A point you may have heard me mention at one time or another is the need for leaders to S.A.I.L.
That is: Situationally Adjust, Inspire and Learn!
Like a sailboat needs wind, opposition, and challenge to sail, so do leaders. Our job as leaders is not to create a smooth journey, or even to have all the answers. It’s to instill the confidence to weather a storm, and the knowledge to be able to convert that opposition and resistance into power.
Like a sailboat, we are constantly facing challenges requiring us to make minor (though sometimes major) incremental, situational adjustments. In sailing terms, those adjustments keep the sails full of wind (i.e. the opposition that is challenging us) and create Lift, the aerodynamic principle that propels the boat forward. In leadership, that Lift is the by-product of a leader’s ability to transform challenge into power. In the process, we the leaders, as well as those around us, are able to learn, grow, discover and create.
Like a sail, we need opposition for power. Opposition tests us. Opposition causes us to understand more realistically how our choices are affecting others. Opposition gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves if our actions are in alignment with our intentions. If you sail only smooth waters and surround yourself with only people who agree with you and who tell you what you already know, you’ll reinforce a lot but you’ll learn very little.
Allow yourself to be opposed and challenged, to experience those who disagree with you, to listen to those you might disagree with, and you’ll have a real chance to learn. You’ll discover the nuggets of truth in their message–because most messages have at least some of that. Those nuggets can then fill your sail with power.
So be willing to S.A.I.L.! — Situationally Adjust, Inspire & Learn–and anything is possible!
