The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead from Your Heart, Not Just Your Head

By Hans Finzel

Do you do what you love and love what you do? How many of us are stuck in day jobs that really don't suit us? Has our heart left the building? In this short new passion-packed book by Dr. Hans Finzel, you will learn what it means to work in your "passion zone." Hans explains from his own journey, how to find your passion zone and what action steps to take if you are far from that place of fulfillment.

People love following leaders whose hearts are fueled by passion. This book will help you uncover what passion in your work really is, and how to find it, no matter what stage you are at in your career. The advice in this book is especially powerful for anyone in a role of leadership that is experiencing boredom or burn out. Life is too short to settle for less than the best—especially if we are called to lead other people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9780692333488

Book preview

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CHAPTER ONE

Lead From Your Heart, Not Just Your Head

My heart seemed to be battling my head for a long time. In my heart I knew something was wrong, but my head kept telling me to ignore it. I am making a great impact--so what if I am not happy? It came to a head for me one day in my garage at home. I was going on a walk and put on my favorite Life is Good, baseball cap. I noticed that they had sewn their slogan inside the cap, so when you put it on your head you see their message. Do what you like, like what you do. I said to myself, I am doing neither.

It was time for a change. I used to find fulfillment in my career, but not anymore. I needed to start paying attention to my heart. Isn’t it funny how some of the oddest things can speak to us and change our whole direction in life? I guess the important thing is to listen and respond. I am a follower of Christ and find that He talks to me in all sorts of ways. Of course God speaks to me a lot through my Bible. Sometimes He speaks to me at church or through a deep conversation with someone. God uses my wife to speak to me from time to time, and I really listen to that! I love the outdoors and I often sense God’s whisper as I am pursuing my love of mountain biking or am in the hot tub on our deck. But this time it seemed He used my cap. My heart was not in what I was doing for my day job—I was just going through the motions with my head. I had to figure out how to flip my heart and my head…. And there were just two options. More on that later, along with the rest of my story.

Leading from the heart is working and leading from your passion zone. Why does leading from the heart really matter? It can be natural to think, If I am smart enough, gifted enough and work hard enough, of course people will respond to my leadership. I know what I am talking about, because occasionally in my career I put my head before my heart. The more gifted you are, and the smarter you are, the more that this can be a temptation and the easy default. The problem is, that kind of leadership does not inspire people and build deep loyalty. I have noticed just the opposite. People follow people who they know, trust and believe. That trust is built between leader and follower within their hearts. People follow leaders who are operating in their passion zone. There is some sort of a magnetic loyalty that grows in followers who respond to leaders who lead with passion out front. I unpack this zone a lot more in later chapters.

Don't get me wrong. Our heads are important. A lot of great leaders that we love to follow are very smart. I can think of a lot of famous people throughout history that changed the world through their