Leadership and a Leap of Faith

Recently I shared a visual on my LinkedIn profile that suggested if any one of us were to realize our ambitions, if we were to achieve all that we could be, we would have to make the jump from one certainty or reality to something less tangible but more rewarding.

The visual calls upon the reader to take a leap of faith.

When I posted the visual I got a question back from one of my connections along the lines of:  "But what do we do when we need the safety net between the two ledges? Prepared to jump, but conditioned to be a sheep and stay in the safe zone... :)"  Not necessarily an atypical response and certainly a relatively common reaction or perspective that I have encountered in my executive coaching practice.  Many of us dream of a better job, career, life but are in fact afraid to take that next BIG step into the unknown.  In fact, there are many of us out there who have made a choice - consciously or unconsciously - to stay in positions, companies, and careers that are demoralizing, uninspiring and downright painful.  We have defaulted to the evil we know rather than taken the risk for a less well understood future benefit.  

My very brief response at the time to the question was that if we constantly find ourselves in need of the safety net, or the tether, or the anchor - whatever that might be - we are unlikely to achieve any of our dreams or ambitions in life.  Another way of putting this more poetically is:

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Christopher Columbus

Many of us marvel at the success of renowned entrepreneurs and business owners.  We envy their success and the lifestyle that has come with that success.  However, if you dig deeper into their stories it is clear that most of these individuals were not overnight successes nor did their current success come without challenge or even outright failure.  In fact, many of them failed spectacularly or often before achieving success.  What ultimately allowed them to succeed where others may not have even made the attempt?  You'll get various answers to that question but in part I believe it relates to a strong determination to succeed, a willingness to fail and not be deterred by failure, and perhaps a stronger confidence in self than many of us may have.  Ultimately, they took that leap of faith because they wanted to get the brass ring, understood they might stumble along the way, but were confident enough in their vision and abilities to eventually succeed.

All nice high-level stuff but let me bring this back to a local sense of reality from my point of view.  For the past two years I've been privileged enough to be a TEC Canada Chair.  That experience has opened me up to the possibilities ahead for any of us if we have strength of vision, a belief in self and a determination to succeed.  The stories of my TEC members have been inspiring for the challenges overcome, the success achieved to date, and the audacity of goals being pursued.  How audacious?  How about $50 million net worth by the age of 50 - with no capital of your own to start your venture (and on track)?  How about starting a company from scratch, getting executives to buy in with an equity stake in nothing and no salary and turning that into a nationally recognized venture in 3 years?  How about being a driving force in a regionally based company and turning that into a multimillion dollar stake as part of a buy-out by a national firm?  Success does come by a leap of faith.  Not without risk of course, nor without trials, tribulations and a few sleepless nights, but it does come.

Need something more personal?  How about making a shift out of a 25-year career to take on the challenge of building an executive coaching and consulting practice?  In the course of my three-year reinvention (to date) I've had more than one of my contacts express appreciation and amazement at my "successful" transformation.  I can't say that I yet share their same perspective on what success looks like but the comments have come all the same.  When pressed for the "secret of my success" I come back to the leap of faith concept once again.  I certainly had opportunities to return to my past career on a few occasions and I could easily have retreated to my place of comfort and safety.  I may have hesitated a time or two - and still have sleepless nights - but I know that I'll achieve more by having stayed the course and invested in my leap of faith fully.

I certainly appreciate the comfort and need for a "safety net".  But rather than hold on to your current reality and past success as your anchor and stabilizing point let me offer you some other linchpins in realizing your greater success that can still reassure you while you take flight:

1. Work on your vision, solidify your vision and keep focused on your vision - a leap of faith for me doesn't entail going in blind.  Belaboring the metaphor, you have to see the other side of the gorge in order to know where you are jumping to and have invested enough in yourself to have a reasonable degree of confidence to know you have the strength and skills to make the gap.  There is no 100% guarantee of success but there is closer to 0% chance if you make the leap without any focus or preparation.
2. Execute your plan with strength and conviction - even the best plans fail through poor execution.  Vision is the starting point but solidify that vision with clear goals and priorities, measure your progress, hold yourself accountable to those goals and metrics, adjust tactics as required to achieve the vision, and get help as you need it.  Those who are constantly planning or changing focus have no hope of making the leap.  
3. Don't give up (easily) - as noted before, many successful entrepreneurs and leaders did not enjoy or experience overnight success.  There will be setbacks, challenges and moments of (intense??) anxiety.  Be dogged in your determination to succeed.  Plan your work and work your plan.  Review tactics and investments to be sure.  If it were easy somebody would have already done it.  Where there is risk there is also reward.

Leadership is never about certainty or guarantees.  Leadership is all about taking that leap of faith - for yourself and on behalf of others.  Your current reality and success can hold you back or become a foundation for even greater success.  Which reality you embrace is truly going to be a matter of your own courage, confidence and conviction in yourself.  Leadership - is it in you?
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.