In this post I want to break tradition and discuss part of a leadership definition that I coined several years ago, “… a leader is someone who wants and needs to make a difference … a person with passion and commitment.”
Through better than three decades in nonprofit management, I have witnessed a full range of leadership qualities … some good, some bad and just about everything in between. And one quality that has always been evident in the best of the leaders with whom I have worked has been a genuine love of what they do … an absolute passion if you will. For some, this has simply been a deep-rooted need to make a difference. For others it has been a love of the profession of association management. And for still others the passion has been centered around the cause or profession served by the organization.
For me, it has been a mix of all three. I cannot just do, I need to be doing things that will make a difference. I also love what I do … nonprofit management is a difficult line of work (for the CEO, as each year brings a new president to the board of directors so too does it bring a new boss for the chief staff executive … which can make life quite interesting), but it is a wonderful and very rewarding line of work. I cannot imagine doing anything else. And, it is important to me that I work for an employer in whose mission I can thoroughly invest myself.
But this post is not intended to be about the road I have traveled but to focus aspiring leaders on the importance of being thoroughly committed to the work one does. Whether at the bottom of the ladder or the top, the response should be the same … doing the best job possible so as to maximize the quality of the impact made. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is … to feeling good about oneself and to paving the way to new opportunities. If you genuinely care and unselfishly put yourself into what you do, you will make a greater difference and your efforts will stand out. As well, your level of commitment will improve the game of those around you … especially if your efforts are of the unselfish sort. Care about what you do and care about those with whom you work. Genuinely caring makes all the difference in the world.
I have worked with some outstanding managers who have been more focused on themselves than others, none of whom reached their full potential. I have also worked with some very good managers who consistently exceeded expectations … because they never put themselves first. And this gets back to the importance of needing to make a difference and of putting oneself fully into the pursuit … of being passionately committed to the cause.
Care about what you do, and you will make a difference. And in my book there is nothing more important in work life than to utilize one’s talents to the greatest extent possible to make a difference. This is what shapes a person into the leader-aspired-to-be, and this is what paints a person for all to see.
Author Cross-reference:
Steven H. Davis: Also see posts 5/11/10, 5/26/10
Key Word Cross-references:
Commitment: None
Making a Difference: 2/24/10
Passion: Also see posts 6/26/09, 12/5/09, 2/24/10
Tags: Leadership
on Leadership ... by Steven Davis, CAE 
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