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How To Lead In That “Just Right” Relationship: The Goldilocks Leader

Mark McCloskey — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 15:30:25 +0000

If you have been following our series on Goldilocks, Porcupines and Chameleons, you will be happy to note that we will fully discuss The Goldilocks Leader in this issue! Attending to the Goldilocks, “just right” relationship between one’s inner core and outer ring may be one of the most important and challenging aspects of organizational leadership. This final installment in this series explores how leaders can stay in the Goldilocks zone and highlights the benefits to their organization

Porcupine-proof your leadership.

Goldilocks leaders “porcupine proof” their leadership by monitoring the inner core to insure that it is the right size and stays vitally connected to the outer ring. This means rigorously evaluating what is allowed to take up residence in one’s inner core—personal opinions and hobbyhorses, stylistic considerations and tactics must be kept out. Opinions and perspectives that do not pass the test of indispensability—they are essential, critical to one’s identity, purpose and mission—are denied space. These belong in the outer ring.

When the inner core is the right size and in right relationships to the outer ring, it infuses the leader’s attitudes, decisions and actions with appropriate flexibility, but without compromising the non-negotiables—timeless principles, essential beliefs, core values and deeply held convictions.

Chameleon-proof your leadership.

Goldilocks leaders “chameleon proof” their leadership by monitoring the outer ring to insure that it is the right size and stays vitally connected to the inner core. This means rigorously evaluating if the outer ring manifests patterns of attitude and behavior that reflect the non-negotiable commitments of the inner core, and in fact put these principles, beliefs, values and convictions to work in effectively engaging diverse people and unique circumstances in a changing world. Expediency for the sake of ease, change for change’s sake, cutting ethical corners, “going along to get along,” and moral relativism find no place in the repertoire of the leader’s outer ring.

When the outer ring is the right size and in right relationship to the inner core, it infuses the leader’s attitudes, decisions and actions with moral conviction, but without becoming detached from real time, real world considerations rendering the leader ineffective.

The Goldilocks leader.

Goldilocks leaders reject the porcupine’s judgmental either-or as well as the chameleon’s casual whatever. When a leader maintains this just right” stance, it unleashes a remarkable blend of qualities critical to sustained effectiveness. The Goldilocks leader manifests a rare mix of deep conviction and situational flexibility, unswerving commitment to principle and unusual insight into the needs and necessities of the moment. They are disciplined and creative, sure of themselves and respectful of others, value driven and open to new learning. They manifest a gentle conviction.

They are passionate without being prickly, confident without being dogmatic and strong without being hard.

They are flexible without being overly accommodating, effective in the moment without compromising timeless principles.

The Goldilocks principle.

The Goldilocks organization is based on the principle, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity, or “Unity in necessary things; liberty in doubtful things; charity in all things.

In organizational parlance, this principle affirms hat there are some things worth preserving at all costs—the organization’s identity, core values and mission—and other things that must change over time if the organization is to stay effective in a changing world—strategy, tactics, stylistic considerations, and perhaps some policies and procedures.

The Goldilocks organizational challenge.

Over half a century ago, Peter Drucker noted that the only way for an organization to protect what is vitally important to its identity and integrity—its inner core—is by innovating, adjusting and adapting—its outer core. While he didn’t use Goldilocks, porcupine and chameleon terminology, his point is the same. If the organization wants to live true to its inner core and stay effective in a changing world, it must give itself permission to adjust, learn and adapt.

This places two challenges before leaders and organizations.

The 1st Challenge

The first is to differentiate the timeless and essential from the temporal and expendable. The identity, purpose and core values of the organization must remain stable, unchanging and non-negotiable.

These essentials must be widely embraced, regularly emphasized, focused on, held dear and not deviated from if the organization is to operate with integrity.

On the other hand, some things must change in response to a dynamic operating environment full of emerging opportunities and threats if the organization is to stay effective over time.

The 2nd Challenge

The second challenge is to apply the essentials in effective ways to real-time, real world circumstances.

Toward this end, leaders must defend the essentials at all costs, while making sure everything else—strategies and tactics, structures and systems, methods and materials, is open to review and at times, revision.

