 Leadership Best
Practices
The RR of Top Leaders
The importance of combining realism and
responsibility in everything you do
By Brian Tracy
There are two essential qualities of leadership. Jack
Welch, CEO of General Electric, says that the “Reality
Principle” is the most important of all. What this means
is the practice of realism in all things.
Realism is a form of intellectual honesty. The realist
insists upon seeing the world as it really is, not as he
wishes it were. This objectivity, this refusal to engage
in self-delusion, is a mark of the true leader.
Those who exhibit the quality of realism do not trust to
luck, hope for miracles, pray for exceptions to basic
business principles, expect rewards without working, or
hope that problems will go away by themselves. These all
are examples of self-delusion, of living in a
fantasyland.
The motivational leader insists on seeing things exactly
as they are and encourages others to look at life the
same way. As a motivational leader, you get the facts,
whatever they are. You deal with people honestly and
tell them exactly what you perceive to be the truth.
This doesn’t mean that you will always be right, but you
will always be expressing the truth in the best way you
know how.
The second key quality of motivational leadership is
responsibility. This is perhaps the hardest of all to
develop. The acceptance of responsibility means that, as
Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.”
The game of life is very competitive. Sometimes, great
success and great failure are separated by a very small
distance. In watching the play-offs in basketball,
baseball and football, we see that the winner can be
decided by a single point, and that single point can
rest on a single action, or inaction, on the part of a
single team member at a critical part of the game.
Life is very much like competitive sports. Very small
things that you do, or don’t do, can either give you the
edge that leads to victory or take away your edge at the
critical moment. This principle is especially true with
regard to accepting responsibility for yourself and for
everything that happens to you.
The opposite of accepting responsibility is making
excuses, blaming others and becoming upset, angry and
resentful toward people for what they have done to you
or not done for you.
Any one of these three behaviors can trip you up and be
enough to cost you the game:
-
If you run into an obstacle
or setback and you make excuses rather than accept
responsibility, it’s a five-yard penalty. It can cost
you a first down. It can cost you a touchdown. It can
make the difference between success and failure.
-
If, when you face a problem
or setback, and you both make excuses and blame someone
else, you get a 10-yard penalty. In a tightly contested
game, where the teams are just about even, a 10-yard
penalty can cost you the game.
-
If, instead of accepting
responsibility when things go wrong, you make excuses,
blame someone else and simultaneously become angry and
resentful and blow up, you get a 15-yard penalty. This
may cost you the championship and your career as well,
if it continues.
Personal leadership and
motivational leadership are very much the same. To lead
others, you must first lead yourself. To be an example
or a role model for others, you must first become an
excellent person yourself.
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put
these ideas into action.
First, be completely honest and realistic with yourself
in every difficult situation in your life. Resolve to
face the truth, whatever it is. Don’t wish, hope, pray,
ignore or play games with yourself.
Second, accept complete responsibility, especially when
things go wrong. Refuse to blame others or make excuses.
You can tell the strength of your character when you are
under pressure. Be calm, controlled and constructive at
all times.
Brian Tracy is the bestselling author of more than 42
books, published in 40 countries and translated into
dozens of languages. Brian is a world renowned speaker
and seminar leader, addressing more than 250,000 people
each year throughout the US, Canada and in 40 other
countries.
Brian is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International,
and President of Brian Tracy University, a private
on-line University for Sales and Entrepreneurship. He
can be reached at
www.briantracy.com,
www.briantracyu.com or 858-481-2977.
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