Discover Your Passion and Own It

This blog is the eighth in the series, My Top 10 Blunders and How You Can Avoid Them. 

I have always been passionate about what I do. That passion has served me well in building teams and helping communicate a compelling vision. Early in my career (and occasionally today), my passion comes across in a loud voice, or it sounds loud to others. It also makes me appear to be stubborn, which is, of course, a complete misconception. 

My coach’s wisdom keeps ringing in my ears, “a strength taken to excess will become a weakness.” So after some painful feedback, and after I got over my stubbornness, I set out to work on not sounding so loud. 

With coaching and lots of practice, I have learned to use my passion in an intentional, positive way. Passion only works if it is authentic, which is easier for me because as I stated earlier, I’m a passionate person. I have learned to be tentative but quietly confident at the same time.  I have practiced ways to encourage and still leave room for collaboration and other ideas. My coach has also taught me that sometimes questions are more effective in my messaging. 

My advice: Discover and own your passion. Lean into it. Make it who you are and be intentional with how you communicate it and display it. Think passionately yet tentatively. A careful dash of boldness and excitement, well-seasoned with good questions, helped me find a great recipe to influence others.