Act Fearlessly

· by Herb Dew

Herb is the CEO of HTI. He founded HTI in 1999 along with John Knight and David Sewell, and remains heavily involved in the organization today.
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Act Fearlessly When Faced With Pressure

 

In my last blog I discussed the concept of “Leading Well”. As a component of that, I noted that “Acting Fearlessly” when faced with exceptional pressure and time sensitivity was essential. So what did I mean when I said that leaders should “Act Fearlessly”?

Not rashly. Not blindly. Not out of pride or hubris. No, what I meant is that leaders in these times need to not be afraid to act clearly and decisively, with balance, but without the fear of risking failure. Part of our jobs as leaders is to take risk. Balanced risk.

When I was younger I remember reading an article by a leader, who quoted someone that said that a LACK of action in most cases was more damaging that SOME action. Creating forward motion. The current COVID-19 crisis is creating tremendous disruption. There is no game plan that suggests to companies how to act. But in this disruption there is opportunity: Opportunity to teach. To lead. To innovate. To change. To show your customers why they picked you. To show your employees why they should trust you.

Acting fearlessly does not mean decisions will be easy.

Or that mistake won’t be made. Acting fearlessly means that a leader assesses their environment, collects feedback and input from their inner circle of people they trust, studies the playing field, and then moves forward. Taking risk. Acting DESPITE fear of the unknown.

A good friend of mine, Mike Mansuetti, spoke about how great companies embraced disruption as an opportunity to change, and to innovate. His speech resonated with me. He went further, pointing to the risk in NOT adjusting and therefore falling behind. Becoming insignificant.

Its my belief that these first 30 days of this crisis will not be the hardest period. In my view, its possible that our next 6 months will be even tougher. Managing our economy back to normal, and each company leader making the decisions they MUST make to survive and prosper. Or face collapse.

My message to my leaders is simple. Lets “Act Fearlessly” and begin to shape the playing field. Along the way, we innovate and change in order to be positioned for the next good economy.