This is easier said than done, as good-hearted, well-meaning and well-informed people may differ on what is essential. Additionally, leaders and organizations must deal effectively with a dynamic and changing world, but without losing touch with timeless principles and core commitments. Again, this is easier said than done, as reasonable people differ on what effectiveness looks like in light of the essentials—one person’s discerning insight into how to deal with a particular situation may be interpreted by another as outright compromise. As always, leaders will need to draw from deep reservoirs of integrity and wisdom to keep themselves and their organizations in the Goldilocks zone.

Benefits of the Goldilocks zone

When an organization operates in the Goldilocks zone, it stays effective without sacrificing its integrity

The “trick?” Goldilocks leaders employ the inner core as a sort of organizational bungee cord, the unbreakable but flexible ties that bind, which allows the organization to remain flexible while remaining true to itself, to adjust, change shape, even dramatically now and then, without compromising its identity, losing its way or undermining its real world performance.

For more information. The 4R Model of Leadership explores two leadership roles that provide a helpful framework for staying effective over time in a changing world. The Direction Setter Role clarifies the non-negotiable elements of the organization—its purpose, core values, mission and the operational framework that supports these. The Learner Role prompts constructive change and adaptation in order to stay effective over time in light of these directional imperatives. The Art of Virtue-Based Transformational Leadership provides a brief overview of these roles. Purchase The Art of Virtue-Based Transformational Leadership today for yourself or a friend.

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Goldilocks, Porcupines, and Chameleons, Part 3B: Uncovering The Chameleon Leader

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 12:56:29 +0000

In our last segment, we pointed out how a chameleon leader may come across as a wise and discerning person, when in reality, a chameleon leader is flexible to a fault, making inappropriate accommodations to the people and circumstances around them.

While the chameleon may be sincere and well meaning, their commitments are as transient as the changing world around them.

They may indeed be savvy and adept in managing the moment, but this should not be confused with genuine wisdom and insight. What the chameleon promises to do today is certainly genuine commitment—today. But today is not tomorrow and tomorrow is not the next day. To quote the 1960’s song by Chad and Jeremy,

That was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone.”

So, stay tuned. Tomorrow is a new today, with new set of circumstances evoking new promises and sincere responses. And the day after tomorrow is another day.

The chameleon leader may indeed be savvy and adept in managing the moment, but this should not be confused with genuine wisdom and insight.

The chameleon orientation was expressed by the portfolio manager of an investment firm in the company’s semi-annual report.

The views expressed in this report reflect those of the portfolio manager only through the end of the period of the report as stated on the cover. The manager’s views are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions (Fidelity Semi-annual Report, April 30, 1998, Targeted International Equity Funds).

So much for guiding principles to chart the course in changing times. While I admire this kind of flexibility in a stock portfolio manager, especially in a dynamic economy, nevertheless, the portfolio manager’s statement to the effect that,

I reserve the right to change my mind at any moment based on unspecified conditions”

did not bolster my confidence and didn’t lay the foundation for an enduring relationship. As an investor, I certainly want my portfolio manager to be responsive to a volatile and unpredictable environment. But I also want to know the core convictions and guiding principles that shape his or her investing. I left the fund.

Not surprisingly, like the porcupine, chameleons don’t make effective leaders.

While the chameleon has no difficulty making promises, they have great difficulty keeping them.

While they are more than capable of attracting others, they find it difficult to sustain these relationships. This is true to form, because the chameleon leader won’t be tied down by enduring commitments. Consequently, chameleons regularly disappoint those who understandably mistake the chameleon’s “sincerity” and “wisdom” as an expression of something deeper and constant—timeless principles or enduring values.

Now that we have uncovered the chameleon leader, we can talk about how to “chameleon proof” our relationships. Remember Goldilocks leaders?

Next time we will discuss how Goldilocks leaders are able to “chameleon proof” their leadership by monitoring the outer ring to insure that it is the right size and stays vitally connected to the inner core.

Finding that “just right” relationship will help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Look back for our final installments of “Goldilocks, Porcupines & Chameleons”.

