Be The Leader You Know You Can Be – By Overcoming Fear

You know him or her: the leader who you can be. That’s the person who leads from a mission and works towards a vision. That’s a leader who is known for engaging and inspiring team members and other employees. And that is someone who gets things done.

You know that person because she or he is in you. And hopefully some of your biggest fans like your mom, your coach, or your boss know that person as well. However, although you know that you can be that leader, something happens in daily life. That causes a gap between you and that leader who you can be.

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins

What is causing that gap?

A lack of knowledge is not causing that gap. You have enough knowledge. You know what a leader looks like; what a leader concentrates on. You have read articles, blog posts, and went to leadership trainings.

A lack of time is not causing that gap. If you set your priorities, keep those priorities, and concentrate on the important, not urgent issues you will have enough time.

Others are not causing that gap. You can’t blame it on all the emails and text messages that you receive every day, your needy employees or your boss. Of course if you became that leader things would change for the employees but employees love to be engaged and inspired and love to be part of a team that gets things done. And I’m sure that your boss is not against such a development.

So if you have the knowledge and the time available and it’s not the environment that is restricting you, we are back at our first question: “What is causing that gap?”

Your fear is causing that gap. Fear of not being a successful leader. Fair of losing your job. Fear of….

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake.” – Elbert Hubbard

Some expert advice:

1 – Act

Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, believes that our underlying fear is the fear of not being able to handle what comes onto our path. Her solution is, as the book title suggests, feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

2 – Use your breath to bring you back to the present moment

Follow the recommendations of Christine, the business coach who helped Rick move forward in my book Leading through Change: Six Principles for Leading People in Unpredictable Times:

“ Welcome the fear as an old friend. Don’t push it away as an unwanted enemy, In the end, the function of fear is to protect us. When you are fearful, you are excited but you forget one crucial element: you forget to breathe. “
“Most people are paralyzed by fear. Overcome it and you take charge of your life and your world.” – Mark Victor Hansen

3 – Accept

Being a leader doesn’t mean you are not allowed to be fearful. Being a leader means accepting that fear will arise, accept it, breathe, and act.