I was just the other day having a chat with my daughter about a school project she has picked. I asked her why she chose a particularly difficult and tricky subject when an easier one was available. What she said blew my mind. “I know just about everyone will be picking the easier topics, so if we all take the easy way, who’ll do the difficult things?” she said.
Doing difficult things with enthusiasm is exactly what leadership is about. The first sailors who discovered countries didn’t have a precedent, or testimonials, or comforting advice and tips. Nothing about what they did was easy. But it was worth it. Because they saw, they dared, they dived, they explored, they risked, and they achieved something nobody had.
Leaders are people who take the risk of failure for the reward of having their team succeed. And to be like that, you must be sorted in the head. You need courage, yes, but you also need trust – trust not in others, but in yourselves to be all right with any outcome, so long as you’ve tried your absolute best. But most of all, you need an abiding love for what you’ve taken up.
The role of a leader is to shine the light so others can walk. It’s to clear the cobwebs on the path, to show that even a one-way tunnel becomes a two-way one if you keep digging long enough in the right direction. Leadership is not about getting things done. It’s about doing something with so much interest that others cannot help but come along with you on the ride and make it happen.
They say a leader’s life is a lonely ride. But that is only if you remain at the top without working with others. If you do, it’s the funnest, most rewarding journey there is.
Have a leading month!
