I’ve spent my career helping leaders grow into their fullest potential, and here’s something I’ve learned the hard way: If you want to be a strong leader, you’ve got to love business.
Now, before your eyes glaze over and you start thinking about spreadsheets and quarterly reports, let’s be clear—I don’t mean loving profit margins or memorizing financial jargon (though those things matter). I mean loving the challenge, the structure, the problem-solving, the people, the processes. Loving the entire ecosystem of business.
Because if you don’t love it—if you don’t truly understand it and appreciate the wild, wonderful, unpredictable animal that is business—you’ll never lead well in it.
Business Is Everywhere
Whether you’re leading a for-profit company, a nonprofit, a government agency, or a local food co-op, guess what? You’re in the business of business.
Business isn’t just about selling widgets. It’s about how your organization works—how money comes in, how decisions are made, how teams are built, how risks are managed, how people are treated. Even the $24-billion-a-year federal agency my firm has coached? That’s business. Complex, vital, messy, beautiful business.
So yes, business is busy. It’s full of moving parts and hidden connections. You’re not expected to know it all on Day One. But you are expected to care enough to learn it.
I get it—at first, business can feel overwhelming. Especially when the folks around you are tossing around buzzwords like “EBITDA,” “synergy,” or “dimensionalize.” It’s easy to feel small.
Don’t let the vocabulary scare you off. Most of it can be said in plain English, and the substance underneath it is learnable. More importantly, it’s worth learning. Because as your understanding grows, your confidence will grow too. And then, almost like magic, so will your passion.
When you start to really see how the gears turn, how different departments rely on each other, how the right decision at the right time can ripple out across an entire organization—that’s when leadership gets fun. That’s when business becomes an adventure.
The Payoff
You know what happens when you love business?
You stop dreading the grind and start looking forward to the game. Your judgment gets sharper. You recognize patterns faster. Problems don’t paralyze you—they energize you.
You earn respect from your peers. You become the one people look to when things get shaky, because they know you get it. They know you care.
And best of all, you get to do what great leaders are meant to do: build people up. You help your team exceed their own expectations. You give them the tools and support to stretch into bigger, bolder versions of themselves. And you find real joy in watching them grow.
That’s not just business. That’s leadership.
Love Business Enough to Lean
Until you retire, you’ll spend most of your waking hours at work. So why not treat work like the ultimate leadership university?
Every day is a lesson—if you’re willing to be a student. Strategy, forecasting, culture, customer service, motivation, innovation, risk… it’s all there for the learning. The more you engage, the more your curiosity is rewarded.
And here’s the kicker: Curiosity turns into caring, and caring turns into passion.
I’ve coached hundreds of leaders, and here’s something they’ll tell you: Passion is the X-factor. It’s what separates the good from the great. Passion can’t be faked. It comes from being all-in. From rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty, and saying, “I’m here for the long haul.”
Interestingly, the word passion comes from the Latin passio, meaning “to suffer.” Because true passion isn’t always comfortable. It’s not always fun. Sometimes it means giving more of yourself than you thought you could. But it’s in that effort that mastery is born.
If you’re willing to suffer for something—to wrestle with it, grow through it, lead through it—then you’re on the path to becoming a truly great leader.
Passion Helps You Love Business
One of the best leadership moments I’ve seen came during the early months of the pandemic. I was coaching a VP named Lynn. She told me, “It’s been chaotic, exhausting… but it’s also been energizing. I’ve loved watching our leadership step up and actually live the values we always talk about.”
There it is again: Passion. Even in chaos. Maybe especially in chaos.
If you want a fulfilling leadership career—not just a title or a paycheck—you’ve got to love the game you’re playing.
The more you love it, the more it gives back.
Now go lead with passion.
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