8 Principles of Passionate Leadership (Part 3 of 3)

On Friday, August 11, I presented a message on the 8 Principles of Passionate Leadership so I am sharing those principles with you through the POP blog. Today’s final two principles are two that I consider the most important in leadership and in life.

7. Passionate Leaders Set a Standard of Excellence. If you take shortcuts, so will those who follow you. If you are burned out, your employees or volunteers will be as well. If you put out a subpar effort, that sets the standard for the people who are watching you.

In 1994, I was a sports reporter covering the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. My photographer and I were responsible for three reports daily and went live every night at 1:00 a.m. Lillehammer time. While it was the assignment of a lifetime, the schedule was grueling. The temporary housing built for reporters had paper thin walls so there was no privacy. The media housing was also off the beaten path so the commute to our stories took a chunk of the day. We were told to do feature stories away from the events so we had to constantly be creative. We edited the pieces in a large room with a sea of other reporters from the network and other CBS affiliates. We could have easily complained about the conditions and the schedule, and done a subpar effort. However, we desired to set a standard of excellence and worked very hard in the time we were in Norway. Rest came later.

Colossians 3:23–24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

8. Passionate Leaders Never Give Up. Tenacity and a can-do spirit speak volumes to those who are watching you. It is my belief that the failures in our lives result in the biggest blessings. These “detours” can move us to places we would have never gone if we were not forced to make a change.

In my first sports television job in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I was taken off sports after a year on the air. The News Director told me research was showing the older male audience was not accepting a female sportscaster. I was given one month to prove myself as a news reporter. This was heartbreaking at the time because my dream was to be a sports anchor. I had no interest in news and could have given up at that point, but I decided to press on.

My first assignment was the World’s Fair in Knoxville where I reported  from the Fair every day for a week. My work was good enough to hold onto a job. A friend of mine was the morning news anchor and was tired of getting up at 3:00 in the morning to do the news, so she handed me her script one day and I filled in without asking management for permission. They were shocked that a sportscaster could anchor the news! I became the morning news anchor, was later promoted to weekend news anchor and after a time, started filling in for sports again. Those sports resume tapes helped me land a sportscasting job in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas.

What if I had given up? I would not have continued on sixteen more years as a television sportscaster. When I left the small screen for good, it was once again difficult, but led to more time to do ministry, and an eventual calling to full-time ministry through Pearls of Promise.

Are you in a situation where you feel like giving up? God wants us to persevere because there is a reason for our suffering. He may be teaching us something, or moving us to another assignment. Romans 5:2–4 says, And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Passionate leaders never give up. They just ask, “What’s next?” (LBW)