This is Part 3 in a series of posts looking at how to stop managing and start managing as a leader. We are exploring are the critical aspects of effective leaders.
 

THEY HAVE A DEEP CONVICTION TO SUCCEED
Regardless of how long it takes, these leaders hold a deep conviction that they will succeed in the end. They are tenacious. They don’t just give up after a short amount of time.

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes The Stockdale Paradox. Admiral James Stockdale was the highest-ranking U.S. military officer at the height of the Vietnam War. He was tortured over 20 times during his eight years at a prison camp. When he was asked how he made it through, he said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life.”

Jim Collins and his team recognized this was one of the defining principles of good to great companies. Collins writes how Stockdale shared with him that “you must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever they might be.”

In other words, be willing to face the hard facts and deal with your current reality head on, learn from your results and move forward. And regardless of last year’s results, or your track record over the last five, 10 or even 20 years, take on the mind-set that you will prevail in the end.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER: 

• What are the top 1-2 challenges that you are currently experiencing in your business? 
• What are the hard facts that you need to confront in regards to those challenges?
• What is the breakthrough results/outcomes that you are committed to achieving (in regards to those challenges) in three to five years?