In this issue:

• Take Charge of Your Life

This is our regular e-message to people who are interested in leading their lives with passion. We will send you a short note with information, stories, examples, and practical things you can do to lead your life, work, and organizations with passion. Leading With Passion We like the term 'leading with passion,’ because it has two very significant, but related meanings. The first suggests leading off with passion. That is, making the very first priority in your life to live, work, and play passionately, and to fully embrace every possible moment. Second, it means that we can lead our organizations, teams, and projects with passion - creating passionate work environments by transferring our own enthusiasm for the organization to all others who come into contact with it.

Take Charge of Your Life

We run into people all the time who are what we call the living dead. People who are alive physically, but dead emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. At work they are the ones who can’t wait to get to 5:00 p.m., the end of the week, or retirement. They are the ones who can’t wait to lay the blame for all their misfortunes on someone else – the boss, a spouse, the government, or who knows what. They go to great lengths to avoid personal responsibility for their situation. One thing we’ve learned in our research about passionate people - they take charge of their own lives.

I (Michael) gave a presentation not too long ago to a large group of employees. A few weeks later one of the managers came up to me and said, in a joshing tone, that I wouldn’t be invited back because 3 or 4 of his employees took jobs in other organizations. I asked him if he really wanted employees who were unhappy working for him. He said of course not. And then I asked the hard question - did he think he was providing a work environment where his employees could feel passionate about what they were doing and who would stay if they felt they had a choice. That one made him think.

Recently I ran into another person who had changed jobs, partly it seems, because of a presentation I had made. "It's not like I quit [the company] just because of you," he said, "But your message did resonate with me. What I heard you say was: 'Take control of your own life. Don't just drift with the tide, steer your own boat. If you embrace that message, you're going to be a happier, better person, because whether you go or stay, it's your own decision.' So I wouldn't say you single-handedly turned my life around, but you did have a very positive impact on me. And I think over the years you've had an equally positive effect on a great many other people."

We are very fortunate in our work because what we do helps people and organizations change things for the better. Do you suppose this person is more productive in a job he likes than he was before? You bet.

He took charge of his life. Instead of life living him, he is living his own life.

Is life living you, or are you living life? It’s never too late to grab hold of the rudder.

Leading with Passion is a regular communication from Michael Kroth and Patricia Boverie. Michael and Patricia have been researching passionate work since 1999, and their book, Transforming Work: The Five Keys to Achieving Trust, Commitment, and Passion in the Workplace, is about the indispensable necessity of passion for personal and organizational success in the workplace.

© Copyright 2005, All Rights Reserved Patricia Boverie and Michael Kroth