Real Strong Leadership

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January 2013

Real Strong Leadership
[This January 2013 Edge is prompted by a very strong, courageous and loving Father & Daughter team who are in for an incredible year because of their willingness to walk forward, no matter what.]

Just a couple of hours to go and he was going to be off on an incredible journey. The only thing that seemed worth saying to him was, “You know, you are showing strong leadership”. I suppose I could have tried to come up with something more profound but “strong leadership” really was the main thing on my mind. Here it was, mid-January 2013 and one of the more courageous acts of leadership I have experienced was being demonstrated before me.

A little over two months earlier, his courageous daughter made a plea with the stakeholders in his life to help him. After nearly three decades, he was going to get help with his alcoholism. He now was about to shove off for rehab. This by itself was an incredible miracle. I know he had concerns about all the unknowns that lay directly ahead of him. He seemed both determined and resigned at the same time. Normally strange bedfellows, but on this day determined and resigned seemed to be getting along quite well. And he was really going to do it. Wow.

It also struck me how we often tend to view strong leadership as “take the hill”, cock-sure, eye-on-the-prize resolve. Strong leadership can often look like iron clad, clear commitment. I am certainly not criticizing this side of leadership. We need it. But it is also true that strong leadership can start out with tentative steps on wobbly legs. We know that courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s feeling the fear and doing it anyway. It’s moving forward into uncertainty.

Doing what you know is right oft times isn’t viewed by an audience or accompanied by fanfare. Strong leadership sometimes is not inspired by 20/20 foresight or immediately reinforced by 20/20 hindsight for that matter. Sometimes there’s very little sight at all. But you know to do it because it’s right. During the upcoming year you may find yourself in a position where it’s time to make a tough personnel change or career change. Drive an initiative in your organization or change direction in your home. May you have many good forward steps.

In 2013, PSP will continue its emotional intelligence-based leadership development and executive coaching offerings as well as keynote speaking. Check out the short video below and help it go “bacterial”…

To watch our video click here.

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