I’d like to start this blog with a very simple truth: Enthusiasm is power. Especially important in an era of leadership and the problem of employee engagement, enthusiasm matters big time! We study what we do to engage our team members, we measure their “engagement” (read: enthusiasm for their work) and are often left scratching our heads.

I’d like you to step back for a moment and just reflect upon this statement: Enthusiasm is power. It applies across all traditional achievement metrics that might be applied to work as we know it. It was while writing my most recent book that I discovered both the power of enthusiasm – as well as our own capacity to actually generate and direct that enthusiasm.

What first woke me up to the idea was one writer’s blog that described how much her creativity and productivity rose while writing sections she was excited about (read: enthused about), and how it dropped like a rock while she was working on the sections that were less interesting to her. The revelation I had in considering her thoughts was that we can generate enthusiasm … at will! We can bring it to the task – with purpose, and on purpose.

When writing my most recent book, I discovered that when I listened to my Kruger Brothers station on Pandora before I sat down to write, my productivity (literally – the number of words I wrote per hour) and the quality of my words (based on my own assessment of them) went up dramatically. I now intentionally bring this approach to all of my work; I amp up my own enthusiasm prior to starting. I’m aware of it, too; I know I’m doing it when I do it – and it still works! The quality and quantity of my output accelerates in direct correlation to my enthusiasm. It ain’t magic, but if it is, it’s because I made it so!

I’m presenting this simple truth because I want you to consider and remember that you control that capacity to increase your own output. It doesn’t reside within the activity – you bring it to the activity. Enthusiasm is power. Don’t be caught without it!

Let’s do something different – we can’t help but get better:

1. Experiment: Discover through trial and error what gets you enthused to produce. It can be totally unrelated to the task itself. Is it exercise or movement, a short interaction with a colleague, or just some music in your ear buds? Find it!
2. Spread the love: Send this blog post to one of your team members. Ask them to discover their own path to enthusiasm. It lies within them, not you.