Stamina

I needed some encouragement today. I started to doubt myself and asked the questions: “What if nobody ever wants to interview with me?” “What if I am doomed to never achieve?”

Watching Roselinde Torres’ TED Talk on “What it takes to be a great leader” completely changed my attitude. I’ve committed to this project and I will find a way.

Roselinde took a year off from her employment to face down a crisis of epic proportions. There were lots of leaders all around her, but very few of them seemed to be meeting the critical objectives of their organizations.

She asked two questions:

“Why are the leadership gaps widening when there is so much more investment in leadership development?”

AND

“What are the great leaders doing distinctly different to thrive and grow?”

She figured out three things.

• How people spend their time matters. Can you distill your activities into an effective strategy for predicting the future trends in your industry and then act on them in the present?
• The diversity of your network-people beyond your tribe of all industries, cultural backgrounds and life backgrounds-is a key to success and you typically find people to join your projects from outside of your immediate tribe.
  • “This […] is about your capacity to develop relationships with people that are very different from you.”
• And finally, stepping out and emotional stamina:
  • “Great leaders dare to be different. They don’t just talk about risk-taking, they actually do it. And one of the leaders shared with me that the fact that the most impactful development comes when you’re able to build the emotional stamina to withstand people telling you that your new idea is naive, or reckless, or just plain stupid.”

We’ve heard that resiliency is a leadership trait that matters in previous articles about challenging the status quo (though doing so should always be within your own sphere of influence). Sounds like that’s something we can hold on to as a trait of leadership.

You can find Roselinde Torres’ TED Talk “What it takes to be a great leader” here: