I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership.

Our national leaders have failed us. Objectively. I’m not really interested in arguing that point, I’m more interested in sharpening our understanding of leadership so fewer people fail in the future.

Leadership is about being more concerned with doing the right thing than being right.

Leadership is about doing things for peoples benefit, not for their appreciation.

I believe being a leader necessitates being out in front, and being in front means hitting all the speed bumps first. Leadership is inherently bumpy and challenging.

I believe the job of a leader is to take away the fear, uncertainty and anxiety of a group and give them certainty in a positive vision.

I believe the job of a leader is to help people connect to something larger than themselves, to feel a part of a positive vision that’s beyond their own grasp.

Good leadership helps us as individuals trancend our personal limitations, give us the confidence and vision to reach beyond our capabilities. It helps us as groups do the same.

Bad leadership has no connection to the people it seeks to lead. It exploits peoples desire to have their fear, anxiety and uncertainty taken off their hands for ends that don’t benefit those people.

It’s scary, cause a part of good leadership is being able to make unpopular decisions and live with the repurcussions.

The closest thing I can think of to a solution to this contridiction is having a positive vision of the world. More so than anything else, good leadership is about seeing a better future, however large or small, and helping folks move toward it.

I believe having a positive vision and sticking to it, popular or not, is critical because I believe moments of opportunity for leaders cannot be created, they can only be realized.

You don’t get to decide when the moment is right for your vision, you can only be ready and disciplined when the moment arrives.

Vague concepts of leadership, like these thoughts, are important for this reason. Leadership can manifest itself in politics, in businesses, on softball teams, among friends, anywhere really, but few of us get the pick the time it will be important for us to lead.

Right now it’s easy to feel powerless, to feel helpless. I mean, I get it. But we have to remember we may not be aware of who’s looking to us for leadership, and how our leadership can help them. Helping take fear, anxiety and uncertainty off of others allows them to do the same.

Looking to the same figures for leadership, or even trying to guess who the new leaders are, seems like a waste of time to me. Rather, demonstrating leadership at all levels seems like the only way to find the right leaders for the moment.

I came to these thoughts thinking about the pandemic, thinking about structural racism, and thinking about my business. It’s helpful for me to think about and I hope it’s helpful for others.