Leadership Doesn’t Require Facts.

Life can be intimidating.

As you sit behind your executive desk and review the options about which strategy to pursue, it can seem like everything is gray.  It’s hard to tell strategies and results apart from each other.

It’s tough to know what to do.

So it’s only natural that you just want to deal with facts.

The facts are black and white.

The facts are the truth.

The facts do not lie.

The facts are your path to success.

But maybe that’s not true.

Maybe the facts are holding you back from real success — especially when it comes to leading  sales and marketing success.

See, even though you might find comfort in the facts, buyers don’t really care a lot about the facts.

In fact, they have a whole different set of facts than you do.  And just because you introduce your facts in a convincing way doesn’t mean that they ever stop believing that their facts are the only ones that matter.

Which brings us to the idea of leadership.

Since when did we only start leading when things are only black and white?  Since when did leading mean that we educate instead of inspire?

Buyers, your employees, your industry — they don’t want the facts.

The facts just get in the way.

They want to be inspired.

They want to know that in spite of the facts there might be a way out. There might be an option that hasn’t been considered yet.

Which is why you have to lead.

The facts don’t bring hope.

The facts just make it clear that as bad as it is, the odds were always stacked against you.  You never had a chance.

The facts tell you that no one has ever done it before.  And that no one is likely to ever do it in the future.

The facts are brutal.  The facts are cold.  The facts are emotionless, soulless, and uninspired.

And the facts might not really be facts anyway.

A few years and a few scientists later a lot of what we think of as facts turn out to be just opinions. And wrong opinions.

• It was a fact that blood letting with leaches was the best way to cure diseases two hundred years ago.
• It was a fact that homosexuality was a disease one hundred years ago.
• It was a fact that your diet had no effect on preventing illness less than twenty years ago.

And all the facts were wrong.

Leading doesn’t require the facts.

It requires soul.

Leadership isn’t about you reading facts off the page.

Leadership is about understanding the facts.  And in spite of the news, in spite of the predicament, in spite of the worst that can happen —  leadership is you standing tall and looking the facts square in the eye and doggedly pursuing a passionate outcome for your future.

Leadership isn’t about spreadsheets, analysis, and and strategic initiatives, it’s about understanding the fear that drives you to believe that the facts can’t be changed.

Leadership is about you beliveing in your soul that you are able to do what you were meant to do:

• To do the impossible.
• To overcome.
• To stand where others fall.

That is your destiny.

Let the facts say what they may. Rise above.

Lead from your soul.