Every organization needs radical honesty. The leaders who run them juggle innumerable demands, take massive action and push their limits every day.

Being responsible for keeping a business solvent, people employed AND healthy is more challenging than ever. We often think it means we need to put on a show of strength, keeping our own struggles and insecurities to ourselves. But at the end of the day, just like everyone else, we’re human, going through all of life’s stresses.

Being the leader you want to be starts with being authentic and honest with yourself. Leadership skills can be learned but honesty and responsibility are the reasons you succeed or fail.
If you give up early, if you are living in fear or let people’s drama affect your emotional state, maybe heading up an organization isn’t for you.
Your emotions are real. You can be happy, sad, angry, lonely…. But you must manage them if you’re going to lead people. It doesn’t mean you can’t be happy or sad and it doesn’t mean you can’t express those emotions when appropriate. But do so as motivation for others to improve. It’s part of being self-aware, honest, and taking responsibility.

2020 has given us lots of excuses: the pandemic, protests, riots, fires on the west coast, extreme heat in the southeast, the death of the great RBG and murder hornets. Any one of these events could be blamed for a company’s failure. But laying blame on someone or something else puts you in a “I can’t do anything about it” state of mind.

When your attitude is “the buck stops here”, you’ll face the challenges with creative and outside-the-box problem solving.

The future of your company is not guaranteed, but how you respond to the future is yours to own.