Good ones fit the situation your team is in. Steve Jobs's "The only way to do great work is to love what you do" works in a career conversation, and the line credited to Mary Kay Ash about a mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm fits the kickoff of a new initiative.
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Passion Quotes for Leaders and Their Teams
These passion quotes are for leaders who want to bring more energy to their team's work, whether that's a call center heading into its busiest season or a project team starting a new initiative.
A good quote gives your people a clearer picture of the point you're making, and it helps the team connect their daily work to the result they care about.
Passion at work tends to follow the leader's own example and how well each person fits their role. Use one of these quotes to open a team meeting or a one-on-one, then connect it to the work your team is doing now or the work they'd like to grow into.
The quotes about passion below are grouped by the situation you're in, from setting the tone as a leader to helping someone find the role that fits them. Each card has a Copy quote button, so you can paste a quote and the name straight into a slide or an email.
Jump To: Leading by Example | The Right Role | Motivation | New Ideas | Keeping Your Passion | Using a Quote | FAQ
Quotes on Passion and Leading by Example
A team tends to match the energy its leader brings to the work, and the leader's enthusiasm shows in how a new goal is introduced and how a slow week is handled. These quotes help the leader set that tone for the team. They fit times like these:
- Kicking off a new initiative the team wasn't expecting.
- The first meeting with a team you just inherited.
- The start of the busiest season of the year.
- A morning huddle after a hard week.
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"A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one."
Attributed to Mary Kay Ash
Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
"The real secret of success is enthusiasm."
Attributed to Walter Chrysler
Founder of Chrysler Corporation
"Enthusiasm is a vital element toward the individual success of every man or woman."
Attributed to Conrad Hilton
Founder of Hilton Hotels
"Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hope shine to the stars."
Attributed to Henry Ford
Founder of Ford Motor Company
"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion."
Attributed to Simon Sinek
Author of Start With Why
Mary Kay Ash's line fits the new initiative the team wasn't expecting, because it reminds the leader that the energy behind an idea affects how far the team will take it. Henry Ford's quote works for the morning huddle after a hard week, when the leader wants the team to start the day with renewed energy and expectations.
Quotes About Passion at Work and Finding the Right Role
People bring the most energy to work that fits their strengths and interests, and the leader is often the first one to see that fit before the employee does. These quotes help the leader start a conversation about where a team member's passion lies and how their role can support it. A few places they work include:
- A strong performer who seems less engaged than they were a year ago.
- A team member who always volunteers to train new hires.
- A career conversation during an annual review.
- An open role on another team that fits someone on yours.
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"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."
Steve Jobs
Co-founder of Apple
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Attributed to Howard Thurman
Theologian and author
"Work is love made visible."
Kahlil Gibran
Poet and author of The Prophet
"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."
Attributed to Oprah Winfrey
Television host and producer
"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
Attributed to Malcolm Forbes
Publisher of Forbes magazine
Jobs's line fits the career conversation in an annual review, because it gives the leader an easy way to ask what kind of work the person would like to do more of. Howard Thurman's quote about asking what makes you come alive works for the team member who always volunteers to train new hires, when the leader wants to talk about building more of that work into their role.
Motivation Quotes About Passion for Team Meetings
Motivation quotes are most useful when they point the team toward something they care about, like the customers they serve or the skills they're building. A leader who connects the quote to that purpose gives the team a reason to keep the energy going after the meeting ends. These quotes work well in moments like these:
- The opening of a monthly team meeting.
- A new team member's first week.
- A team that hit its numbers last month and is starting over at zero this month.
- A change in how the team's work is measured.
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"Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement."
Daniel H. Pink
Author of Drive
"Motivation comes from working on things we care about. It also comes from working with people we care about."
Attributed to Sheryl Sandberg
Former COO of Facebook
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."
Attributed to Jim Rohn
Author and speaker
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
Attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Author of The Little Prince
"If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do."
Attributed to Frederick Herzberg
Psychologist who studied motivation at work
Daniel Pink's line fits the change in how the team's work is measured, because it gives the leader a reason to ask the team how they'd like to reach the new goal. Saint-Exupéry's quote works for the monthly team meeting, when the leader wants to talk about the purpose behind the work before reviewing the numbers.
For a short video to pair with a quote, see the free Motivational Video Clips.
Passionate People Quotes for New Ideas
Passionate people are often the ones who bring new ideas to the team, and the leader decides whether that idea gets a fair hearing and the support to give it a trial run. These quotes help the leader back the person behind the idea. A few places they work include:
- A team member proposes a better way to handle a common customer request.
