Are passion and energy requirements for the job?

Is having passion and energy a requirement to be a manager?

If you're answering the question out loud I can't hear you, so let me take the liberty of debating both sides of this question.

Yes, passion is a "must" for a member of management. The energy level and enthusiasm employees have for the products and the customers almost always mirrors that of the leaders.

How can a company ask employees to passionately engage customers and create sales if the manager doesn't demonstrate the same behavior? One could argue that leaders must be even more demonstrative than the staff. Even in owner-operated businesses a manager's passion, or lack thereof, directly impacts the team. Passion must be a job requirement.

Now the other side of the coin...

Absolutely not. There is no way you can hold people accountable for passion. What does passion look like? How can you look at person and say they're passionate or not? How are you going to interview for it? How you going to measure it? Do you actually have a "passion" section on the manager's job description and performance review? I doubt it.

We always talk about the importance of passion in leaders, but I wouldn't even know how to coach someone to be more passionate. And is passion a real indicator of true performance? I've seen a number of managers who are passionate about their job but it didn't make one bit of difference in the end results. And isn't that what really matters?

So what do you think? Which side are you on?

I believe both sides are correct. A leader's passion and energy is vital to a store or company's success. At the same time, passion is a quality that really can't be measured. If you can't easily define and measure passion, you can't say it's a requirement.

What you can expect of a manager is that he/she (and that manager's team) demonstrates specific behaviors and actions with every customer. You can define the expected behaviors and actions. You can expect them. You can see them. You can measure them. They either happen or they don't.

That said, I'm convinced that the manager's passion and energy level will determine whether the team wants to do what's expected of them, and if they actually do it. A high performance team starts with a high performance manager.

So yes and no, passion and energy is a requirement to be a successful manager. Aren't you glad I cleared that up?

Here is the key takeaway. I want to hire and promote people I believe have the passion and energy to be great leaders, and what I expect - and reward them for - is their team's ability to deliver what's expected of them. Believe me, they do go hand-in-hand.

So let me ask, do you have the passion and energy necessary to be a great leader?