Your obstacle to greatness lies within

From managing themselves, and others, building functional teams, navigating the dynamics of these, and everything in-between to deliver on their mandates, leaders have plenty on their plates.

While this may already be a daunting task as it is, the world still waits with bated breath for a more industrious crop of leaders. The ever-increasing demands on leaders, unfortunately, sees many aspirations remain just that. Far too many would-be supervisors, managers, managing directors, and CEOs give up on the challenge without even trying.

A very select few of us ever realise that our most significant obstacle to greatness lies within. It has nothing to do with whether or not other people outside of ourselves take us seriously. What they would think, do, or say if we failed. While failure and a thousand and one other anxieties are real possibilities, they are not in, and of themselves, the reasons that we shy away from leadership and attendant responsibilities.

We have habitually allowed our insecurities to paralyse us into inaction. Others’ disregard for us is good feedback. It is an indicator that we have some self-improvement work to do. What we have to do with it is to spend time investigating how, where, and why we fall short and fix it. It may mean ingesting a good helping of humble pie and baring ourselves to others to help us grow. Submission is a prerequisite for learning.

We have got to learn to intelligently follow those in the know as they school us on various improvement areas. If we are ever to lead, we must learn to walk briskly on the path of the follower. We have got to understand that leaders have the insight and foresight to do the things that average people do not like to do. We inevitably ruffle a few feathers, rock a few boats and generally challenge the status quo, but we stand out in the process.

Everyone can do certain things. Only leaders do things a certain way. That particular way is the uniqueness that each of us brings to the table. We have got to recognise that the apprehension, worry, and self-doubt that we allow to steal our greatness is only behavior that we learned along the cautious and can, therefore, unlearn to pave the way for our success.