Leadership Isn’t Tough

Author: Dave Crisp

10 Nov

Gregg Thompson writes, in the newsletter for Tom Peters’ spin-off "Blue Point Development" that we shouldn’t believe all those articles we see promising leadership "secrets." He’s right to point out there aren’t really any secrets. We know what there is to know, but he goes on to explain why so we see so many of these articles by saying we know all about leadership, but, "It’s just tough, and we’d like to find an easier way to do it."

I beg to differ. I rarely found leadership tough at all. In fact, I often felt I had one of the easiest jobs in the world. What’s tough is to struggle under bosses who don’t let you do anything, who constantly dish out orders and keep you from leading or doing anything your way. I was lucky that most of my bosses over the years didn’t exert that sort of strangling control. And I worked steadily on ways to get out from under that sort of supervision.

The key to leadership is that you have to have a clear point of view of your own, not someone else’s. You need to pursue it steadily, not change directions constantly as many managers and companies do. Not everyone will buy in initially, so you have to persuade, convince people with small results demonstrating reliability along the way. And along with persistence, you have to listen and adjust to incorporate what others need to see along the way while still moving in your chosen direction.

The balance between stubbornly persisting along your own route and incorporating others’ opinions is the big challenge. Fortunately you don’t have to be perfect. There will be times when you annoy people by sticking to your way and other times when you accuse yourself of being wishy-washy because you gave in to easily on some key point. If you constantly pay attention and remember that you are stretching the envelope, you’ll notice these and adjust continuously without ever giving up on your overall objective.

That probably sounds tough. It really isn’t. It just takes focus – paying attention consistently and not forgetting where you’re trying to get to. It becomes habit, pushing slowly, but steadily toward your goal while doing your best to take others along with you. At times progress will seem slow or non-existent. At others you’ll be startled by major leaps forward. Either way, you mustn’t give up your efforts to move forward step by step (I’d use the word "slogging," but that makes it sound hard and it isn’t). Just persist steadily at a pace and pressure level you can comfortably sustain. Make sure you get distractions and relaxation in there to recharge your batteries. The end result belongs to those who keep going, not those putting in the greatest one-time effort. Enjoy the journey. You only pass this way once.

Bookmark and share this post