Indelible Adventures: The ultimate question...

Just one more week before my second book signing - Sunday April 26th from 2:00 - 4:00 pm at the flagship Indigo store at Bay & Bloor in midtown Toronto. If you'd like to learn more about Indelible Adventures come visit my website.

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I truly believe that passion is the secret sauce to a happy and successful life and that by its very nature is the difference maker in almost everything we do, whether its in a relationship, hobby or your job it has the ability to soothe the disappointments, as well as heighten the highs all the while keeping you motivated. J

What I find most fascinating is to ask someone about their passions and then sitting back to see the fire in their eyes, the excitement in their voice and the animation of their limbs as they take you on a personal journey that enlivens their very being. It’s an amazing starting place for a conversation especially when you’re getting to know someone as you truly get a candid glimpse into the real person and who they are and what’s most important in their lives.

Over the years I've used the ultimate question in a couple of different contexts but with amazing results each and every time I use it.

As the final interviewer, or “closer” in the numerous hiring cycles that I've been involved over the course of my career in I always ask only one question.

This is what I call the ultimate question, it’s free flowing form deviates from the regular interview framework and thus, allows the interviewee to get beyond the resume to where you see who they really are to hopefully uncover what makes them passionate. I think I personally like the question because of its simplicity: “tell me about something that you're passionate about”.

There were two clear and distinct groups when it comes to answering the question. There were those that were completely stumped, and although they'd often have incredible grades from well known universities, amazing resumes and been a through a rigorous battery of interviews prior to getting to this final hurdle they have no idea what I’m looking for – this confounds and frustrates this group of people. Many ask me to repeat the question, some stammer, others smile nervously all the while trying to stall and figure out what I wanted to hear, or at the very least how to answer it “correctly”…whatever the hell it was this crazy guy was looking for in the first place.

Yet for those that have a true passion they smile broadly and without hesitation launch into describing the depths and nuances of their specific passion at length. You could literally feel the energy beaming from them as they speak about what is most important to them and why. Not only do you feel the energy but you see it manifested in every aspect of their being.

I suppose what I’m looking for is intangible, the essence of who they are and what motivates them because in my mind these are the people that I want on my team. I want to be surrounded by passionate, motivated, and curious individuals that can be coached and molded to perform whatever role I need them to execute. All teams need this type of energy and an infectious “can-do” mentality but finding it can be sometimes difficult.

Over the course of my career I’ve applied the ultimate question in no-business related occasions with great effect as well. In 1995, as the playing coach of the Canadian Australian Rules football team we embarked on a ten-day tour of the UK where we were scheduled to play a number of practice games against various London clubs leading up to the big clash between Canada and England.

After arriving and acclimatizing to the time change I set about getting to know each of the players on the team, given that there were representatives from all of the clubs in the league, some of which I hadn't met prior to the tour and therefore clearly had my work cut out for me given the very short timeframes.

My objective was to understand each of the players, irrespective of whether I knew them well or not on an individual basis, with the intent of getting a feel for the best way to motivate them. Invariably over the course of the week I made it a point to ask each of them the ultimate question, and as usual some laughed whereas others launched right into their passions. Not surprisingly it worked like a charm and I was able to really connect with a core number of players that formed the nucleus of the team, and if I could influence them they would in turn influence the other players given their relationships.

My reasoning was that as we built toward the final game against England I needed a personal connection with each of the players, ensuring that there was a high level of trust between me, as coach and them as players to get the maximum performance from them on game day. The insights that I gained by asking the ultimate question enabled me to understand the key triggers for motivating them each individually. Clearly powerful stuff!

What I didn’t know at the time and which came as a complete surprise but as an enormous boost was the completely bias story that the Times ran the day before the big game. As you would expect they were extolling the strengths of the English team while playing down the touring team as a second rate and under manned squad, but in a way that felt like we were being dismissed as easy-beats.

Armed with this article, which I tore from the newspaper and posted in our change rooms, (so that each and every player could read the story and decide for themselves if they were going to just lay down like the article seemed to suggest) was the perfect prop to use along with the specific conversations I was about to have with the individual players about their opponents, our game plan and how I wanted them to play their position.

As I began my pre-game speech I could sense they smarted from the comments in the newspaper and more importantly their national identity had been seriously called into question. At this point the momentum was already at fever pitch.

Even though we played in front of a large and boisterous crowd that day, I felt that the result was a foregone conclusion from the moment I looked into their eyes during my pre-game talks, I could see and feel the fire and passion as they prepared for the game. Even today, if you ask any of the guys who played that day I think they'd all agree that we were in the zone and no one was going to get in our way of victory.

What I remember most is the connectedness that I felt with each of my teammates and that underlying camaraderie which bound us together over a very short period and how much more I knew about each and every one of them after our tour.

How would you respond to the ultimate question? What are your passions and how does it make you feel when you talk about them?

Something to reflect on... J

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This weeks photos come from my collection of Sydney, Australia that I took a couple of years back. Enjoy!