Is Your Leadership For Sale? (#152)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
The PGA recently announced its merger with its sworn enemy, LIV Golf. One of the reasons this is shocking is that the leadership of the PGA has spent the last twelve months accusing the LIV of being morally bankrupt. So what changed?
““If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”
— Aaron Tippin (American country music singer)
This Week’s Edition
As a leader would you be willing to sacrifice your values to survive, protect your own repetitional status, or secure your financial well-being? Let’s explore.
Clarify Your Thinking
Last year, when the LIV Golf launched, top PGA golfers were leaving in droves. In response, the PGA leadership went out of their way to excoriate the LIV as corrupt. After a year of questioning the future of the PGA, they signed a merger deal. Did they sell out?
What we know to be true is that leadership is hard. The pressure to survive is intense. It puts leaders in predicaments they could have never imagined.
Successful leaders are often off the paved road, blazing a new trail. There are no standard rules of engagement at that level. This can leave a leader at a crossroads.
When standing at the crossroads, which route will you take? Is your leadership for sale?
Old Thinking: I have no other choice. I have to do a deal with the devil and save my company.
New Thinking: While I don’t like my choices, I do have the ability to choose. My values have served me well to this point. and they will carry me forward no matter the result.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
Don’t wait until you are standing at the crossroads of a leadership challenge before you determine what you stand for. At that point, the pressure will be too great. It’ll be too easy to subcomb to a more expedient decision without the counterweight of the values at stake.
Every day, I encounter leaders who face decisions that risk their values. Take these steps to ensure you uphold your values when challenging leadership situations arise:
Step 1: Write down your leadership values, those sacrosanct leadership principles you hold dear.
Examples from the leaders I work with:
- Relationships come first.
- Stay humble. Don’t think more highly of yourself than you should.
- Never burn a bridge.
- Acknowledge when you are wrong. Apologize if necessary.
- Integrity over profits.
- Don’t presume on the future.
- Borrower is bondservant to the lender.
Step 2: Write the core values (and the leadership principles) for your organization. Communicate them. Live by them.
Step 3: Use these values and principles with your leadership team as a filter for your organization’s decision making.
Only time will tell how the PGA/LIV merger came about. Here’s to hoping that no values were sacrificed. Good leadership compels those in charge to share with us the backstory lest the rumor mill continue grinding, leaving all to speculate.
Boost Your Performance
No one wakes up thinking they will sacrifice their values. Watch this week’s video to see how leaders handle this type of challenge on a day-to-day basis.
What’s Your Opinion?
What is your #1 professional value? Share it with me at robin.pou@robinpou.com.
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONFIDENT LEADER
Let’s Connect
Follow me on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.
