“There is no innovation and creativity without failure.  Period.” – Brene Brown

Virtually everyone would agree that being a leader is huge challenge.  There are people to manage both internally and externally, there are customer issues, technology changes, and on and on.  A list of things leaders deal with would take up an entire page.

And yet, so many leaders seem to think they’re supposed to be perfect.  They act as though they’re expected to address all of those issues without ever making a mistake or looking foolish.  Some of them refuse to even so much as ask for help.

The reality, of course, is that the only way you can possibly go through life mistake-free is to never attempt to do anything.  You can never try new things, you can never make change, you can never experiment, you can never do anything that makes you uncomfortable.  And those are all things that leaders must do.

I’ve never met a leader who admitted to avoiding anything that might make them look weak or “not good enough”, but their actions admit it for them.  Look in the mirror.  Are you that leader?

When you’re faced with a challenge and you aren’t 100% sure of the solution, do you freeze?  Do you pretend that challenge doesn’t exist?  What about if you know the solution but you aren’t sure you’re capable of executing?  Do you just avoid the whole thing altogether?

It doesn’t feel good to say it, but most of us do at least some of that from time to time.  For all of our talk about addressing things head on and being authentic and communication and everything else, fear is still one of the most powerful motivators, and it stops us in our tracks.

As a leader, you have to confront uncomfortable things.  You have to have conversations you don’t really want to have.  You have to try things without knowing exactly how they’ll work out.  You have to take action knowing that it might not be the right action to take.  You have to ask for help even though everyone will know you don’t have the answer.

Leadership is hard, and it’s not getting any easier.  You have to embrace that challenge, own your fears, and then move ahead anyway.  If you can’t or won’t do that, then you aren’t leading.