Dave Mitchell - Peak Performance Culture

By 1995, I had distilled the source of my joy to some very specific activities. I knew I loved educating. Specifically, I loved making people laugh while they learned about themselves, others, and their organization. The things that diverted my attention away from that focus were the things that robbed me of joy, diluted my passion, and resulted in me losing my desire. I feel fortunate to have arrived at this revelation at a relatively young age. As a result, I was able to nudge my career in a direction that better aligned with my passion.

Now, before you start to assume that passion for your vocation makes everything easy – it doesn't. Passion is the foundation for peak performance culture, but it is not the entirety of operational excellence. What passion provides is the building block from which all else can be constructed. It is the perpetual fuel source to deal with all the challenges that will ensue. As an example, after I speak at a large conference, I am often approached by an audience member who says, “I want to do what you do.” I take it as it is intended, as a compliment. They see my passion and want to experience what it would be like to feel that way about a job. However, there is a lot more than passion necessary to success. One must have talent, a vision, a strategy, processes, commitment, resiliency, and so on. People see me on the stage. They don't see me in the airport at 4:00 a.m. or writing a proposal on an airplane or doing a conference call in a hotel at 7:00 p.m. They don't imagine the travel schedule, the performance pressure, the revenue generation responsibilities, and all the other tasks – both small and large – that surround the moment of passion. That is why passion is so important to peak performance culture. Without it, no amount of desire can offset the eroding effect of drudgery. But with passion, no amount of drudgery is too great to overcome.

You may be asking yourself, “What is my passion?” How does one identify the core values within oneself that can light the fire of joy and keep it lit over time? In my book The Power of Understanding Yourself , I explain the metacognitive journey to discover your core ideology, your interactive style preferences, and your values. The clues to your passion certainly lie within the discovery of your purpose and orientation. My core ideology is “to contribute to a loving, happy, and secure family while maintaining my freedom – economically and philosophically – through the facilitation of knowledge and transfer of learning, all for the purpose of being a positive and joyful influence on others.” To achieve the level of passion I need to create a high‐performing organization and sustain my own personal commitment; my contribution must align with my core ideology. Otherwise, it would bring me no joy. And without joy there can be no passion.

Is your organization led with passion? To achieve peak performance, I believe it should be. To sustain peak performance, I believe it must be.

Passionate leaders are authentic, not superficial. We all know those leaders who appear to be passionate. They talk loudly, move fast, bark orders, give moving speeches, and otherwise behave in a manner that would be labeled as “passionate” by an observer. Many times, however, these are simply the manifestations of desire. At worst, they are merely acting the part, trying to coax others to perform when they themselves are not. I find that these behaviors – the overt and exaggerated displays of energy and enthusiasm—are rarely exhibited by truly passionate leaders.

Passionate leaders are engaged. They attend meetings, not to share directives but to understand the details of the organization's current state. They listen to those who work in the trenches, where the organization touches their clients. They understand that while they may have authority, it is the team members that have impact. They get excited about successes and take failures personally. They are compassionate – exhibiting as much concern for the welfare of their employees as they do their biggest customers. They care. While they may never be completely satisfied with the organizational performance – because passionate people are driven—they always take time to understand the people around them and inspire them in the way they need to be inspired. They appreciate, empower, develop, and relate. They experience joy at work, and that is critical. They work hard and have found a way to manage the stress and time demands associated with being an engaged leader—because passion, with its endless supply of joy, armors them against duress.

Even great leaders burn out if they don't have enough joy in their life. Ultimately, that is the distinction between desire and passion. Leading by desire is burning a finite fuel source. Leading by passion is perpetual.

As we examine the five metrics of peak performance cultures in the chapters that follow, one thing will become abundantly clear: building a peak performance culture is hard. I often joke with my clients as I introduce each metric by saying, “This sounds hard, right? Well, it is. But it's easier than the next one.” It only gets a nervous laugh.

Great organizations don't exist without a foundation of passion. At least, they don't exist long. And passion without joy is just desire that is impossible to maintain without burnout. I know. As I shared earlier in this chapter, I burned out three times in traditional careers before I started the Leadership Difference, Inc. I thought I was passionate about radio and television when I started in broadcasting, but I was done less than five years later. Same with retail and hospitality. Each time I rose quickly up the organizational chart based on high amounts of desire only to find myself exhausted, resentful, and unhappy. It wasn't until I understood my core ideology that I was able to tap into the well of joy necessary to sustain passion for an enduring period.

If you are responsible for an organization, department, team, or even just your own personal contribution to an organization, ask yourself this simple question: “Does my job give me joy?” If it does, then you have a shot at sustaining the passion necessary for the foundation of peak performance. If it does not, I would recommend taking inventory of your core ideology and finding a way to do that for a living. Heck, maybe you should pick up a copy of The Power of Understanding Yourself . I narrate the audible book version.

Passion in leadership is the basis for all peak performance cultures.

Passion is joy in action for an enduring period.

Desire, which is roughly the same as possessing a great work ethic, can propel peak performance for a finite period, but it is ultimately a limited fuel source. Passion is an unlimited fuel source.

Creating a peak performance culture is hard and will require an unlimited fuel source for personal peak performance.

Understanding your own core ideology is critical for identifying your passion.

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