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Goldilocks, Porcupines & Chameleons – Part 1B: Inner Core & Outer Ring Connection

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 08:33:12 +0000

In our last blog we discussed the three circles that a leader operates within: the non-negotiable, unchanging inner core and his or her contextually generated attitudes, decisions and actions. The leadership challenge is to keep the inner core and outer ring operating in the “Goldilocks zone,” meaning a just right” relationship between the inner core and outer ring, with the “loose-tight” properties working in synch and harmony. Today we will take a closer look at the inner core and the outer rings of leaders.

The inner core.

The inner core is home to a leader’s essential beliefs, core values and defining convictions. It is that which gives an individual substance and a sense of self as a unique, integrated and whole person. In this sense, we could say that the inner core constitutes the “DNA” of the individual. As we will discuss later, this is also true for organizations.

The inner core is the residence of the leader’s higher purpose and the source of his or her moral conviction. As such, it serves as a criterion for decision-making, and the source of leader’s inner strength to stand firm in the face of criticism or opposition.

The inner core is fixed, the center of gravity for the individual, keeping a leader stable and centered during difficult times.

In contrast to the inner core, the outer ring is “loose” and appropriately flexible, generating a wide range of constructive attitudes, decisions and actions necessary to stay effective in changing circumstances.

The outer ring.

From the outer ring, the leader functions with a finely tuned, “contextual reading system” which prompts wise, discerning and timely responses to unique individuals and changing circumstances.

The outer ring calls on the leader to exercise wisdom, creativity, and humility.

The Goldilocks challenge.

The leadership challenge is to keep the inner core and outer ring operating in the “Goldilocks zone,” meaning a just right” relationship between the inner core and outer ring, with the “loose-tight” properties working in synch and harmony. This serves two critical functions. First, when the inner core and outer ring are properly related, the inner core serves as the leader’s spiritual and moral center of gravity, determining the appropriate range of attitudes and behaviors expressed in the outer ring. In other words, even though the outer ring is flexible, this does not mean “anything goes.” Rather,

the inner core provides boundaries for the outer ring, infusing it with enduring values and providing a moral compass to guide daily interactions in a contextually appropriate manner.

Second, when the inner core and outer ring are in the Goldilocks zone, the outer ring serves the critical function of informing the inner core with real world-real time feedback and information relevant to sustained effectiveness. This prompts the leader to exercise wisdom and discernment in the process of applying timeless principles in a timely, context-friendly way; to effectively express one’s enduring beliefs and core values in a transient world.

Looking ahead.

We’ll get to the porcupines and chameleons in the next installments, which explore what it looks like when the inner core and outer ring lose their vital, “just right” connection and the leader wanders outside the Goldilocks zone.

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Goldilocks, Porcupines & Chameleons – Part 1

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 14:38:32 +0000

What is the “Goldilocks Zone” and how can leaders become stronger by getting into sync with it? One of the many challenges that leaders face is to keep the inner core and outer ring, which we will discuss in this blog, operating in the “Goldilocks Zone”, meaning a “just right” relationship with expressing ones beliefs and core values in a complex world.

Twenty-first century leaders face three significant challenges.

First, they must provide for the longer-term welfare and progress of the organization.

Second, they must make sound decisions in a fast changing and complex world.

Third, they must deal regularly with unprecedented circumstances.

This series explores a framework for staying effective over time, making difficult decisions and handling unprecedented circumstances in a manner that:

(1) honors the beliefs, core values and deep convictions of the leader (and organization), and (2) applies these in a wise and effective manner to a wide array of unique situations.

The relationship between the non-negotiable, unchanging inner core of the leader and his or her contextually generated attitudes, decisions and actions can be pictured as three concentric circles.

I call these the inner core, outer ring and context. The inner core is “tight.” By this, I mean that it is home to an unchanging set of timeless principles, core beliefs, enduring values, deep convictions and non-negotiable commitments. The outer ring is “loose.” It is home to a flexible set of timely, appropriate and effective responses to the context. The context is a dynamic and changing set of threats and opportunities, problems and possibilities faced by the leader and organization.

When the inner core and outer ring are in the Goldilocks zone, the outer ring serves the critical function of informing the inner core with real world-real time feedback and information relevant to sustained effectiveness.

This prompts the leader to exercise wisdom and discernment in the process of applying timeless principles in a timely, context-friendly way; to effectively express one’s enduring beliefs and core values in a transient world.

