In this episode, we are going to look at the five ways that you can lead with courage when under fire.

1. Understand what you stand for.

2. Evaluate the Criticism.

3. Seek Counsel.

4. Pick your Battles.

5. Play the Long Game.

I’m talking about those situations when it feels like everyone’s out to get you, you’ve got people criticizing your leadership. How do you operate with integrity and operate calmly? How do you lead your teams well through those challenging times and have them come out the other end, with you and not against you?

Here are five tips that help you lead with courage when you’re feeling under fire from your team or superiors. Maybe you’re in a situation where your decisions or the direction you are heading in is criticised by those who are being oppositional and objectionable. These tips will help you come out the other side with some class.

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1. Understand what you stand for.

Sometimes you’ll have to make decisions as a leader that will be criticized, decisions that not everyone will agree with. You’ve got to be able to articulate what you stand for and discern when what you’re fighting for matters and when it doesn’t. 

You have to know if it’s a core value. If it’s something that is integral to your leadership and who you are as a leader, you need to be able to say “I’m not backing down on this because this is a core value.” 

Now, this may play out in a couple of different ways. You can have conversations to help people understand your value system. If you’re in a position where you get to set the culture, then you may draw people back to culture. You might say, “I understand that you don’t agree with me but this is our culture and this is how we operate.”

If it’s a core value that you are promoting and you understand that, then you’ve got to be prepared to fight for it. You may find yourself in a situation where you don’t set culture but you are perhaps having to operate within a culture that is in contradiction to your own value system. You have to make a decision, whether you’re prepared to compromise on your values over this or not.

I’ve been in leadership situations in which I found that there was a clash between my own personal value system and what was valued by the leadership team. I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to stay in that organization or whether staying would be detrimental to what I considered was the most valuable aspect of my leadership. You’ve got to make those decisions if you know what you stand for.

What are you not prepared to compromise on? What are you not prepared to negotiate on? Maybe some things can be let go or negotiated but you’ve got to know at the outset, what that is.

2. Evaluate the Criticism.

The second thing is, you’ve got to evaluate the criticism. Ask yourself the question, “Is it fair?” Sometimes we find ourselves at odds with people in our leadership. Perhaps they may be making fair and reasonable assessments of our leadership or our decision-making. We need to make a habit of self- reflecting and asking ourselves this, “Maybe what they said doesn’t feel good but are they saying something that’s true?”

If they are saying something that’s true, then it is incumbent on you as a leader to be willing to re-evaluate your position. Not all criticism is invalid, not all criticism is bad. Some criticism is very helpful to help you grow as a leader. You will never grow as a result of that criticism if you always think everybody else is to blame. So make sure you take the time to self-evaluate the criticism and see if it has some valid points.

3. Seek Counsel.

Thirdly, you need to seek counsel. If you feel that you’re being criticized for decisions that you’re making or the direction you’re taking, make sure you have people in your world who can be honest with you about those decisions. If you’re in a senior level position, you would have some kind of board or an executive team that you can bounce ideas off. Ask them what they think, get people’s feedback.

 If you’re not in those kinds of executive positions, you should have a team or a group of people that you trust; people that understand you and know your world. They can speak honestly to you about what you’re facing. They may say that what you’re being criticized for is valid and you need to do something about it. On the other hand, they might say, “No that’s not valid, you need to stick to your guns” but you won’t know that if you don’t have a team of people that you trust and can consult.

4. Pick your Battles.

Not every battle is worth fighting. You may find that you have a value that’s really integral to you but it is over a very minor issue. You’ve got to pick which hill you want to die on. If you fight every battle that comes along you may find you’re dying over causes that aren’t worth fighting for. In some battles, you’re better off just letting it go. Circle back and deal with it at a later time rather than digging in and confronting something that maybe has such a small impact on the whole scheme of things.

I had a mentor once that used to say,  “Never fight over preferences.” That’s good advice. There is a difference between values and preferences. A preference, for example, is the colour of the paint on the walls, it’s not worth having an argument over. It doesn’t mean you let them bully you. At the same time, you can have a conversation and say “I like this colour, tell me why you like that colour?”Ask yourself, “Am I really committed to having my colour?” If you’re not, then be willing to compromise because it might not be a battle worth fighting.

5. Play the Long Game.

Finally,  play the long game. If you’re in leadership for the long haul and looking to steer an organization or team for the long term, then you will have visions and goals regarding where you want to go. In that case, you must be prepared to be patient in the way you implement change.

Don’t try and make all the changes at once, play the long game. You’ve got to be prepared to lose the short term battles for the sake of the long term outcomes. If you’re playing a game of chess, you have to look three moves ahead of your opponent. You have to be willing to sacrifice one particular piece on the board for three moves ahead because you see what’s coming down the line. 

If you get stuck fighting over the little stuff, you won’t be thinking ahead and playing the long game; you’ll be playing a game of checkers. Checkers is fast. In checkers, there’s a lot of attrition, everybody loses their pieces in the end. So you don’t want to do leadership like checkers, you want to do leadership like chess, be patient with your leadership. 

So, these are five ways that you can lead with courage, under fire. If you’re being criticized, or people are working against you in your leadership, remember to know what you stand for. Figure out what’s worth fighting for and what’s not worth fighting for. Evaluate the criticism; find out whether what is being said is true and whether it’s something you need to adjust. Seek wise counsel. Make sure you’ve got a team of people around you that can advise you and help you to read the situation appropriately. 

Pick your battles, not every battle is worth fighting. Sometimes you lose one battle in order to secure the future. Don’t forget to play the long game. Be patient in your leadership.  Don’t get so adamant about changing everything at once, instead of stepping it out over a long time.

You will find that if you are patient, you will come out of these confrontations and out of these critical junctures with integrity. You will have people respecting you and wanting to follow you rather than if you were just to bulldoze your way through your team. When you bulldoze people to comply, you’ll most likely, end up losing people.  In the end, you might win your battle but you’ll lose your team along the way. 

 I hope these tips really help you to lead with courage next time you’re under fire. 

If you would like to learn more about effectively growing in your leadership, why not check out our FREE Goal setting guide. See below for details.

https://leadcommunicategrow.com/free-goal-setting-guide/

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