A leader that walks slowly through fire.

The reality is that leadership requires dealing with challenging situations - that's when leaders shine brightest, after all. Challenging situations (or "fires," as I will call them for this article) are sometimes bad, but not always. 

Bad Fires: A big client threatening to end the relationship. A key employee quits. You get hacked.

Good Fires: Closing the biggest client to date and having to execute. Having to hire yesterday due to company growth.

Sometimes it's a slow-burning fire, and sometimes it consumes an entire day… or week… (or month?)

It's in these high-stakes, high-pressure times that teams will look to leadership. 

So, how do we respond?

It’s easy to get caught up in the pressure, to let the weight of the situation overwhelm us. It’s easy to react by moving too quickly, leaving disaster behind us. It’s easy to respond by doing lots of “stuff” to feel like we are giving it our all. (As a matter of fact, leaders tend to shift to lower skillset activities during trying times – we do what we are comfortable doing which isn’t always what really needs doing)

But leaders aren’t called to do what’s easy.

Whether in a high-growth organization or one that desperately needs a turnaround, it’s hard to keep everything under control. It’s hard to keep focused on the great over the good. It’s hard to maintain an appropriate level of emotional equilibrium. 

I want to be a leader that walks slowly through fires.

What do I mean by this?

I think that a leader’s capacity for success (defined as their ability to accomplish their aim in any area of life) correlates with their ability to handle increased levels of potential stress in a healthy way. 

Based on that, for a leader to succeed in whatever area they are working in, they must…

… have the risk-tolerance to step out with the potential of failure and…

… continuously learn to better handle that stress in a healthy manner.

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

~ G. Michael Hopf

So, I don’t want to avoid the potential for fires, or I'll simultaneously avoid the reward that comes from working through them. But I also don’t want to let those fires consume me or cost me more than I am willing to give. 

I want a life of growth – growth that can only be achieved when spurred on by challenge.

I want a life of impact – impact that can only be achieved when setting inspiring goals that risk failure.

I want a life of contentment – contentment that can only be rooted in more than just business success and isn’t swayed by what’s happening moment-to-moment.

I want to strive to be a leader who…

… isn’t rushed,

… doesn’t make rash decisions based on volatile emotions,

… is intentional about how they spend their time,

… considers decisions carefully,

… and understands the value of balance.

Stress management is just a microcosm of what leadership is, but I think it’s a topic that’s worth considering as it's so critical to our well-being and the results we bring. That’s why I wrote this, after all. 

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Note to reader: I write to better formulate my thoughts on topics I am interested in. Feedback from others helps me better mold those thoughts, so if you have disagreements, ideas to add, or just think I am handsome, don’t hesitate to share.