Daily Inspiration: “Be the reason people believe in a better future!”

“Be the reason people believe in a better future!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Great leaders inspire their teams to keep moving forward in the face of challenges and change. It’s easy to do this when times are easy, but it’s pretty tough when the environment becomes excessively volatile!

That’s why you should make a decision that you are going to be the beacon of hope, the light of opportunity, and the spark of optimism for those around you. The key way to do this is by ensuring that everyone has a clear view of the future going forward, and what it will take to get there.

I think this is why, right now, we are seeing so many organizations with CEO leadership meetings that are focused on the future. Organizations have spent the last two years in a state of triage, doing everything they can to survive and thrive in the challenging pandemic environment. Now, as things become a little clearer, there is some breathing room to start to concentrate on what comes next – and what it is going to take to get there.

Clearly, that involves managing disruptive change, aligning to industry transformation, mastering technological acceleration, and taming relentless volatility. The mission of a great leader at this moment is to inspire others as to what to do next – and they do that by painting a picture of hope, not fear. That’s why you should emulate their actions because they:

• inspire people with the idea of what is possible, rather than outline what is not possible
• challenge folks to think about what could come next, not necessarily what will come next (there’s a difference)
• help people to see the opportunity, not the threat, in every trend
• make everyone understand that it’s more important to focus on the things that can be accomplished rather than what should be avoided
• encourage people to provide their best ideas without fear of ridicule rather than keeping important concepts to themselves
• empower people to understand what it takes to be an optimist and how to battle down their pessimism
• take delight in getting people to start each day looking forward to what can be accomplished rather than dreading what could be avoided
• understanding the trends that matter rather than subscribing to the noise that distracts

In doing so, they take on the role of being a key reason why people believe in the future. And as the future comes at us at a faster speed, that has become more important than ever before!