Next week we will take a closer look at the function of the inner core and the outer ring, and explore the dynamic interplay between them.

About the Author: Mark McCloskey Mark is a graduate of Miami University (BA) and Bethel Seminary, Minnesota (MDiv). He earned his PhD at the University of South Florida in the College of Education, Department of Leadership Development. His focus of study was organizational leadership, adult education, and research and measurement.

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Leadership By Magical Thinking

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 14:54:00 +0000

The announcement of a new tomorrow is necessary to begin the journey to the future.

But it is just the beginning. The vision must not only be widely understood and passionately embraced. If it is to be genuinely transforming, it must be effectively executed and powerfully sustained.

There is the leadership work of conceiving and giving birth to the vision. And there is the leadership work of raising the vision to maturity. These are very different challenges. The first involves generating and communicating a picture of the future. While this is hard work indeed, the amount of effort required pales in comparison to the challenge of raising the vision to maturity.

A transforming vision effectively communicated initiates personal and collective movement toward the future. But this movement must be embraced in ever-widening circles of ownership.

This movement toward the future must be powerfully sustained if it is to make a lasting difference in a world set against the realization of the vision.

And here is the theological pressure point as it touches on the imperative of strategic execution. As discussed previously, the power of fiat—bringing new things into existence by our words—is what is termed a non-communicable attribute of God. In other words, there are particular aspects of God’s character and Person that He does not share with His redeemed children. The power of fiat is one of them. We speak, but it does not come to pass. We will but it does not happen. We do not possess the power to control events and shape the present or future by our thoughts and words.

No, not even Spirit-filled followers of Jesus possess the power to bring new realities into being by the speaking of words. Those who think they do—and I have met more than a few—or act as though they should, dabble in what I call leadership by magical thinking.

Leadership by magical thinking happens more than you think, especially among leaders in biblical communities who are gifted at casting a vision.

It plays out like this. The “magical leader” believes that somehow the mere saying of the God-given vision is all that is necessary to bring it forth in the real world.

In other words, it is the thinking that the possession of will and the expression of words are enough to fulfill one’s leadership obligations to the organization or community.

But, the saying of the vision is not a magical incantation. Leaders can speak forth a vision all day but nothing actually happens solely and only because the leader has spoken.

This is not to undermine the power of casting a compelling vision. But it is to say that words must be combined with deeds if things are to change. Spiritual leaders are not telekinetic. If they were, the vision would already be a reality and we could all go home.

Consider this strange-but-true story. The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team called a time out with an 84-82 lead and 18 seconds left in a 1993 college basketball game against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Miami was so intent on discussing what play to run during the time out that players and coaches failed to hear the warning horns signaling the resumption of play. With Miami still in its huddle, the refs gave the ball to Pittsburgh who scored an uncontested lay-up to tie the game and went on to win 86-84. The play may indeed have been brilliant, but they never ran it and lost the game.

Aspiration is not action. Intention is not execution. Hope is not a plan. Readiness is not a result. Brilliant ideas, persuasive words must be translated into concrete deeds to change a world resolutely committed to the status quo.

So, every leader must ask the question, “What are we actually doing to pursue a better future?”

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Leadership & Persistence: The Lessons Of Bamboo

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:20:32 +0000

Sooner or later, leaders confront the three hard truths of persistence.

To review:

(1) Initial success is no guarantee of future success.

(2) There are no shortcuts to enduring success.

(3) Life is hard so those who want to succeed must work hard.

Nothing good comes easy or fast. Life is hard and the leadership journey is doubly hard.

Meaningful accomplishments demand nothing short of brute perseverance and hard work, usually in the face of longer-than-expected delays and crushing disappointments. In fact, it’s not possible to lead effectively apart from the genius of persistence.

In his epic work Columbus, James Russell Lowell reminds us of the necessity of persistence in accomplishing any difficult and important endeavor.

Endurance is the crowning quality, and patience all the passion of great hearts.”

It’s obvious but nevertheless difficult to embrace. When it comes to leading well over time, persistence is at a premium.

In the midst of discouragement and delay, I invite leaders to draw some encouragement from the unusual growth pattern of the bamboo plant.

