— To follow is a bullet of wisdom on leadership. It comes from Tom’s rifle, named Shot, who has seen it all. You’ll get the drift by clicking Blog in the menu above. —
I HAVE SEEN IT HAPPEN that on a hunt the hunter loses a grip on himself. He causes himself (or herself, of course, but the hunters in my life were all male) to fall short. Sometimes the hunter simply did not know what he was doing. Sometimes he lacked key performance qualities, like patience or persistence. Sometimes he fell short on character. And sometimes he had limiting beliefs, such as “I’m not the hunter type, I’m too old for this, I really don’t think I am that good of a shot.” So, I have concluded that the real enemy is the performer himself. Deep down he gets in his own way.
Well, I won’t belabor this, but I will say that many leaders miss the mark because of themselves. It’s not the environment that beats them, nor their inadequate employees, not even regulations, or competition. Most often leaders are beat before they start because they are their own enemy. Leaders who seek out their misgivings and counter them, in spite of the difficulty in doing so, position themselves to lead and succeed.