For continued effectiveness, heretic leaders need to be constantly growing. The greater you grow the greater your ability to not only challenge but shatter inhibiting status quo. Growing leaders are bolder with each endeavor. Growth of leaders will always translate to greater impact of the cause they champion. Leaders can get consumed with tweaking the machines that enable their vision and take themselves out of the equation. As a leader, you must realize that you are an integral and fundamental part of the machine that determines the impact of your cause.
The first area of growth for heretic leaders must focus on is themselves. When you grow the leader, you grow his vision. His vision in the sense of capacity to see more clearly… Planning on enabling your vision to be realized in the future is incomplete if it does not include plans to grow yourself as a leader. One of the greatest inhibitors of your vision is your growth, or lack of it. It is how intentional about your growth. It is the pace at which you grow.
As much as heretic leaders push restraints to their vision, they push restraints to their growth. As much as you challenge the status quo of your organization, industry or any other area of focus, you must allow yourself, as an individual, to be challenged as a person and leader. It is arrogance to challenge others for change when we, as leaders, cannot do that with ourselves. The essence of self-leadership is being open to scrutiny of ourselves and our environment to point out areas of growth.
It is arrogance and hypocrisy to challenge others for change when we, as leaders, cannot do that with ourselves
Heretic leaders not only seek to see growth in the impact of their cause, but understand that it starts with them embracing the need for change and growth in their own capacity. Ask those you lead where you could be better as a leader. Find out what more they need from you as a leader. Look beyond what other heretic leaders have accomplished but look at why and how they did it. Beyond studying the methods of successful heretics, study how they grew with each failure and success. Carefully observe how they grew and apply that to your leadership.
It takes courage to be vulnerable with yourself. It takes even greater courage to allow others to point out areas of growth and potential in you. Being vulnerable is not a leadership weakness; it is exhibition of courage, seated in a desire for the growth of the leader and his vision. Choose growth. Your cause and the world will never be the same. Be bold. Be /ˈherətik/.