My colleague and co-blogger, Bill Sheridan, is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and has managed to get tickets to see an upcoming concert, so this post is for you, Bill.
I have to confess that I always been a fan of Tom Peters, and this is from his blog post titled 100 Ways to Succeed: No. 132, in which he lays out The Boss’s 6 Ps:
- Passion!
- Persistence!
- Partners!
- Performance!
- Painstaking!
- Presence!
He continues the discussion on his post, Excellence! Period! I think Peters is on to something. I think the first two points — passion and persistence — matter most. This is what every organization strives for — passionate people who care about the mission and the customer / member, and persistence … well, that is what it takes to survive in these rapidly changing times. Springsteen has been around a long time in the music business, and at 58 years old he finished the 95th performance of his current tour when Peters saw him at Gillette Stadium in Boston.
Peters referenced a review of the concert by W. Zachary Malinowski, who wrote, “(Springsteen) pours his heart and soul into each performance as if he is trying to convince each ticket holder that this is an event he is going to make you remember the rest of your life. If you didn’t like the last song, well, he’s going to play the next one even HARDER!”
The thing is, we all know it when we see passion, heart and soul. It is also contagious — to co-workers, colleagues and, most importantly, customers.
The second thing is that it is inside all of us, waiting to be unleashed. I am immediately reminded of the FISH guys I saw a few weeks ago while in Seattle (see my post, What can FISH teach us about accounting). They had the same heart and soul while throwing around stinky fish. So don’t tell me this level of passion is reserved for rock ‘n roll stars. As the FISH guys say, you can choose your attitude and you can choose to make someone’s day.
Imagine coming to work everyday with a team that puts its heart and soul into it like The Boss. It would be fun to work in that kind of place, and it would create a great customer/member experience.
Try choosing your attitude today when you come to work and try to make someone’s day. Then let me know how it works …
PS: In case you didn’t notice, both Bill and I love music and have a few posts in which we make the leap from music to business. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Turning good to great…by being great yourself (featuring harmonica player Patrick Williams and Big Al Carson in New Orleans)
- Leadership lessons from The Maestro (featuring famous maestro/conductor Itay Talgram)
- Leadership lessons from Eric Clapton (from a Clapton concert in Las Vegas)
What are you doing to get people passionate about your organization and mission?