Right-Size Passion: Cultivate it, Don't Squelch It

Some years back one of my sales directors had been diligently working with online retailers to partner to get our retail product on their websites.  During a one week period she had several very promising phone calls which in turn generated lots of excitement on her part.  The term exuberant couldn't quite capture how she was truly feeling.  She was absolutely giddy with excitement.  More importantly, she landed several very profitable accounts.  Love it!

This situation reminded me about the importance of cultivating passion.  Lots of times an individual or a team can get so taken up with small victories that good sound business logic can take a back seat to passion.  As a leader, it is important that you direct and channel the passion in your team to ensure that your business objectives can still be met.  Let passion run amok and you run the risk of poor decisions being made; squelch passion, and you're likely to sap the energy from your team and not achieve the best possible results.   

Be a voice of reason with your team but do so in an encouraging and positive manner.   Squelch passion and you'll squelch results.