Que lindo es sonar despierto
"Que lindo es sonar despierto...How lovely it is to dream while you are awake...Anybody can dream while they're asleep, but you need to dream all the time and say your dream out loud, and believe in them."
I was struck reading Andre Agassi's autobiography by how clearly, belief, in ones self, in the method and in the cause determined the outcome of Agassi's games throughout his career. Agassi repeatedly describes how lonely the game of tennis is "there's no where to hide when things go wrong. No dugout, no sideline, no neutral corner. It's just you out there naked." I couldn't help but think how a leadership journey is similarly lonely and fraught with a tenuous reliance on self belief. For if you don't believe then why would anyone follow you and how can you ever expect to be an inspiration to others.
Leadership puts you front and center. It is exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. I recently observed of myself to a friend that 'people seem to follow me even when I am not consciously cultivating a following'. This behavior is something I need to be aware of because the loneliness which comes with leadership needs to be conscious or you put the relationships around you at risk. The horrible feeling which comes when you have to discipline someone who is a genuinely good person who has made an error. There's potentially whole blog post on what discipline is!
Not only do you have to believe in yourself which is something that in my experience is constantly challenged but you have to maintain your belief in the cause or end goal. It took Agassi most of his career doing something he hated to even figure out what his end goal was, a school which inspires learning. I think it is so important to foster a goal and to speak it out loud. And most importantly to not be afraid to change it. I think it is a totally unrealistic expectation that we place on children and young people to know what they want to do and why they care about that thing. The definition of the goal itself is an essential part of the journey.
For our goal to be something that we can truly believe in and dream out loud it is likely to be something intimately personal. I believe it takes a serious dose of courage to put a voice to these types of dreams. In my experience I have been better at articulating the method not the dream....which means I have had to admit openly to finding a more appropriate method, thus an apparent change of my mind, many times!! Setting up my own consultancy last year and discovering that really my impact can be greater by working within existing programs and organisations is an example of this. In reality the dream hasn't changed but how I am working towards it has.
"Dreams are so damned tiring...I can't promise you won't be tired. But please know this. There's a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired. Get yourself tired Andre. That's where you're going to know yourself. On the other side of tired."
This quotation resonated with me because I have these moments, where I don't want to engage in the world I have built for myself. In fact often I want to do the opposite. Agassi built a team of people around himself to ensure that when he had these moments he had solid places to turn, not to have his dream shoved in his face but to have an open safe conversation about whether the dream had changed, what it had become and whether the path had shifted. I think in the world of leadership an equally strong and diverse team is critical. Identify these people in your life, cultivate a relationship with them and don't be afraid to add or tweak the team based on what you need at the time.
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