Confession here. . . I talk to myself.
If you are honest, you know you do too. But the problems come based on the voice I listen to.
No, I am not insane, but I do fight the voice of self-doubt. . . maybe you do too or you have figured out how to neutralize it . . . or you are busy and don’t hear it or . . .
What do we do about this voice? It’s amazing isn’t it? I spend some of my time doing youth leadership training especially during The John Maxwell Team Global Youth Initiative and I talk to youth about this idea. We discuss how self-esteem impacts our leadership, but here I am many years along and it still can be a battle.
About a year ago I was at the International Maxwell Certification and listening to Seth Godin who mentioned the author Steven Pressfield so I went on Amazon, of course, and purchased one of his books.
As leaders we have to create in some form or fashion, but the voice of self-judgement creeps in and this is what Pressfield says:
“Suspending self-judgment doesn’t just mean blowing off the ‘You suck’ voice in our heads. It also means liberating ourselves from conventional expectations – from what we think our work ‘ought’ to be or ‘should’ look like.”
He continues on with the encouragement to follow your unconventional crazy heart. What does all this have to do with self-doubt? . . . . everything.
A few ideas:
- Suspend the need to know how. When a crazy creative idea comes, think on it and process it with your team. Many times the need to know how gets in my way when it comes to taking risks. Sometimes we evaluate the risk/reward equation enough to make sure we aren’t being too foolish and then jump in and figure it out as we go. . . . just like when we learned how to walk. We take a few steps, stumble, fall, learn, get back up and try again.
- Kill the Gremlin. One of my mentors calls this voice of self-doubt a “gremlin”. If you don’t know what a gremlin is then google it . . . and I’m not talking about the car. Once you kill the thoughts the gremlin feeds you then replace those thoughts with truth. What are you good at? What ways do you lead well? Is a “no” a rejection of you as a person or simply a “no”?
- Get feedback from the right sources. When we are starting a creative new venture we want to be sure the voices we are listening to are honest, but also encouraging. These voices should not amplify the “should” and “ought” voices Pressfield talks about. These voices should be both honest and visionary to spur on your creative growth.
Leading is hard. The hardest one to lead is me. What helps you suspend the voice of judgement and doubt as you lead? Share with me. Stay connected and get my free e-book by signing up to receive updates, just click the button on the menu. Lead well today at work and home.
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