Leadership Moment: Simple Yet Blunt Advice

Neora’s Monday morning Leadership Moment is a weekly Facebook Live event available only to Neora Brand Partners during which time industry experts share their most insightful tips. This Leadership Moment was adapted from an event hosted on  May 14, 2018, by Neora President Bo Short. 

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Lessons Learned

A while back, I listened to a top leader speaking about valuable lessons from life. One simple line from her speech really resonated. She said, “writers write” and so if you want to be a writer you must write. This line is obviously so blunt, yet I think the message is extremely powerful. Think about it: leaders lead, and so if you want to be a leader, go out into the world and lead!

The reality is this: things happen. Some of it is within your control and some of it is not. That’s life! But, it’s also essential you learn how to deal and rise above any issues, challenges, and obstacles that may come your way. You must do this because if you want to be a leader you must be able to lead your team through hardships.

Leadership is born from the experience of overcoming your obstacles. The secret is if you do enough of the right things, obstacles will appear in your rearview mirror. Sadly, people get stuck in the obstacle. Although that’s also normal, make an effort to recognize the obstacle and see the opportunity within your struggle. Therein lies the power!

My amazing wife, Roni, always shares the story of the two marathon runners who cross the finish line, exhausted when they notice a long line of people leading to a table with free bagels. The one runner says, look; there are free bagels! The other runner exclaims, no; look at the long line. One person sees the bagels while the other person sees the long line. One person sees an opportunity while the other person sees an obstacle.

As a leader, your responsibility is to lead others to the opportunity. If you happen to find yourself captured by an obstacle, it’s time to grow, it’s time to step around the obstacle and proceed on a more purpose-driven path. Again, leaders lead, so if you want to be a leader, lead your team around the obstacle in the search for the opportunity. In my opinion you can; in my opinion, you have a responsibility to others to make your best and highest effort to get around any obstacle that’s presented to you. That’s the opportunity! Whatever comes your way this week, this month, this year, knock the challenges out of the way and lead people in the direction of their dreams.

As always, lead.