If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know by now that it doesn’t freak me out being wrong. In fact, I don’t care about being perfect. I’m not saying I don’t want to be any of these but that I work on them while on the go.
I apply this to both life and leadership. I have choked. I’m likely to choke at some point again… Leaders will choke.
Choke
By choking I mean, those times leaders are at the moment when they’re supposed to be deliver, to lead and they simply fail. Sometimes this is not due to their inadequacy or inability to lead… Just other reasons
Training / Prep
Leaders, you don’t rise to the level of the occasion, you fall to the level of your training and preparation. Leaders choke when they never prepare or train for what they need to achieve.
Organizational health depends heavily the leaders’ health. This means constant training, learning and growth, which every leader must be responsible for.
Perfect
Leaders often choke because of the pressure they put on themselves, to be perfect. It is worrying to meet leaders that aren’t concerned with perfection. However, this is something that must be done with perspective.
I work on excellence and perfection with each endeavor. I have the same approach to most things in life and leadership now.
I know that I’m no perfect leader. Hence this blog and, the notes to myself. How I mess up as a leader and the notes I write to remember not to make the same mistakes.
Too many leaders put so much pressure on themselves due to a warped perspective on perfection.
Shock
I’ve been that leader. The one who’s choked because he was totally blind-sided. I’m not talking about one of those things that completely blind side you, I’m talking about those things you should’ve anticipated.
Obviously you will feel like this with each surprise… However, make sure you call your team and do what you can to anticipate possible challenges. When you have, go ahead with what you need to; with whatever contingencies you managed to come up with.
If you get surprised, get choked, and then move on.
Vision
Vision is a great thing. When people have a clear sight of where they are going it is easier for them to move. However, every now and then leaders choke when they’re confronted by the grandiosity of their vision.
If your vision never freaks you out, causes you to break out in cold sweats and suffer insomnia, it’s not worth pursuing. This is a good choke, if it doesn’t paralyze but spur you to push ahead.
Real
This one is a bad choke. When leaders choke when they are called out by the team for demanding something of their team that they’re either not doing or setting on themselves as a standard…
Thus they lose the authority to demand or expect anything from those they lead. Leaders without integrity hardly have, if any, authority to lead.
#07
Mind adding number seven… Ever choked as a leader? What chokes or trips leaders?