A Leadership Short — Accepting Reality

It takes courage to step outside of your comfort zone and confront reality.

The ability to accept reality is a beneficial leadership skill. However, only a minority of leaders understand its usefulness for achieving better results. Many leaders struggle to take circumstances as they are and cannot find ways to work within those boundaries.

Part of the problem is that acceptance is often mistaken for approval or resistance when it is neither. Acceptance is actually about acknowledging the facts and choosing not to fight against reality.

Leaders in cyber organizations continuously struggle to keep pace with the increasing threats to their companies. Even though some of it is outside their direct control, the reality of their circumstance might be that they fail to meet expectations simply because the risk to the business is high.

In extreme cases, the company’s data has been compromised, and the pressure to respond and recover is exceptionally high. Whatever the circumstances, as a leader, you can’t deal with them effectively until you stop fighting facts and accept the situation.

Scott Edinger, the founder of Edinger Consulting, offers three kinds of acceptance that leaders should focus on: the results, your circumstances, and your failings and those of others.

Besides acceptance, it takes courage to step outside of your comfort zone and confront reality. Whether it’s an employee performance issue or a more significant organizational issue, it must be addressed quickly.

The fear of making a mistake usually causes some leaders to balk. Unfortunately, avoidance and inaction only lead to worse outcomes.

The best course of action is usually a direct response in difficult situations.