The story of an inspiring leader

I’m working with a leader who is trying to encourage their team to take more risks and put themselves in uncomfortable positions, to help their growth.

The thing I love about this leader is that they aren’t just encouraging risk taking they are are role modelling it. And not just role modelling it but taking their team with them every step of the way.

The leader decided they needed a mentor who would really push their boundaries so they decided to write to the head of their global company and ask them to be their mentor.

Before doing this, the leader asked their team whether or not they should do it.

A few were quite clear, absolutely don’t do it!

A couple were surprised that this was even a thing you could do.

And the others said go for it.

So the leader did.

In the leaders reasoning 1 of 2 things could happen.

They didn’t hear back at all or
He did hear back but it would be a no.

The leader sent the email and within an hour they got a response from the Global CEO that yes they’d like to meet with them and set up a couple times of year to catch-up.

If you want your team to take more risks, be more innovative, tackle difficult conversations head on, then you as the leader need to role model that behavior. Show that it makes you feel vulnerable too and what you do to manage that. It builds trust, it builds commitment and most of all, it builds your people.