Be gutsy and cautious

Be courageous, but do not be sloppy and slipshod. There is a difference between acting courageously and carelessly. Ask people who work with undomesticated animals, and they will be speedy to explain the difference. It takes a great deal of courage to handle venomous snake, but carelessness could cost you your life.

As it is with those who are handling wild animals, so is it with leadership! Carelessness can also cost you your leadership. True leaders are not careless folks and they do not make careless decisions. They take premeditated risks, but they do not take sloppy risks. Cutting-edge leaders are usually very careful and chary people. The reason is because people do not follow happy-go-lucky and slapdash folks, they only follow careful and chary folks.

For the umpteenth time, leaders worth following are always careful. They are careful because they genuinely care for those who have chosen to follow them. Remember, a leader who is careless will eventually be considered thoughtless and insensitive by those who have entrusted their future to him.

Great leaders are both courageous and careful. They do not just rush down into the valley of life fuelled by adrenaline and the prospects of being a momentary hero. They are not caught up in the trap of the moment. They usually take their time to pray, plan and think before acting. And they do habitually take their enemies and competitors very seriously. And they frequently play to their strengths, not their weak areas.

Unfortunately, trepidation often disguises itself behind the mask of care. Terrified folks often excuse their apprehension as caution: “I am not afraid. I am just being cautious.” “You cannot rush these things, you know.”  As you evaluate your response to the risks involved in leadership, are you careful or fearful? Every would be leader must wrestle this question to the ground. What you do not know can hurt you. As a leader, what you do not know can paralyze you. Are you consumed by thoughts such as these: “what if it does not work? What if I am wrong? What will others think of me?”

Take a moment to think through the following five contrasts. Which ones best describe you?

Careful is cerebral; fearful is emotional

Careful is fueled by information; fearful is fueled by imagination

Careful calculates risk; fearful avoids risk

Careful wants to achieve success; fearful wants to avoid failure

Careful is concerned about progress; fearful is concerned about protection.

If you are fearful as a leader, it will impact negatively on your team members, thereby affecting negatively the overall productivity of your team. But if you are careful, it will impact positively on your team members. In this way, the productivity of your team will surge. Also, when you make a move as a leader, you’d give courage to everyone on your team who lacks it.

This goes right to the heart of leadership. Leaders instill courage in the hearts of those who follow. This rarely happens through words alone. It generally requires action. It goes back to what we said earlier: somebody has to go first. By going first, the leader furnishes confidence to those who follow. In this way, leaders give permission to those coming behind them. Once they can see you do it, they’d find the courage to follow—and to lead!

As would be leader, you will be called upon to go first. That will require courage. But in stepping out, you will give the gift of courage to those who are watching. And depending upon the situation, your one act of courage may change the momentum of an entire organization. Courage in a strategic moment can change the playing field dramatically.

It behooves me to round off today’s leadership truth by sharing with you a bitter experience I had many years ago. You know I have always been a pioneer all my life. I have pioneered projects from absolutely nothing and when the ‘net’ became so heavy that I couldn’t drag them alone to their varied destinations, I had to call for the help of relevant people. I did not enlist the help of just everyone. I only enlisted the help of those who were relevant to those projects. I will teach you on this crucial issue some other day.

What do I want you to see today about the vinegary experience I had many years ago? I made the mistake of following a careless leader, who masqueraded as a courageous leader. I am sharing this with you; so that you would not fall into the same ‘empty pit’ I did find myself in those days. If you do not avoid this mistake, you’d become affronted and this can slow you down in life, on the condition that you are not careful.

We started a project from ground zero, painting a rosy picture of the project to some of us—who were following his leadership. But in reality, he had no plans, capacity, expertise and moral fiber in place to add flesh to the project’s dreams. About a year into the project, we lost about 80 per cent of those who started with us. And they were rare excellent men and women!

Gradually, the ‘fig leafs’ began to fall off and our nakedness as an organization began to be seen to all. As an effect of this, our customers began to leave us little by little. After about three years of persevering with him, I jumped off the plane and returned to school beyond the shores of Nigeria. Today, the project is deceased! The project died, not because it was not a beautiful idea, but it died because it was in the hands of a slipshod leader.

Lastly, you cannot afford to follow a careless leader. If you do, you’d regret it in the days to come. Follow either a man or woman of courage. Remember, being courageous isn’t the same as being careless. Courageous people are men and women of clear vision and rock-solid character. They are men and women who do have realistic goals and they only take premeditated and planned risks.

See you where great leaders are found.