While selecting the winning word was relatively easy for some letters of the alphabet, selecting the winning P-word was quite challenging. Consider the following candidates: passionate, patient, perceptive, persistent, perseverance, personable, perspective, powerful, pragmatic, prioritizes, proactive, professional, progressive, potential, promising, protective, prudent, punctual, and purposeful. Among the P-words, the first in the list is the winning P-word: passionate!
In Why It Matters, passion is an attribute that students in my leadership class included as a required attribute for an exemplary leader.[i] It’s cited by several authors of leadership books. Also, in Why It Matters, I say, “If you’re given the opportunity to assemble a team from scratch, start with character, and end with fit. In between, include diversity, competence, passion, and humility.”[ii]
I also point out, “Angela Duckworth makes a compelling case in Grit for choosing team members based on that trait, a combination of passion and perseverance, not ACT or SAT. She notes, ‘Students in [an experiment] who had higher SAT scores were, on average, just slightly less gritty than their peers. … Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.’
“Passion is critically important in a leadership team. In Rubenstein’s How to Lead, Ken Griffin said he looks for passion and accomplishment in people he hires. Do they love—not like—what they do, and do they ‘have a demonstrated track record of having made good decisions and having accomplished things in their lives’?”[iii]
I go on to observe, “Passion is attitude. Not everyone can hire based on a person’s accomplishments, but you can hire based on an assessment of the candidate’s passion. You want people on your team who are eager, who run toward opportunities, who love what they do, who get up in the morning looking forward to going to work, and who don’t consider what they do a job but a calling.”[iv]
Later, I say, “Margaret Townsend said she looks for people who are energetic, passionate, discerning, and able to embrace reality when adding people to her team. She told the students that, early in her career, she was told, ‘You are not paid to be right. You are paid to make right prevail.’ She emphasized the importance of having emotional intelligence and passion in the workplace. She said, ‘You find out who you are and what you love in the risks you take.’ Townsend reminded the students, ‘You are better at your job if you have perspective and additional interests.’”[v] [underlining P-words added in quotes]
Early in my leadership journey I endeavored to read as many books on leadership as I could. In the process, I became obsessed with excellence. Whether it was creating,[vi] managing for,[vii] in pursuit of,[viii] or in search of excellence,[ix] I needed to have a passion for excellence[x] in everything I did: teaching, speaking, consulting, writing, serving on boards and committees, and leading.
To appreciate the importance of leaders having passion, consider how you would feel if your leader lacked it. Passion, alone, won’t deliver excellence. But if you possess all other necessary attributes for exemplary leadership and you lack passion, leadership can be a grind, it can be boring, it can cause you to ask, “Why bother?” Passion can get you through the tough times, it can haul you out of a rut, it can carry the day. It’s infectious. Possess passion!
By the way, if I hadn’t chosen passion for the winning P-word, I would have chosen prioritizes. One of the greatest challenges for a leader is separating the wheat from the chaff, deciding which tasks are important and which are not important, as well as which tasks are urgent and which aren’t urgent. In Why It Matters, I describe the Eisenhower matrix and point out that Dwight D. Eisenhower used it to manage his time as a military leader and as President of the United States. I note, “Quoting an unnamed university president, Eisenhower said, ‘I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.’ From my years as chancellor, I understand perfectly what the unnamed university president meant.
“Chris Lofgren reminded the students about the importance of knowing what is important, a concept that had been passed down to him by his father. Following it is vital when using the Eisenhower matrix. Everyone is given 24 hours in a day. Some spend their time; effective leaders invest theirs. Focusing on the majors not the minors, being discerning, and maximizing the return on your investment of time and attention are essential.”[xi]
Next: Leadership ABCs—Q
Rules for the game to receive a signed copy of Why It Matters: 1) limited to U.S.A. mailing addresses; 2) limited to a single selection for the word; 3) cannot submit entry sooner than one week before the blog is posted on LinkedIn; 4) be the first correct entry I receive; and 5) send entries to me at johnaustinwhitejr@gmail.com. The earliest you can submit your Q-word entry is 12:00 am, EDT, March 11, 2026; the latest time is 12:00 am, EDT, March 18, 2026.
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[i] John A. White, Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership, Greenleaf Book Group Press, Austin, TX, 2022, p. 35.
[ii] Ibid, p. 180.
[iii] Ibid, p. 183.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid, p. 184.
[vi] Craig R. Hickman and Michael A. Silva, Creating Excellence: Managing Corporate Culture, Strategy, and Change in the New Age, NAL Books, New York, NY, 1984.
[vii] David L. Bradford, David L. and Allan R. Cohen, Managing for Excellence: The Guide to Developing High Performance in Contemporary Organizations, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1984.
[viii] Terry Orlick, In Pursuit of Excellence, 4th edition, Human Kinetics Books, Champaign, IL, 2008.
[ix] Thomas J. Peters, and Robert H. Waterman, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1982.
[x] Tom Peters and Nancy Austin, A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference, Random House, New York, NY, 1985.
[xi] White, p.119.
