Lay It On The Line

What does it mean to be a effective leader?

Be willing to cut open your chest with a sword, use an axe to break your ribs, and pull out your heart with your own hands for all colleagues, family, friends, and subordinates to see its flaws. Thats what it takes in the soul to be a good leader.

To create a culture that is ethical, honest, growth oriented, I believe you have to communicate and shine light on vulnerability as a positive attribute to your tribe. It could be a sports team, a church, a community centre, or a rapidly growing tech startup. It has to come from the top.

If we are not open about our failures, our mistakes, our regrets, our pain, our sorrow, even some of our wounds, how can we expect others to feel that they can be vulnerable with us. If we don’t, It makes it much more difficult to reciprocate support in a positive manner when these moments of vulnerability invariably arise on our part, which are natural growing pains over the course of building anything meaningful and purposeful. This is imperative to sustainable growth of organizations, relationships, families, and destigmatizing the conversation around mental health in society.

To be a leader in the truest sense, you have to be willing to be a servant, a slave if need be, to those that entrust you with that leadership. To do the work, take your fragile neck, place it in the lap of those that could smite you at any moment, accept destiny, whatever may come, and move forward with love.

It’s from الله