How Much Does Passion Influence Performance?

One of the authors, in his freshman year of college, received a track scholarship.  He loved running, but mid-way through the winter semester, he developed a fatigue fracture in his tibia.  Any pressure on that leg produced severe pain. His coach realized he needed to continue physical exercise to keep in shape and recommended regular swimming.

Besides playing around in the pool, the author did not enjoy swimming. When faced with a swimming workout, he inevitably found a way to skip the workout in the pool. Eventually, this ended his potential career as a track star. His lack of passion for swimming severely curtailed his ability to stay in top shape.

This anecdote illustrates a fundamental question in performance management: How much does passion truly influence performance?

The Study: Passion and Leadership Competencies

As a rule, most people believe that they will be more skilled in the competencies they prefer. As part of a leadership development experience, we asked 4,164 leaders to select six competencies from a list of 19 to identify those where they had a great deal of passion and excitement. 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. Competencies you feel most passionate about typically feel more natural, require less effort, and you often lose track of time when you are engaged in them.” We wondered if the competencies people selected in this process would be rated more positively by others they worked with in the organization. We then compared these selections to 360-degree feedback collected on each leader, with an average of 14 raters evaluating their effectiveness on the 19 leadership competencies.

When Does Passion Most Influence Performance?

 Some skills are easy to perform well regardless of whether a person has a great deal of passion. Some activities have a built-in, intrinsic reward.  For example, for many people, solving problems is fun and sometimes addictive. Millions play one or more of the NYTimes games every day. Many people enjoy solving problems because of the built-in challenge. They thrive on winning the competition, and this seems to elevate their passion for playing the game. There are other skills where performance is improved greatly due to an initial interest that blossoms into passion.

Developing others is an excellent example of such a skill. Those passionate about developing others thoroughly enjoy helping others grow and learn new skills. They love to teach. Those who lack this passion see teaching someone else how to handle a challenging situation as glorified babysitting.

 The Top Competencies Influenced by Passion

In the table below, we compared the total effectiveness ratings of all raters (e.g., managers, peers, direct reports, and others) on the 19 leadership competencies, comparing those who selected the competency as one of the six where they had the greatest passion to those who did not select the competency.

Our research demonstrates conclusively that a person’s passion for an individual competency has a significant influence on their ability as measured by the rating of others. In fact, 17 out of 19 competencies showed statistically significant differences between those who selected them as passion areas and those who didn’t.

These are shown in descending order. Passion made a bigger difference for those competencies at the top of the list compared to those at the bottom.

Importance of Passion in Descending Order

The competencies at the top of the above table are those where having passion plays a bigger role in the effectiveness of leaders in performing that competency.

This data shows that developing others, inspiring and motivating, and building relationships are three competencies in which having a strong desire and more passion significantly improves a leader’s performance. Each of these requires more developed interpersonal skills, not just cognitive abilities.

Demographic Differences in Passion

Our research also uncovered interesting trends related to age, gender, and organizational position:

Age Impacts Passion:

• Older professionals tend to have more passion for integrity, inspiration, and customer focus.
• Younger professionals show more passion for problem-solving, relationship-building, and learning agility.

This suggests a need for cross-generational mentoring and knowledge sharing within organizations.

The Impact of Age on Passion:

Gender Differences:

• Women tend to have more passion for collaborative and relationship-oriented competencies.
• Men show more passion for problem-solving, strategic thinking, and risk-taking.

These findings highlight the importance of diverse teams’ ability to leverage different passion areas.

How Gender Impacts Passion:

Organizational Hierarchy:

• Those at higher levels generally possess more passion and enthusiasm for their work than those at lower levels.
• Higher-level employees show more passion for strategic and decision-making competencies.
• Lower-level employees have more passion for relationship building and technical skills.

This indicates a need for targeted development programs at different organizational levels.

How Organizational Hierarchy Impacts Passion and Enthusiasm:

Implications for Business and HR Professionals

These findings offer a transformative lens through which to view talent management. Imagine a paradigm shift where passion becomes a key metric in your talent acquisition strategy, complementing traditional assessments of skills and experience. This approach cascades through the employee lifecycle: development programs evolve into passion-centric growth opportunities, succession planning becomes an exercise in aligning organizational needs with individual enthusiasm, and performance management transforms into a personalized journey of passion-driven excellence. The ripple effects are profound: as employees find themselves in roles that ignite their passions, engagement soars, potentially revolutionizing your retention strategies. Moreover, by strategically leveraging these pockets of passion, organizations can spark innovation and navigate change with more agility. In essence, this research doesn’t just suggest tweaks to existing HR practices; it invites a reimagining of how we cultivate and harness human potential in the corporate sphere.

The CPO Framework for Leadership Development

Passion plays a critical role in an individual leader’s ability to develop leadership skills. Our earlier research revealed that leaders do not need to be highly competent in every leadership competency to be effective. Leaders with profound strengths (at the 90th percentile) in only three of the 19 competencies were measured at the 81st percentile in their overall leadership effectiveness. Those with five profound strengths were at the 90th percentile overall.

Based on these findings, we advise leaders to focus on building profound strengths in just a few competencies. To choose the best competencies for development, leaders need to consider:

• Their personal level of passion (P)
• The organization’s need for that competency (O)
• Their current level of competence for that behavior (C)

We call this the CPO framework. When all three elements come together, they form the leadership sweet spot—an ideal strength to develop further.

Conclusion—How Much Does Passion Influence Performance?

This research demonstrates conclusively that a person’s passion for a competency has a significant influence on their ability as measured by the ratings of others. For business and HR professionals, understanding and leveraging this connection between passion and performance can lead to more effective talent management strategies, improved leadership development programs, and ultimately, better organizational outcomes.

By aligning roles with passions, fostering environments that nurture enthusiasm, and developing targeted programs that consider individual passions alongside organizational needs, companies can unlock the full potential of their workforce and drive superior performance across all levels of the organization.

-Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman