A connecting disposition, meaning a tendency to form strong, trust-based relationships (Connecting)
Ambition and passion may be difficult to tell apart. Ambitious staff tend to be motivated by extrinsic factors such as rewards and recognition. They identify the performance requirements necessary to achieve the next level of reward (e.g. promotion/pay) and work toward those metrics. Often, they focus more on the metric itself or on enhancing a CV in order to get to the next opportunity than on the actual work. I’ve lost count of the number of people that seem solely concerned by the job title or salary on offer from a hiring company.
By contrast, passionate employees are intrinsically motivated through their desire to tackle challenges, test boundaries, improve performance, and make an impact. They focus on their own learning and achieving more of their potential rather than on preset metrics or external rewards. Passion and curiosity drive innovation.
“Passion is an output, not an input. Passion is an output of vision. When we feel that our efforts are contributing to a greater purpose, we feel passionate. But we're not all visionaries - so when we find a vision that resonates with us, our responsibility is to contribute our individual gifts to help bring that vision to life.”
“Passion is the fuel for success.” - Kobe Bryant
