Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; it’s choosing what’s right over what’s fun, fast or easy; and it’s practicing your values, not just professing them.
In a world that seems to be burning down around us right now, courage is an attribute we need to see shown by our leaders – and by those of us who follow.
What does that mean in this current environment?
When BAU (business as usual) no longer exists, all we have to fall back on is courage to take steps in a new direction, to stand up for what we believe matters, to cast out the stereotypes and preconceptions of how a leader or business operator should be, and start fresh, from the ground floor.
How do we believe this should be done? At a time when many business owners potentially risk losing it all, the best thing you can do is to sit down with your team and give them the opportunity to contribute to either reshaping or rebuilding your organisation.
Sleepless nights and stressed out decision making based on fear are guaranteed to not deliver you a successful outcome. But engaging with the skills, experience and creativity of your team – no matter what sector you work in, gives you a far better starting point.
Being able to do this effectively assumes that you have already built a base of trust and respect with your staff. If you have not been doing that, and have opted for an old school ‘command and control’ approach historically, you need to either genuinely ‘go back to school’ with your thinking and be prepared to throw those old ways out the door, or be prepared to let go of your business all together.
That might sound harsh but we are in a new reality now, and old ways of running a business will not stand us in good stead.
To take your business to a new level – to not only survive these current challenges but come out as a leader in your market and set your company up to thrive, you need to take very different steps.
