“There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you: wither does it lead? Do not ask, go along it.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
One of the marks of a great leader is the willingness to ask for and accept help from others. Regardless of the topic – people, products, markets, leadership, communication, whatever – great leaders are always looking for opportunities to learn and grow. There is no source too humble that a great leader won’t be willing to learn from it.
Despite that willingness to accept help and instruction, and that constant desire to learn and develop new skills and capabilities, great leaders also know that their decisions are their own. They can accept wise counsel, and learn from great teachers, but in the end, the choices they make are their responsibility. No coach or mentor can make those decisions for them.
As a leader, at some point, you must chart your own path. There’s nothing wrong with reading how some famous leader or entrepreneur found success, but that isn’t going to be what your success looks like. You must figure out what your path is, and then go down it.
Sometimes leaders feel constricted by an organization’s past success. They may take over for a leader who created one positive outcome after another for years. Sometimes that causes leaders to feel like they don’t have “permission” to make changes, or to take a different path.
As a leader, you must be the leader you’re supposed to be, not what somebody else was for twenty years. You must go down the path you’re supposed to travel, not the one that somebody else walked on years ago. Gather enough information and knowledge to make an informed decision, but then make the decision that you think is best. Not the one you think the previous leader would have made.
Think about the choices you’ve made lately as a leader. Are they really yours? Are they really the ones that your heart and soul believe in? Or are they based on what you think somebody else thinks you should do?
Those sound like silly questions, but I see leaders every day making decisions that aren’t truly theirs. As you walk down your path as a leader, make sure it’s really your path. You may not understand exactly where it will go, but at least make sure it belongs to you.
