As the year comes to a close, I find myself in a lot of conversations combining both reflection on what has happened and forward looking perspectives on the coming year. There’s a common element to these conversations–the people that reach out to me tend to share similar mindsets to mine.
That common element is best described as “passion.”
While the word never surfaces, it underlies each of these conversations. With some it’s expressed as extreme competitiveness. For example, this past Friday, I had a conversation with a long time client who leads one of the highest performing organizations in their market. It’s a tough marketplace subject to competitive disruptions, global competition, complex buying processes and mega deals.
We reflected on the performance of his team over the past couple of years in a very difficult market/supply economy. They had consistently over achieved goals, while seeing huge YoY increases. “In 2025, we will see over a 50% increase in our goals!” he said, excitedly.
What was fascinating was there was no whining or complaining about the huge increase in the goals. There was excitement! What he described as the extreme competitiveness of his team drove their excitement. They are driven to exceed their goal. Already, they are doing account and territory planning figuring out how they will find and close the opportunities needed. They were starting to look at things they would have to change, new customers they would have to acquire.
They didn’t have all the answers and knew it was going to be very tough work, requiring them to grind things out every day. But their competitiveness drove them to figuring things out and to do the work to make it happen. The New Year hasn’t started, but they are already doing the work.
Every other person I’ve spoken with over the past couple of weeks has expressed similar optimism. Despite uncertainty, market disruption, shifting economic and global priorities, they and their teams are driven by the challenge. They are excited about the possibilities they might create.
These people are ruthless pragmatists, as well. They know it is never easy. They know there are no shortcuts, they just do the work. They know they will sometimes fail. They know things they hadn’t anticipated will arise. They know they are swimming upstream in a waterfall. But it is this challenge that excites and drives them.
And if they fail, they know there will be no finger pointing or assignment of blame.
There will be calm acknowledgment that despite their very best efforts, they didn’t succeed. They won’t linger long over the failures, rather they will look at what went wrong, where they might change, how they might improve. Then they will continue to move forward at 200 mph.
As I reflect on these conversations trying to understand the commonalities I experience in each of these, I can only describe it as passion. Each of these leaders and their organizations are excited, driven. They look forward to each day and new challenges. They plunge into difficult situations, not knowing the answers, but knowing they can figure things out.
As I reflect back on my own varied careers, this has been the underlying driver to everything I have done. And the privilege I have experienced in my career is working with so many others driven by similar passions.
But I do constantly wonder, “Why does this seem so rare?”
Afterword: This is the AI enabled discussion of this post. This discussion is different from previous discussions (perhaps the model has been retrained), it offers some critique–not just agreement. It also poses challenges to the reader. I’d be interested in your reactions to this discussion. Enjoy!
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