Different Approaches to Personal Change: Discipline versus Natural Passion

As people consider personal development and improvement, they often find themselves choosing between two distinct approaches. One approach, which we might call the “Discipline-Driven” path, relies on structured commitment and determination. This method emphasizes setting clear goals, measuring progress, and strictly adhering to a development plan. The underlying belief is that “I can develop high competence in any skill through dedicated practice and persistence.”

A very different approach, which we call the “Passion-Driven” path, begins with self-discovery. This method encourages individuals to explore what naturally energizes them, what they genuinely enjoy, and what brings them fulfillment. The core belief here is that “I can achieve excellence in areas that align with my natural interests and enthusiasm.”

Most people ultimately incorporate both approaches, recognizing that while some necessary skills may not come naturally, others flow from their innate interests. Additionally, our understanding of our passions can evolve, and sometimes, we discover new interests through the process of skill development.

The Perfection Paradox

A significant assumption often shapes how people approach change: the belief that we need to be perfect. Some believe that a fulfilling life requires constant improvement across all skills and capabilities, maintaining vigilant awareness of any areas for growth. While most have moved beyond pursuing absolute perfection, many still carry anxiety about their perceived shortcomings.

In my research examining exceptional leaders, I analyzed data from thousands of leaders evaluated on crucial competencies. Surprisingly, I discovered that the most effective leaders (those in the top 20 percent of our database) weren’t uniformly excellent across all competencies. Instead, they demonstrated exceptional skill in just three to four areas. More revealing still, these areas of excellence varied among top performers. Some excelled in relationship building, others in communication or delivering results. While they weren’t perfect, they also avoided what we call “fatal flaws”— competencies where they ranked in the bottom 10 percent compared to their peers.

The Power of Following Your Passion

Given that high effectiveness doesn’t require excellence in every skill, why not focus development efforts on areas where you feel natural enthusiasm and energy? To explore this idea, we conducted a study with 4,164 leaders, asking them to select six competencies from a list of 19 that they found most energizing and fulfilling. The specific instruction was, “Select six competencies that best represent the aspects of your work that you most enjoy—those areas that bring you the most fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction. These are typically the areas where you feel most passionate, experience a natural ease, require less effort, and often lose track of time when fully engaged.”

Using a 360-degree feedback approach with an average of 14 raters per leader (including managers, peers, direct reports, and others), we evaluated each leader’s effectiveness across all 19 leadership competencies. The results were striking: in 17 of the 19 competencies, leaders received significantly higher ratings in areas where they reported having greater passion.

The Natural Advantage of Enthusiasm

Working to enhance skills that energize you feels fundamentally different from developing areas that don’t spark your interest. When passion is present, motivation becomes more organic and sustainable, requiring less rigid structure and external accountability. While discipline-driven approaches remain valuable for stretch goals or situations requiring external motivation, passion creates its own momentum and determination for change.

Our data revealed three competencies where passion appeared to play an especially crucial role:

1. Develops Others. Some leaders derive profound satisfaction from mentoring others and facilitating their growth. As one executive reflected upon retirement, “Seeing some of my direct reports develop and become experts at critical skills brought me great personal satisfaction. I was proud that I could help them develop.” For others, however, development responsibilities feel more like an obligation than an opportunity.
2. Inspires and Motivates Others. This emerges as both the lowest-rated and most critical competency among the 19 we measure. Interestingly, 76% of leaders score higher in driving for results than in inspiration. While driving results focuses on pushing toward goals, inspiration creates pull through energy and enthusiasm. The ability to bring positive energy to work represents a distinct skill that flourishes when aligned with natural inclination.
3. Builds Relationships. Some leaders naturally gravitate toward building deep connections with team members, finding fulfillment in understanding their colleagues on a personal level. Others prefer maintaining professional distance, as illustrated by one CEO who noted, “I never know when I will need to fire one of these people, and I do not want relationships to cloud my judgment.”

Conclusion—Play to Your Passions

Zenger Folkman’s research reveals a compelling truth about leadership development: while discipline can build competence, passion creates excellence. This insight challenges the conventional wisdom that successful leadership requires mastery of every traditional leadership skill. Instead, the data points to a more nuanced and ultimately more achievable path to leadership effectiveness.

The most successful leaders aren’t those who force themselves to excel at everything but  those who recognize and strategically leverage their natural enthusiasms. They understand that passion isn’t just about what feels good—it’s about what makes them extraordinarily effective. These leaders typically follow three key principles:

1. They identify their areas of natural energy and enthusiasm, viewing these not as mere preferences but as indicators of potential excellence.
2. They invest heavily in developing these passion-aligned competencies, creating distinctive leadership signatures that set them apart.
3. They maintain baseline competence in other critical areas while channeling their primary development efforts where passion and potential intersect.

For organizations, these findings have significant implications for leadership development programs. Rather than pushing all leaders through standardized development paths, companies might achieve better results by helping leaders identify and amplify their natural strengths while ensuring they maintain threshold competence in other critical areas.

-Joe Folkman

If you’re interested in learning more about Zenger Folkman’s approach to Extraordinary leadership, download our eBook.