THE LESSON OF BAMBOO

We are all familiar with bamboo. This largest member of the grass family grows in warm or tropical regions where it often reaches 100 feet in height. Bamboo is native to the southern climates of North America (the kind we use for fishing poles) and grows from fifteen to twenty-five feet.

Like all plants, the health and growth of bamboo is determined by its root system (bamboo roots are called rhizomes). But bamboo has a unique growth pattern. The root system grows as an underground colony (the plants do not grow alone), storing vital nutrients that eventually produce above ground growth in the form of the familiar bamboo cane (the technical term is a culm).

To the untrained eye recently planted bamboo appears to be doing nothing, as there is no visible above ground growth after year one, year two or year three.

However, underground the plant’s maturing root system is busy developing, gathering nutrients and preparing to explode with new growth at the designated time, typically the fourth spring.

THE LEADERSHIP LESSON

The growth pattern of bamboo illustrates the necessity persistence in leadership. The time frame for the growth of bamboo—at least above ground growth—is not measured in weeks or months or even a single growing season. It is measured in years. The underground process of developing a root system, while unspectacular and hidden from view, is nonetheless vital to the health and growth of the bamboo plant. Bamboo takes time to produce results.

Similarly, leadership results take time.

Much like the growth pattern of bamboo, leaders typically experience a time delay between planting in the form of taking prudent, decisive action, and seeing the “above ground growth” of concrete leadership results.

While leaders and the organizations they serve would, of course, prefer it took less time, it’s impossible to speed up the growth process. While decisive leadership acts are necessary—leaders must indeed plant—valued outcomes typically “ripen by degrees,” and eventually arrive only with the passing of the months or even years. Like bamboo, the growing season may be much longer than we envision.

While we indeed reap what we sow, we don’t usually reap when we sow. As Renaissance author and father of deductive reasoning Sir Francis Bacon put it, “In all negotiations of difficulties, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.” “Ripening it by degrees” means that leaders must keep doing the right things in the delay between sowing and reaping knowing that “above ground results” will eventually come, even if it takes until the fourth spring.

Nelson Mandela was an avid gardener in prison. He had decades to ponder the relationship between gardening and the larger, leadership struggle in which he was engaged. In his biography The Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela reflected,

In some ways, I saw the garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life. A leader must also tend his garden; he, too, plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates, and harvests the result. Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed” (p. 490).

When immediate results are few and far between, when patience is tried and hope is put to the test, when leaders are tempted to believe that their efforts have been for naught, only persistence carries the day and the decades. Take encouragement from bamboo. Good things take time.

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Power Of Priority Series: Focusing Your Passion

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:48:53 +0000

Purpose connects us to our reason for living. Passion is the power to live out our purpose. Priorities focus our passion, and order our days and decades to accomplish our purpose.

The dictionary definition of a priority is

that which is granted or assigned precedence in time, order or importance; that which goes first and so demands our full attention.”

A distinction is in order here. There are daily priorities, and there are life-priorities.

Each day brings a number of important “to do’s.” Today my priorities are to work on this blog, go to the bank, meet with a friend for lunch, clean the gutters (why be happy when you can be a homeowner) and walk four miles. Tomorrow my priorities are to mow the lawn, make four phone calls, and work on a syllabus. Daily priorities change with the day.

Life-priorities are our “to do” list for the years, decades and possibly a lifetime. Life-priorities provide a coherent framework within which to focus and organize our investment of passion’s energy. So, our life-priority is our personalized contribution to our generation, shaped and informed by our purpose, and empowered by our passion.

A life-priority is akin to what is often called a life-mission. Webster’s Dictionary defines mission as

A sending out to perform a special duty.”

A life mission is a personalized, special duty that serves as one’s singular focus and unique contribution over the years and decades, and in some cases over a lifetime. Life-priorities can also be understood as life-goals, which are valued outcomes or desired states around which we structure our investment of energy and attention over long periods.

Purpose connects us to our reason for living. Passion is the power to live out our purpose. Priorities focus our passion, and order our days and decades to accomplish our purpose. Whatever we call it, a life-goal, life-mission or life priority, it is what we do over the years with passion and energy to make a lasting difference in areas that deeply matter to us in light of our purpose.

Priorities focus and release the energy of passion in two ways, (1) goal striving and, (2) personalized, life-focus.

