“Don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.” – Rita Levi-Montalcini
Last week in this space, the conversation was about challenges, and how as leaders we need to prepare for them and purposefully seek them out. Apparently, that hit home with people.
When you talk about challenges and challenging situations, most people have very emotional responses – fear, anxiety, afraid of making a critical mistake, afraid of making any mistake at all, etc. Most leaders are wired with a need to be great, and sometimes we think that greatness means you never mess up.
False. Greatness doesn’t mean you never mess up. It does mean that when you mess up, you learn from it and do better next time. It means that instead of beating yourself up over everything you do that isn’t perfect or doesn’t work out perfectly, you take the lessons from those situations and move forward to bigger and better things. You fix what you broke and move on.
As humans, we’re going to make mistakes whether we seek challenges or not. When we play it safe and try to avoid challenges, our mistakes don’t move us forward. They just frustrate and embarrass us. We’re better off putting ourselves out there and seeking the kinds of challenges that make us better.
What challenges are you purposefully avoiding right now? Most leaders are very busy, but most leaders are very busy in part because the things they’re busy doing are comfortable, and if they’re busy enough with comfortable things, they can avoid the really difficult things that are uncomfortable.
Is that you? Be honest. Look at what you’re doing and where your focus is. Are you doing things that you’ve always done because you’re in a routine? Are you focused on checking some things off a list? Or are you really thinking about what’s most important for your organization? Are you focused on checking the most important things off the list?
Don’t settle for comfortable, challenge-free leadership. Push yourself out there. Make change. Get better. Embrace what’s difficult and keep moving forward.
