When it comes to leadership, being ready is not about imagining everything possible and having response plan for it. It is about willingness to deal with whatever comes your way and being willing to push forward, together with your team in achieving vision.
Readiness is more about willingness to do whatever it takes to deal with whatever stands between you and your vision. It is about keeping your team focused and helping them focus.
Readiness to lead is about willingness to do whatever it takes, not imagining everything that could go wrong
Being ready to lead means that you are willing to give when you have given everything you have. It means dying a thousand times after you’ve just died ten thousand times.
Readiness to lead means recognizing that you may not have all the skill or resources you might need and not allowing this fact to stop you. It means you have a higher esteem for your cause than your inadequacies. It is not denialism. It is believing and acting more passionately about your desired future than the present dreary.
You can never graduate from the school of leadership. You may get a diploma, but if you think marks the end of all possible learning you’re mistaken. Leadership has fascinated our predecessors and will continue to do so beyond us. It is dynamic.
Readiness to lead is about willingness to continue figuring things out. It is about being a student as you teach those you lead. To be ready to lead means being humble enough to be a student to get better, and being bold enough to challenge your team to face their fears for the sake of a greater world.
Show me anyone who claims to be a leadership expert and I’ll show you a leader not worth following. I have more respect for the accomplished and proved leader who still considers himself a student of leadership. Be wary in following self-proclaimed leadership experts.
There is no exhaustive checklist for readiness to lead, but there are a few things you must be willing to face and overcome. Whatever the cost.
The greatest readiness litmus test is willingness to face whatever challenges and taking similar-minded people, also know as a team, with you.
On readiness to lead: You will never be ready to lead if you’re unwilling to deal with things that cannot be separated from leading. Be bold. Be /ˈherətik/.