Passion & Perspective Trumps Proficiency

Sometimes the Super Bowl match-ups aren’t very compelling. But for me, Super Bowl XLIV (Colts versus Saints) was worth the watch. Why, because the off-the-field stories are so inspiring – especially for the Saints. This team rallied behind a community in turmoil – New Orleans in post Hurricane Katrina – and the community in turmoil rallied behind the team. The team and the community needed each other in order to heal. Drew Brees, the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, was presented as the face of healing for New Orleans. A Super Bowl victory would mean the world to Brees and to New Orleans.

As I watched Brees in his Super Bowl pre-game and post-game interviews, I observed his category 5 heart, his mission-minded mentality, and his passion for victory. You see Brees’ passion in his eyes and in his voice. He seems to have a strong and enduring will that has been born out of setbacks such as his potential career-ending injury while with the San Diego Chargers. How closely those attributes resemble the community of New Orleans.

When Brees reflects on his journey to Super Bowl XLIV, he talks a lot about perspective and how perspective has helped him find peace and develop strength. After seeing the devastation in New Orleans firsthand, there wasn’t much more that could rile Brees. His new perspective would help him fight through adversity and his passion would inspire others to do the same. And his passion and perspective helped him and his team defeat a very proficient Peyton Manning and Colts team.

This is a common observation in leaders. Leaders with passion and perspective outperform leaders who rely on proficiency alone. Influential and inspiring leaders just seem to outperform skill-set leaders – acknowledging the obvious point that these attributes aren’t mutually exclusive. What we can learn from Drew Brees is that passion and perspective matters in our leadership, in our performance and in the results.

Congratulations Who Dat nation!

Tags: bowl, brees, drew, football, hurricane, illustration, Leadership, manning, new, Orleans, passion, perspective, peyton, saints, super

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