The Single Biggest Challenge to Any Organization

It’s easy to inspire and motivate people – for the moment. It’s easy to say, ‘Hold a vision.’ You know what the hard part is?…The hard part isn’t the vision. Anyone can come up with a vision. The hard part is the holding… The single biggest challenge to any organization is the constant cloud of fear and doubt that swirls around the heads of the people involved. As a leader, your job is to hold fast to the big picture, to keep seeing in your mind’s eye, with crystal clarity, where it is you’re going – that place that right at this moment exists only in your mind’s eye. And to keep seeing that, even when nobody else does. Especially when nobody else does.”

While I knew this was a great book from the beginning, it was when I read this particular quote on page 27 of The Go-Giver Leader by Bob Burg and John David Mann that I realized this is a very special book. This is a book that is exceptionally honest with you about your challenges as a leader…and how they stem from who we are as people. This is a book that owns up to the fact that as humans we bring our fears, doubts, and insecurities about our worthiness to work with us, and this affects how we communicate, make decisions, and whether we respond or react to what’s placed in front of us.

That ‘constant cloud of fear and doubt’ swirling around employees and teams that Burg and Mann refer to is a reality most leaders deal with daily. But how often do we recognize this reality and the seemingly insurmountable hurdle of leading in spite of it? This book is courageous by allowing a raw view of what this looks like and feels like in the real world.

Additionally, it shares wisdom about the power of letting go, being wholly grounded, leading from the heart and from the soul, and knowing who you are. Those who see these as ‘wishy washy’ business principles are not awake enough to understand the magnitude of the power in these principles. I realize that’s a blunt statement, yet it’s true.

There is a higher consciousness mindset here that so many business leaders are not able to understand, and this is that whether we want to or not, we bring all of who we are to our work and work relationships. This includes our hearts and our souls, even though many leaders often pretend that these are non-existent within themselves and their employees, acknowledging only the power of the analytical mind while existing in an ego-centric mentality of the past.

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Today, leaders who are self-aware, who are highly conscious of who they are being, and how this determines what they are creating for their business and what they are attracting into their business, will be much more capable of driving business growth and value. These are the leaders who will create abundance for their communities and society, as well as for their companies and employees. Recognition of this principle comes from the great lessons of this book, some of which are expressed in key teachings including:

• What you have to give, you offer least of all through what you say; in greater part through what you do; but in greatest part through who you ARE.
• Lead with your soul.
• Building a business – building anything – is an act of faith.

All three of these teachings are lessons I live every single day as an executive of a start-up.

I highly recommend this book to leaders of every age and every level. There is a lesson here for you that will wake you up to who you are being as a leader.

Top Photo by Clara Don via Flickr.

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The Single Biggest Challenge to Any Organization