There are a lot of reasons to be scared when you lead. You’re influencing others to take actions they may not normally take. You have power over their finances and, to an extent, their personal life. You are also impacting your customers’ livelihoods with every decision made.
Talk about scary!
But it’s okay to be scared when you lead. Everyone is. Even if they don’t admit it.
Here are 3 more good reasons to lead scared.
Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash
3 Reasons To Lead Scared
1. You grow when you’re scared:
Being scared can be a sign of growth. You’re trying out new leadership methods, trusting new people, or finding new ways to do things.
All of those are scary things to do.
You don’t know if the new methods will work. The new people could betray your trust. The new things could backfire.
Yet you continue on. You lead through the fear because you know something…
There’s growth on the other side of fear. You’re able to stretch yourself and others to do something never done before.
Let’s grow scared!
2. It shows that you care:
It may not seem like it, but one of the reasons you’re fearful is because you care. You want the best for those you lead and those you do business with. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be a good leader.
Because of that, your mind and body can tell you that you’re scared of the next steps of leadership. You may not feel ready, competent, or equipped.
You want to see your organization succeed. So, you care. Your care can lead to fear. But you can also push through to the other side of fear.
What’s the other side of fear? Accomplishment, good pride, and a job well done.
You fear because you care. It’s okay. You’ve got this.
3. You learn that you can overcome your fear:
I know of so many people who freeze at the first sign of fear. It’s like their body tells them that failure is final. If they don’t succeed, everyone is going to look at them like the kid who slipped on the ice.
But one of the things that you learn as you push through the fear of leading is that you can overcome fear… and you can overcome other things.
The more you push through that scared feeling you have, the more you teach yourself not to let fear hold you prisoner. You don’t have to be held captive by a lie telling you that you can’t accomplish something.
When you lead scared, you teach yourself that you can overcome fear.
Keep On Keeping On
My encouragement to you today is to keep on keeping on. When fear rears its ugly head, push it aside. Don’t listen to it. Don’t give in.
You can lead through scary situations. You can lead when you doubt yourself. You can lead scared.
And you wouldn’t be the first. Nor the last to lead scared.
The more you expose yourself to scary leadership situations, the more you’ll find yourself thriving in them because you train yourself to lead even though you’re scared.
