Passion versus Profession

My favorite interview question never starts “Tell me about a time…” It simply is “What motivates you?” Passion trumps all the other factors we labor over in deciding what will make people successful. When I lead strategy processes, it is with the passionate that I have the most productive experiences and best results, always.

2 weeks ago I stood in front of a school building with 2 clearly different landscapes in front of it. Then I had the opportunity to speak with a parent who told me about the first grade's excitement to learn about plants, which led to a permit request to City Hall to till the land in front of the school. She told of the efforts to plant sunflowers and how that ended when rodents got to the plants, and a second try after the children, parents and teachers erected a small fence around the plants. It was heartwarming story of vision, despite adversity.

4 feet away from the tiny tots' labor of love was the handiwork of the professionals who have a contract for the grounds. Well, see the pictures...

What kinds of teams do you build? Those of experts who do the minimum necessary to call their work done, or those who truly commit themselves to a vision, fueled by the satisfaction of achieving versus the motions of doing? #RealWinTips