3 BIG Battles Leaders Are Now Facing And 4 Ways To Overcome Fear, Negativity, and Division
ARTICLE + VIDEO
Here's the reality, these battles are hitting you as a leader every day whether you realize it or not. Some days you're gonna feel it a little more than others. And so as we think about that, if you're in a battle that means there's an enemy, right?
3 Enemies Leaders Are Facing On A Regular Basis Whether You Realize It Or Not
1. Fear
The first one is the enemy of fear.
And right now we are seeing a very high level and volume of fear. There's a message of fear out there, right, there's a message of fear regularly. Whether it's social media, regular media, digital media. There's a lot of fear in people, and so as leaders, that's an opponent of ours. That kind of fear is an opponent.
2. Negativity
The other enemy that we're facing, or the other battle that we face on a regular basis is negativity.
How many of you feel like there's just been a higher level of negativity it seems more prominent now than maybe in the past or the recent past so there's been a lot more negativity so as leaders that's that's an enemy to your cause.
3. Division
Division is the third enemy of leadership.
These are big battles aren't they?
But here's why I want to congratulate every single one of you, because you sign up for that every day when you show up. You sign up and you go, "you know what, I'm willing to face those battles." It's probably because you have a deep seated reason as to why you do it – that allows you to overcome the fear, overcome the negativity, and overcome the division. If we're gonna overcome those battles, let's think it through a little bit.
4 Ways To Overcome Fear, Negativity, And Division On A Regular Basis
1. Build rapport
We have to understand, how do I build rapport with people? How do I build rapport with people? How do I build relationships with people? Another way to say that, is how do I gain their trust? We have to have the ability to gain trust as leaders, we have to be able to gain trust and we do it through that rapport those relationships.
2. Show understanding
Another way is we have to show that we have an understanding. Showing compassion for people, another word that we use for that is empathy. When we have an understanding for where people are, when we can say, "look I may not have walked your exact path but I have I have a sense of what you're going through." That makes a big difference in overcoming these battles. In overcoming these enemies and winning those battles.
3. Give people a value system
As leaders, another way that we overcome these battles is that we give people a value system to follow. We give them a value system, a culture that says, we're gonna follow certain values because that's what we believe as an organization. That's what we believe as a team. That's what we believe as a organizational family, if you will. We give them a culture of a certain set of values to say, hey if you're a part of us, this is how we do things. This is what we believe in. This is our ministry. And that's a part of who feels like they fit in and who doesn't. Is if they feel like, I'm a part of this value system, I'm a part of this ministry of what we do. And so as leaders, how are we creating that culture on a regular basis?
4. Build a better future
And then as leaders, if we're gonna overcome these battles, if we're gonna win against these three enemies (of fear, negativity, and division) we also have to do what it takes to build a better future. To build a better future. This relates the need to create hope, we have to create a hope that says things are going to be better than they are today. Things are going to be better than they are today.
Points to Remember:
As leaders and managers, with people around us, we must ask ourselves, what am I doing consistently on a daily basis that helps me to:
build rapport that allows me to show understanding, ‘I understand where you're at’ and ‘I'm here with you’
build a better future ahead of us
align a certain value system, certain things that we all can agree on that's gonna keep us moving in the same direction
hold each other accountable because we care about one another
If we get really good at that as leaders, do you feel you would have the ability to overcome those three enemies of fear, division, and negativity?
Watch this related video from our YouTube channel for a look inside one of our trainings: