Be Careful About Leaps of Faith

What was your most recent leap of faith?

Did you make any assumptions about how it would turn out? Did those assumptions prove true?

I consider myself to be a man of faith and so I know that at times faith is all that will get me through. There are challenges so big (changing jobs, moving to a new city, getting married) that only a leap of faith will get me past the the anxiety of deciding. But, not every decision requires a leap of faith, nor should it.

Most decisions need as much data as faith. Maybe even more data than faith. We do better by analyzing the facts, checking the risks, weighing our options, and expanding our possibilities than simply "trusting the universe" to give us what we want. News flash: the universe doesn't care what we want. Our decisions create our results, not the stars in the sky.

A true leap of faith offers no escape, no safety net, and no excuses.

If you're ready for that, then go ahead and make a leap of faith. But, if you have any qualms about negative consequences or uncertain results, you just might want to analyze the situation with a bit more scrutiny.

What's your next leap of faith?

-- Doug Smith

Front Range Leadership: Training Supervisors for Success

doug smith training: developing creativity

Comments

High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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