What is the key to leadership?
What is the key to leading an organization? Church? Ministry? People?
I meet a lot of people who are excited about a lot of things. They get an idea--a thought--and all of a sudden they are excited and want to get after it. The thought is, “I am really excited about this. I will lead it.”
The Medical dictionary defines the word excitement as an emotional state characterized by its potential for impulsive or poorly controlled activity.
Now let’s look at the word “passion”. The dictionary entry looks like this:
Origin:
1125–75; ME (< OF) < ML passiōn- (s. of passiō) Christ's sufferings on the cross, any of the Biblical accounts of these (> late OE passiōn), special use of LL passiō suffering, submission, deriv. of L passus, ptp. of patī to suffer, submit; see -ion 
So, passion is the willingness to suffer for something. Not suffering for a poor decision, for an unkind remark, or for forcing your way, etc…. but because you so believe in something that you are willing to suffer to see it through.
Are you passionate about anything?
Maybe you are excited and not passionate. Excitement isn’t enough to carry you over the long haul.
I shared this with a young leader this past week. He said that he was passionate about a specific thing. I asked him if he knew what it truly meant to be passionate? When he said he wasn’t sure, I told him it means that you are willing to suffer. His response was interesting. He said that suffering wasn’t as pretty as the word passion.
What type of leader are you? An excited leader or a passionate leader.
It makes all the difference in the world.
