The world is a tough place.
Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we all try hard to survive – physically and emotionally.
If you’re not conscious of staying alive, you’re privileged.
Or maybe naïve.
Survival as a leader might not involve physical safety but does include success, or maintaining your position.
If you’re not conscious of survival as a leader, you’re also privileged.
Or maybe naïve.
Or maybe you’ve learnt how to play one of the games leaders play…
Surviving as a leader doesn’t inspire a lot of leadership articles, but it does occupy a lot of leaders’ minds.
The problem is it’s hard to grow when you’re fighting to survive.
When all you’re thinking about is just surviving.
The issue isn’t whether you want to survive as a leader or not, but how you balance your survival instinct (the time it takes and the behaviors it creates) with the need to lead a team.
The game that leaders can play to get the balance right is to deliberately emphasize purpose, or Mission, when they think about survival.
Not just to the team, but to themselves.
History is full of great inspiring leaders who led their people out of crisis by setting a clear, strong mission.
One they believed in.
“We shall fight them on the beaches…”
This is not a secondary issue of style or rhetoric but a core leadership skill.
The key is that a sense of Mission can’t be faked.
It has to be felt and acted out by the leader 24/7.
Not just to be credible, but to ensure that the leader is thinking about the Mission.
Thinking more about the future than immediate survival.
In the early hours of the morning when healthy people are sleeping.
Maybe not visible to the team but playing out in small decisions.
Having a long term Mission allows a leader to withstand short term mistakes & setbacks.
The point is not to pretend you don’t have doubts, but to channel energy into future vision or mission.
To put your doubts into context.
To see them as steps on a path, not a cliff you’re about to fall off.
..”History is full of great inspiring leaders who led their people out of crisis by setting a clear, strong mission…one they believed in…”
Do you think about your survival, as a leader?
Does it show in how you lead?
Or do you balance your thinking with a vision for the future?
What keeps you awake at night?
Where are you in the game between Survival and Mission?
.
.
“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”