The Power of Goal Striving.

Remember our telic orientation? Human beings are created to stretch and strive toward worthwhile ends. If our passion is to be expressed in constructive engagement with the world, it needs a target, a worthy goal. Daily priorities provide this. University of Chicago researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states,

The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile.”

We are at our best when we give our all in pursuit of challenging and worthy goals.
The Power of Personalized Focus. Comedienne Lily Tomlin famously quipped,

I always wanted to be somebody, but maybe I should have been a little more specific.”

The French have a word for this “more specific somebody” Lilly aspired to be. She was expressing her desire to find her métier. The word is derived from the Latin ministerium meaning a minister or one who serves. My métier is the unique and valued service that I offer the world because of who I am and how God created me. It is that for which I am uniquely suited, the distinctive contribution I make to my generation that flows out of my deep identity.

My métier resides at the intersection of my deep identity—my core values, life experience, knowledge, personality, skills, abilities, gifting, all that makes me who I am—and the greatest needs of my generation.

A young Ted Williams walked the streets of San Diego squeezing a rubber ball to strengthen his forearms. He was likely the only person in San Diego—or the planet—doing this. Why? Because his métier was to express his physical talent on the baseball field and one day not only play professional baseball, but also become its greatest hitter. Novelist John Updike wrote of the Hall of Fame player that as a young boy he exhibited “the hard blue glow of high purpose.” We can quibble as to whether playing baseball qualifies as “high purpose” or meets, in Beuchner’s words, “the world’s greatest needs”—as a baseball fan I think it might come close. But you get the idea.

Closer to Beuchner’s idea of convergence is the example of David Livingstone (as in Dr. Livingstone I presume). At the age of ten, Livingstone began teaching himself foreign languages by candle light in preparation for the day he would fulfill his métier as a missionary-explorer. Lest I give you the impression that our métier becomes obvious at an early age, remember that Moses did not find his calling until the age of eighty. William Wilberforce found his—the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of Manners in Great Britain—in his 20’s.

This issue isn’t age. The question is whether we have clarity around our unique calling and contribution to the world.

Do we know what that “something” is for which you will joyfully give everything? As the saying goes,

Blessed is the man who knows why he was born.”

About the Author: Mark McCloskey

Mark is a graduate of Miami University (BA) and Bethel Seminary, Minnesota (MDiv). He earned his PhD at the University of South Florida in the College of Education, Department of Leadership Development. His focus of study was organizational leadership, adult education, and research and measurement.

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Passion Series: How Correctly Defining Passion Will Energize & Define You As a Leader

Mark McCloskey — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 15:43:56 +0000

The term passion is often misused and thus misunderstood.

It is a common misconception that a passion is something we enjoy, or something we are intensely interested in—as in “she is passionate about gardening,” or “he is passionate about baseball.”

This is a misuse of the word. The term passion has its roots in the Greek term pathos, denoting pain and suffering. The Old French and Latin roots of this term mean “suffering, pain or some disorder of body or spirit.” The idea of passion is bound inextricably to that of suffering.

In this sense, passion can be defined as

the strength or power to suffer.

Passion is a three-sided configuration of attitudes and behaviors.

First, passion is an imperative grounded in a noble purpose.

Passion born of noble purpose generates the power to voluntarily suffer on behalf of valued ends. Passion is an inner imperative—it is what we must do in light of our larger purpose, and therefore what we will do—no matter what, even in the face of suffering.

Passion born of noble purpose functions like a “call” that carries with it a sense of necessity, an “inner oughtness.” In the words of Greg Ogden, a sense of call is an “I must do it

Passion is expressed

as a compelling inner force that drives us with energy of its own—like an alien force rather than will power.

Three students from Yale at the turn of the last century illustrated the power of passion. In 1890, Sherwood Eddy, Henry Luce and Horace Pitkin each connected in a personal way with the larger purpose of taking the gospel to China. Sherwood Eddy later recalled how the imperative of passion defined their lives, manifesting itself in the hard work of daily preparation for their mission.

Eddy wrote:

From that moment my life focused upon what seemed to me the greatest work in the world. I too felt I must be a volunteer. I was jarred broad awake: my studies meant more, and even athletics had new meaning. When I would box every afternoon with Pitkin and we would run our daily mile in the gym or open air, we would say, ‘This will carry us another mile in China.’

