Leadership Isn't For Cowards: How to Drive Performance by Challenging People and Confronting Problems

Chapter 1

Do You Know What You Are Doing?

For your sake, let’s hope you answered that question with a resounding “sometimes.” I hope you are like the rest of us, having to stop on some days and wonder what you were thinking when you said yes to leadership. The fact is, most leaders have times in their lives when they find themselves asking, “Do I know what I’m doing?” It’s a normal and expected part of being in a role where you influence people.

You first have to know and accept one major thing that you are doing as a leader . . .

You are messing with people’s lives!

(I’m not sure how much more clearly I can say that.)

The day you said yes to someone, somewhere up in your organization, and decided to join the ranks of leaders, you decided (with complete false confidence) that you had the willingness and ability to tell other people what to do.

Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe you were recruited—placed in a leadership class and given three points and a poem on how to lead before you were tossed the keys and wished good luck.

Maybe you entered into a management training program with wide-eyed enthusiasm and a commitment to change the world.

Maybe you decided that you would take a stab at starting your own business. Spreading your entrepreneurial wings, you jumped into the world of business ownership with all of its thrills and risks.

Whatever the case, your decision to say yes to leadership was driven by something—a need to help others, to make more money, to save the world, to boost your ...