Phrases For Fearless Leaders

Intelligent. Decisive. Strong. Insightful. Bold. Correct. Unwavering.

We would all like for these to be the words that describe and define us, particularly when we are in a position of leadership with others looking to us for purpose, guidance, and direction. As a business owner, leadership begins with you and everything rises and falls on leadership.

Nobody steps onto the stage of life, and the stage of leadership, with these qualities fully formed from birth.

Every man or woman who can authentically be described with one of these adjectives has first lived through many good ideas and bad ideas, right conclusions and wrong conclusions, wise decisions and stupid decisions, moments of courage and moments of cowardice, leaps forward and fearful retreat.

One fear of every leader, whether consciously or sub-consciously, is the fear of being perceived by those he or she leads as unintelligent, indecisive, unaware, fearful, wrong, and easily swayed. This fear may very well prevent the leader from authentically and appropriately incorporating the following phrases into his or her day to day relationships with those he leads. And it just so happens, that these phrases are the building blocks of every leader who is, in fact, truly intelligent, decisive, strong, insightful, bold, correct, and unwavering.

I don't know how to do this. Will you teach me?

People on your team have knowledge about specific tasks or operations they perform that you do not have. When the moment comes for you to know about and understand a particular part of their job function, you have some options.

You can fake it and pretend you know all there is to know. You can attempt to learn and understand on your own, outside of interaction with the person on your team. Or, if you're a fearless leader, you can ask that person to teach you. Those you lead will appreciate your honesty about your limitations, your desire to continue learning, and the confidence you place in them to teach you.

I was wrong. This was my mistake.

Albert Einstein once said, "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." I'll take it a step further and say that the leader who never makes mistakes is lazy, fearful, or content with a lack of progress.

The fearless leader will always be learning new things, executing new strategies, and failing from time to time. When you find that you were wrong about something and your actions did not yield the results you expected, or even backfire in some way, you have some options here as well.

You can blame someone else for giving you bad information, not doing their part, or sabotaging your efforts. You can quietly ignore what happened and hope nobody noticed. Or, if your'e a fearless leader, you can gather your team, and simply tell them that you were wrong and the mistake was yours. This approach will not only earn you tremendous respect from those you lead, but will give them the courage to learn, try new things, and experience failures amidst wins that they may not have experienced had you instead set an example of cowardice.

I'm sorry.

You're a human being. There are going to be times when you say or do something that hurts, offends, angers, or minimizes somebody on your team. It happens. The only way to avoid this entirely is to remove yourself from the human experience.

When you realize you've wronged a member of your team in some way, you could choose to simply forget about it and think to yourself, "They'll get over it." You could attempt to rationalize your behavior by convincing yourself that they somehow deserved it.

But instead, because you are a fearless leader, you're going to stop what you're doing, pull the individual aside, admit that you should not have said or done the hurtful thing, and ask them to forgive you. If your offense was done in the presence of others, and because your courage and integrity knows no bounds, you're going to pull that same group of people together and publicly admit you’re wrong and ask forgiveness.

She deserves the credit, not me.

True leaders like to win. True leaders who are also human beings like to have their wins noticed and acknowledged. The best leaders humbly accept the congratulations, acknowledge the role their team members played in the win, and move on to the next great attempt.

But then there are weak and insecure people who, somehow, found themselves elevated into a leadership position, and recoil at the sight of someone other than themselves gaining a win. If they know they will not be able to grab some of the accolades for themselves, they will attempt to derail the win mid-stream before it occurs. If their roadblocks fail, and celebration ensues, they will either ignore or downplay the success or, in an even worse incarnation of weakness, speak against the win and its captain.

You're not like this. You're a fearless leader. You appreciate when your wins are recognized and celebrated. But you also enthusiastically recognize the wins and successes of others on your team which you played no role in because you understand that a win for one is a win for all.