Ten years later in North China, the Boxers executed Pitkin. The Boxers were an indigenous Chinese religious society that had originally rebelled against the imperial government in Shantung in 1898. They practiced an animistic religion of rituals and spells that they believed made them impervious to bullets and pain. They were a violent group, passionate and confident in their cause. The Boxers believed the expulsion of “foreign devils” like Pitkin would magically renew Chinese society and begin a new, golden age.

Knowing his fate, Pitkin sent word to his wife and infant son in America. “Tell little Horace that his father’s last wish was that he might, when twenty-five years of age, go out to China as a missionary.”

William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, dramatist and prose writer, was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century.

He wrote:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats certainly wasn’t thinking of people like Horace Pitkin when he penned these words. Pitkin and tens of thousands of others in his generation known as the Student Volunteer Movement manifested a passionate intensity in the service of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, often in exceptionally difficult circumstances.

How do we explain this kind of sacrificial commitment? Herein resides an irony. The man or woman connected to a larger noble purpose finds it more difficult not to serve that purpose, even sacrificially, than to serve it.

Counter-intuitively, it takes more energy to hold passion at bay than to express it. Passion seeks release. It must be expressed.

As Greg Ogden notes,

The inverse of the ‘this I must do’ is ‘this I cannot not do.’ If we are called, it takes more energy to suppress the call than to release it and be carried by the inner energy that comes with it.

Passion, then, is the power to voluntarily do what one must, even and especially in the face of suffering in its many forms, ranging from emotional discomfort to physical pain.

Passion is the power of engagement.

When we say that someone is passionate, we mean that they are an energetic, vigorous and vital person who takes on the challenges and opportunities of life brimming with enthusiasm and positive energy. Passion ignites our “telic orientation,” setting us on a course of energetic striving after valued ends.

Passion, vitality and vigor are closely related. The word vitality is derived from the Latin vita, meaning life. The dictionary definition of vitality is “mental and physical vigor.”

Vigor is defined as:

an active strength or energy of body or mind.

Passion, then, is life-energy, or better, energy and strength for fully and enthusiastically engaging the challenges and opportunities of life. Passionate people are action-oriented, wholehearted people, vitally engaged with the full spectrum of life’s ups and downs, obstacles and opportunities.

Passion draws us out of ourselves and into the world. As C. S. Lewis reflected on his conversion to Christ,

“To believe in God and to pray was the beginning of my extroversion. I was taken out of myself…”

To a friend, Wilberforce wrote that his life purpose had given him

a higher sense of the duties of my station, and a firmer resolution to discharge them with fidelity and zeal. He went on to explain his passion for public service. Not that I would shut myself up from mankind (or confine) myself in a cloister. My walk, I am sensible, is a public one; my business is in the world; and I must mix in assemblies of men, or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.

Passion, then, is the energy to engage and shape the world in accordance with our purpose.

Passion is the power of desire. Passion is the expression of our deepest desires. Passion born of noble purpose transforms us. It changes everything it touches, and it touches everything right down to the core of our being, right down to the particulars of our thoughts and behaviors, and the investment of our hours and days.

Passion is the unquenchable thirst, the driving hunger that defines us at the core of our being. American theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards called these deep desires “religious affections” or “holy desires” which reflected a deep longing after God. Jesus spoke of this deep, burning intensity as

hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matthew 5:6).

Passion, then, is what matters to us deeply and continually. Passion won’t let us go. It is that which I must do now, not something I might do when it is more convenient. It is the focused energy of a starving person seeking food or a thirsty person seeking water. If we are thirsty we drink. If we are hungry we eat. It’s that simple. The Sprite slogan was right. Ultimately, we “obey our thirst.

There is a vast difference between our personal preferences or interests, and our passion.

We define our preferences.

Our passions define us.

Interests are what we might do because we enjoy it.

Passion is what we must do because of our purpose.

Passion is the smile on our face, the fire in our belly and the steel in our backbone. Passion ignites us. It connects us. It energizes us to accomplish extra-ordinary things. Passion sets us in motion and sustains us along the extra mile of sacrificial service.