What does fearless leadership mean? To lead without fear? Is that possible? Is it even desirable? If you’re going to engage with people and bring out the best of who they are, you’re going to take risks. Not everyone’s going to like where they think you’re going. How can we not be ‘afraid’ at some level? We want to do our best and we don’t want to mess up.
What if fearless leadership isn’t the absence of fear at all? What if fearless leading is simply fear-less leading? What if, instead of trying to convince ourselves that great leaders do not have any fear at all, which simply isn’t true, we instead focus on just coming one notch down – fearing just a little less? What opportunities might that open? What might we see?
It’s easy to think our job as leaders is to get everyone to agree, but that’s just not true. Our job is to get people to actively and productively engage. It’s not about having no ‘enemies’ or opposition, and losing every ounce of fear, it’s about connecting with our ‘enemies,’ converting opposition into power and slowing our own fear down. The art of leadership is the art of invitation.
