5 Ways To Be A Positive Leader Through Difficult Times
Being a positive leader is tough, but it’s even tougher when trying to get your team through difficult times. It can be hard to stay optimistic and keep everyone motivated in good spirits. In this blog post, I’ll give you five tips on how to be a successful leader through tough times so that you can maintain morale and keep your team focused on their work.
In times of difficulty, it can be easy to become pessimistic. In fact, it’s harder to have a positive attitude when faced with challenges daily. But there are many benefits to being an optimistic leader in tough times: your team will see you as someone they want to follow; people will find themselves more inclined to work hard for you because they believe in what you’re doing, and research shows that optimistic leaders make better decisions than those who adopt a more negative outlook.
Here are 5 ways to be a positive leader through difficult times.
1) Be Rested
Before dealing with challenges, you are going to need the energy to breakthrough. Don’t try to engage difficulty when you are at your lowest. Refuel your emotional tank so that you have enough gas to make it through the grueling process. When our energy is low, our mind is limited. It’s jarred out of focus. Pour into yourself first so you can pour out your best to others. Get rest and make sure you are filling your mind with inspiration and positivity.
2) Be Honest
We have been told that vulnerability is a sign of weakness, but studies have proven this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, vulnerability is a sign of stability. Author and speaker Dr. Brene Brown teaches that “vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” You have to be vulnerable in the way you carry yourself and your communication with others. The more you hide from those around you, the less influence you’ll have with them. Remember the Stockdale Paradox that states, “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.”
3) Be Visionary
Government official Paul Nitze said, “One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve.” When difficult times come, we tend to lose our why. And when we lose our why we easily lose our way. Leaders keep the team’s eyes on the objectives–not the obstacles. If leaders expect their followers to commit themselves to the vision, then those leaders must demonstrate their own high commitment to the vision. Leaders accomplish this through a focused personal dedication to stay on target and keep their eyes forward. A leader must keep aimed at the vision every day while displaying hope to those around them.
4) Be Listening
The reason people start to lose hope is that they feel unheard and unseen. As a leader, you have to allow your team to have a voice and feel understood. Don’t feel that you have to do all the talking and all the convincing. Allow your people to talk and ask questions even if you don’t have all the answers (and you rarely will have all the answers). Sometimes people just need to be heard, so give them an ear. A leader that never listens is a leader that will never be listened to. Remember the old statement, “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason; to listen twice as much as we talk.”
5) Be Patient
You can’t talk your way out of difficult times. Be patient with the process of walking through challenges. I love how Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” We need to endure the fear and unknown of the valley. We have to keep our eyes forward as we keep walking step by step. If you want to have a sustainable level of success, you have to be patient. Things always take longer than you thought and are harder than you anticipated. Without the discipline of patience, you will give up and bail on your pursuit of success. Remember, there are no magic formulas or pills you can take to know exactly what everyone needs. You have to do your best and let it rest. As a leader, you are responsible to people, not for them; don’t confuse the two.
