The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Dec 17, 2023
Life and leadership are filled with good and bad. Some of the good and bad will find us. But if we have a positive life stance whether it’s the good or the bad finding us, we will keep the best perspective possible in any situation.
In applying this to leadership, we need to remind ourselves that everything worthwhile is uphill. Adversity is uphill too, but adversity is also one of the most powerful forces in life. It can bring out the best in you or the worst in you. Let it bring out the best in you, so things don’t get ugly. It’s all up to you!
As leaders, we need to ask ourselves questions ahead of time so that when adversity comes we’ve already overcome it.
Questions like:
- How will you handle obstacles?
- Will you let adversity make you bitter or make you better?
You can see adversity-ridden setbacks as true gifts and an opportunity to grow and believe in yourself, a reason to revitalize your commitment, and build your resilience. Or, you can see adversity as a defeat and all the loss that comes with it.
I like the way a recent Inc.com article sums this up:
Unfortunately, the most common response to adversity is to try and make it go away! The reality is when you take away adversity, you also take away one of the most important ingredients to greatness.
It goes on to give ways we can reframe adversity as a close friend rather than a fierce enemy.
These included reframing the adversity in terms of what you gain. Things like adversity Builds Character, it Creates Resilience, it helps us Learn in the middle of the discomfort we are experiencing. Adversity helps us Draw Out Our Inner Strengths - strengths we may not otherwise know we have. And how about the way adversity helps us be Relatable? It’s often from adversity that we find common ground with others who have had similar experiences and to help guide individuals through difficult times. And adversity helps us Succeed. But make no mistake, we don’t succeed in spite of our challenges, we succeed because of them!
There is something powerful about adversity that imprints in our memory, shapes our character, and molds our behavior for the future.
