As a leader, it’s that optimism – the belief that things will get better, things will work out – that motivates everyone to work hard, even when there are setbacks. Without optimism, your entire organization can unravel. Pessimism that starts at the top slowly trickles down and creates a fearful, unstable environment.
For my company, it was creating a yes-we-can attitude about our distant all-in-one marketing dashboard. I knew it was going to take a lot of planning, a lot of patience, and a lot of money to create a tool that no one had really put together yet. The odds were stacked against us, but I had to motivate our team into believing that we could achieve our elusive dashboard. After all, if I did not believe that we could do it, no one else would either.
Guts
When the vision seems unattainable, you have to have the guts to move forward and not let fear hold you back. There are countless stories of entrepreneurs who gave up every last penny to start their business, executives who made the riskiest investment to get the company out of bankruptcy, and CEOs who made that merger or acquisition decision to save the company.
It’s this determination and courage that allows us to make some of the biggest and smartest decisions that catapult our companies from good to great. When faced with the realities of making my dream marketing dashboard come true, the financials, the timeframe, and the commitment seemed too risky to make the endeavor worthwhile. If the whole thing failed, I would have spent thousands of dollars for nothing. But deep down I knew that this was something worth doing. So I marched onwards, hoping for the best.
Being in business is risky business. That means taking risks and making hard decisions – especially when everything and everyone is against you. Every great CEO began somewhere. No one is born a great leader. It’s these three qualities that we can’t forget, no matter how easy or hard things get. And it’s these same qualities that employees, investors, and customers expect at every stage. Next time you’re stuck or facing a hard decision, remember that vision, optimism, and guts might be just what your business needs to get to the next level.
–written by Solomon Thimothy
As the founder and CEO of OneIMS and Clickx, Solomon Thimothy has built his career around his passion for helping other businesses grow an online presence and thrive in the digital world. Solomon works with clients big and small to develop uniquely customized and highly effective marketing strategies that meet every company’s individual goals. Follow him on twitter @sthimothy.
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