- An employee asks to pilot a new process with one small group.
- Someone volunteers to lead a project outside their normal role.
- A new hire brings an approach that worked at their last company.
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"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion."
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
German philosopher
"To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."
Attributed to Anita Roddick
Founder of The Body Shop
"When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible."
Attributed to Howard Schultz
Former CEO of Starbucks
"It's always the challenge of the future, this feeling of excitement, that drives me."
Attributed to Yoshihisa Tabuchi
Former president of Nomura Securities
"Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate."
Attributed to Jon Bon Jovi
Musician
Hegel's line fits the team member who volunteers to lead a project outside their role, because it gives the leader a short way to say that kind of energy is worth backing. Howard Schultz's quote works for the pilot, since it puts the focus on the small group who share the commitment to making the new process work.
Quotes About Keeping Your Passion for the Work
Passion for the work can fade for people who have done the same job well for years, and the leader is often in the best position to help them find a new challenge that will keep the work they do interesting. These passion quotes help the leader open that conversation in a positive way. They fit times like these:
- A ten-year employee whose work is solid but routine.
- A team member who has mastered their role and has room to grow.
- A leader planning their own development for the coming year.
- A team coming off a long project with nothing new on the calendar.
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"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
Attributed to Charles Kingsley
Author and clergyman
"Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire. You can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away."
Attributed to Denis Waitley
Author of The Psychology of Winning
"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being."
Attributed to Albert Schweitzer
Physician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Attributed to Pablo Picasso
Painter
"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."
Attributed to Julia Child
Chef and television host
Albert Schweitzer's line fits the conversation with the ten-year employee, because it describes the role a leader can play in helping someone find new energy for the work. Julia Child's quote works for the team member who has mastered their role, since it points the conversation toward the next thing that interests them.
How to Use a Passion Quote with Your Team
Passion quotes land best when the leader follows the quote with a question about the work the person enjoys most, then makes room for more of that work in their role.
KEVIN'S ONE-ON-ONE WITH ANA
Kevin manages a fourteen-person inbound call team. Ana, one of his steadiest reps, kept volunteering to sit with new hires on their first calls. In her one-on-one he read Howard Thurman's line about asking what makes you come alive and asked one question: which part of your week gives you the most energy?
Ana said it was coaching new hires. Kevin set aside two hours of her week as the team's new-hire coach. New reps reached the team's 85% quality score in four weeks instead of six, and Ana's own quality score stayed at 92%.
Six months later Ana applied for the department's open trainer role and got it.
Kevin used the quote to open a conversation about the work Ana enjoyed most, then gave her room to do more of that work. Kevin lost a strong rep to the training team, and the department gained a trainer who was already making new hires better.
For more quotes sorted by topic, see the leadership quotes for managers, and for picking a quote that fits your message, see Famous Leadership Quotes.
More for Leaders
To find the work a team member is best suited for, the free StrengthsFinder Results Template puts each person's top strengths on one page, and the Role Clarity Template helps you shape their role around them.
When the team's energy turns into a big result, the achievement quotes help you recognize the people behind it.
Passion Quotes FAQ
The questions below address what leaders most commonly ask about passion quotes.
Click on the (+) sign below to expand each question. Click the (-) sign to collapse it again.
What are good passion quotes for work?
What are good motivation quotes for a team meeting?
Look for quotes that point the team toward a purpose. Daniel Pink wrote in Drive (2009) that "control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement," and the line credited to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry about teaching people to long for the sea fits a meeting about why the work matters.
How can a leader help someone find their passion at work?
Ask which part of their week gives them the most energy, then look for ways to build more of that work into their role. The free StrengthsFinder Results Template and Role Clarity Template help you put that conversation on paper.
What's the difference between passion and motivation?
Passion is the interest a person brings to the work, and motivation is the reason they act on it on a given day. A leader can support both by matching people to work that fits them and connecting each goal to a purpose the team cares about.
What does "Attributed to" mean on these quotes?
It means the quote is widely credited to that person, but there's no dated source behind it, like a book or an interview. Every quote without it traces back to a source you can cite.
Who said "Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion"?
The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, published in 1837. It's often mixed up with Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," from his 1841 essay Circles.
More Leadership Quotes
Richard Gorham has led teams in financial services for more than 30 years, from retail branches and operations to investments and insurance, and he still leads a team today.
He founded Leadership-Tools.com in 2002 to give managers free, practical tools like the ones he used in his various leadership roles. Every tool here has been used in a real workplace and comes with a filled-in example you can follow.
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