Leadership Is Hard…Could I Pay You To Quit?

Leadership is hard!  It’s not easy.  It’s messy, complex, and challenging.  If you want to be a great leader and lead the right way, it’s even harder.  If you think being a leader is easy, here’s your WARNING…

Only Genuine Leaders Allowed

So why are you a leader?

I hope you’re not a leader because of ego, power, or money.  I hope it’s because you genuinely love leadership and serving your team.  If it’s not, you aren’t going to be the leader your team needs.  And you’re not going to find personal or career fulfillment if you don’t love leadership.  Leadership is too important to be in it for the wrong reasons.

For the sake of your life and the lives of your team members, don't be a leader unless you really, really, REALLY want to serve and lead your team members. It's too hard to do it for any other reason.  Share on X

Could I Pay You To Quit Leadership?

If I offered you $10k to step down from leadership, would you take the money?*

If I said you could step down from leadership and keep your salary, would you?

If so, you shouldn’t be a leader!  You’re in it for the wrong reasons. Get out now. It’ll be better for you and your team. 

(* I’m taking a page out of the Zappos/Amazon playbook with this idea. I wish I could actually do it!)

If I could pay you to quit being a leader, then you should not be a leader! You're in it for the wrong reasons. Get out now. It'll be better for you and your team. Share on X

Why Leadership Is So Hard

Here are the 9 reasons:

1. Releasing Greatness Is Hard

I believe leadership is the “art of releasing the greatness in other people” and that’s hard work.  You lead your team members into aggressive projects, challenges, change, new directions, new technologies, and big goals.  

2. Leading People Is Messy

You lead people who have opinions, desires, emotions, weaknesses, personalities, quirks, bad days, conflicts, and more.  This is messy. 

3. Leadership Comes With Great Responsibility

You are responsible for everything that happens on your team.  The buck stops with you.  That can be a heavy weight to carry. 

4. Leadership Is A Tricky Balancing Act

Jim Rohn said it perfectly: “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not be lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”  Finding the right balance is tough.

5. Leaders Give…And Give…And Give

You have to give a lot of yourself to your team members as a servant leader.  Someone on your team always needs your time, attention, or input. It can be hard to serve others and put your team members first. 

6. Making Hard Decisions Is Hard

You have to make hard decisions.  Sometimes you have to fire someone, give hard feedback, or make decisions that negatively impact others. They’re called “hard” decisions for a reason.

7. Leadership Is Humbling

Everyone makes mistakes but as the leader, your mistakes are often more visible and costly.  Your weaknesses and areas for growth are seen by more people. Being humbled is hard. You need to model humility and imperfection for others.

8. Leaders Are The Limiting Variable

You determine the success of your team.  In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, John Maxwell defined “The Law of the Lid“, saying that “an organization cannot grow beyond its leader.” This means you better be doing the hard work of growing so you don’t become the lid preventing your team from becoming what it needs to be.

9. Leadership Isn’t Always Glamorous 

You have lots of meetings, too many emails/messages, extra HR training, a bunch of 1-on-1s, a budget management headache, crises to solve, and a to do list that’s never ending. It’s challenging to get it all done.

"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." – Jim Rohn Share on X

Still Want To Be A Leader?

If this post didn’t make you want to quit being a leader or scare you away from leadership, then you’re right for the role!

If I couldn’t pay you to quit being a leader, then you’re right for the role!

The best leaders know leadership is hard yet still want it. They embrace these challenges and know greatness comes through them. They realize the best things in life aren’t easy. They know leadership is awesome and worth it in spite of and because of these things.

If you are passionate about and love leadership, even though it’s hard, do you know what happens?  You make a real DIFFERENCE to people.  People grow, lives are touched, goals are conquered, teams connect, results are produced, excellence is achieved, success is accomplished, greatness is created. 

Those are not easy outcomes but your passion and love of leadership will make them happen.

Leadership is important, awesome, and hard!

(If you think leadership is hard, click the Like/Heart button below)

Post artwork by the amazing Gapingvoid team. Check them out!
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