Well, I am willing to give it a go if everyone else is on board.
How many times have we heard that conversation or some variation thereof? We want someone else to go through the door first. In military terms, we want someone else to take that bullet in the chest while we come up second or third and complete the objective.
It is a big obstacle for any of us in life - we are game to change as long as we know that we are not an island onto ourselves. While it is important that none of us become a one man or woman show, holding back until that first person sacrifices themselves to criticism is not our shining moment.
We all fear that initial failure or the critique of others when we step out from the crowd. We enjoy playing the game whack-a-mole but when it comes to having our heads blasted for being daring, well, we stay in our comfort.
When it comes to our careers, marriages, or families, we want to know that our efforts will have a lasting impact.
We care about senior leadership coming on board with our ideas and implementing them on a full-scale level. Our spouse knows that we love them and that we want to be as good to them as we were before we put a ring on it, but will they reciprocate our love?
Families can be some of the worst areas for conceding to the lowest common denominator - years of grudges or even generational sins keep our best character traits at bay.
How do we break the cycle?
There is a balance to both of these. We cannot give ourselves the benefit of the doubt while holding others to a higher standard. A wise man once told me that he asks double the workload of himself than he asks of anyone else on his team. We must hold ourselves accountable, and be willing to take the blame when something goes wrong.
That is the mindset of a leader, and it may require that we jump into the water before anyone else does. Once we do, then great things begin to happen.
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