In April, 2002 Yo Yo Ma and Condolezza Rice performed a duet during a ceremony in which Ma was awarded the National Medal of the Arts.

It’s no surprise that one of them was a Humanities major in college and the other a Music major.

What might surprise you though is that Condolezza Rice was the music major (she eventually switched) at Standford and Yo Yo Ma was the Humanities major (he received his degree from Harvard)

Often when I talk with college students I try to get them to worry less about their major and more about their passion. I try to convince them that in all likelihood the job they will have when they turn 30 or 40 is probably one that they didn’t even know existed during their college years (except of course for professions such as medicine or law).

Yet I don’t blame them. When I look at job descriptions for entry level or even senior level positions, I often see the same thing – deep expertise and experience in a given field.

Ironically, I rarely find a high performing, high-level leader whose college major would have landed him or her the job or who has deep and long term experience in the technical or functional requirements of their role. Most are just good leaders with a passion for the work they are doing. That’s pretty much what happened with Condolezza Rice and Yo Yo Ma. Despite their educations, they both followed their passions (and had natural talents within them).

Of course, a leader must be competent. However, the leader doesn’t have to be the smartest person in the room or the most technically or functionally competent person in the room. The leader does need to be the most passionate and persistent one.

Who do you look for when filling a position? The person with passion and talent or the one with the right pedigree?

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Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.