“When is personal passion too much?” people ask me. They expect an answer in hours per week or from a certain level of achievement upwards. As usual, the answer is not that simple.  ​

 First, because “too much” is subjective. My marathon training is “too much” in my mother’s eyes, but a light regimen to someone like Leo Denault, CEO of Entergy (a 19 billion dollar public company), who has completed

 several Ironman races. Moreover, it is evolving. It’s been only 30 years since the idea of a woman running a marathon was seen as absurd and self-harming, while today one third of marathon runners worldwide are women. A few decades ago, an intense triathlon training regimen like Bill Demchak’s would have raised questions about his commitment to his CEO role, while today a much-feared banking industry analyst actually approves of it, as “a sign of literal and figurative strength at the top of PNC Bank” . Interestingly, that same analyst draws the line at Ironman participations: that would be too much for a bank CEO. Let’s ask him again about it in a few years’ time.

 Second, and more importantly, because the answer to “when is it too much” is inside us, not in any benchmark or expectation set by our social environment. As research by professor Vallerand, of the University of Quebec and his co-authors shows, passion for an activity can be of two very different types: harmonious and obsessive. Several other studies found that a serious leisure interest practiced “harmoniously” will bring you the benefits demonstrated by research, while an “obsessive” serious leisure interest will not and may even harm your well-being. Now, if you are passionate about your hobby, you are at least a bit worried you might be “obsessive” about it. I will endeavor to “translate” professor Vallerand’s scale of harmonious vs. obsessive passion into a self-test you can take. In the meanwhile, some warning signs may be feeling guilty about engaging in your passion (think playing Candy Crush obsessively) or feeling you cannot not think about it, even when you are in the middle of other important events in your life: if your wife is giving birth and you’re thinking “damn, this was my chance to do the Kona race!”, you might belong in the “obsessive bucket”.

 But even if your passion is harmonious, there will be cases where it will not help your leadership. Read on:

 Can a sustainable personal passion harm your effectiveness as a leader?  (READ MORE)