The Footnotes Blog

Photo belongs to James R. Howard

Through the course of this blog, I’ve talked about the importance of building trust, building teams, learning from our mistakes, and being persistent when it comes to achieving your goal because at the end of the day that’s what good leaders do. At the end of the day good leaders can follow through and achieve their goals, whether that means winning the game with their team, delivering the product on time to their client, or navigating towards a destination.

Photo belongs to James R. Howard

Granted, you don’t always have to be a winner to achieve your goal as a leader, as I’ve written before. Leonidas, the Spartan King, famously led his 300 Spartan warriors to stand against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, sacrificing themselves in the defence of greater Greece. Despite losing the battle, Leonidas was able to achieve his goal of rallying the rest of Ancient Greece’s forces to successfully expel the invading Persian army the following year. The point here is that success doesn’t have to mean always being a winner, but rather that you are able to achieve your goals.

Photo belongs to James R. Howard

In life we learn that success, whatever way we choose to define it, requires commitment, skills, learning, and making good decisions. That’s why throughout the course of this blog series I’ve reflected on my own life and what I’ve learned so far about what makes good leadership. One of the articles I wrote that judgement is a crucial skill you need to develop when working towards being a successful leader. Making good decisions comes from a calculation of experience, learned knowledge, and having a support network around you to help consider possibilities and consequences of the choices we make.

Photo belongs to James R. Howard

Making good decisions and being a successful leader requires trust to ground the knowledge, experience, and relationships we engage in that support our efforts to achieve our goals. Without trust our ability to see over the horizon and understand the consequences of our decisions on our goals is blotted out with uncertainty and unanswered “what ifs” that can push our goals further out of reach, which isn’t something that a good leader should want.

Photo belongs to James R. Howard

Since writing this blog I’ve realized that trust in ourselves is the place where we begin our journey towards successful leadership. Know who you are, reflect on your past, and ask yourself what you can do in the future to be better than you were yesterday. So, my last call to action for you dear reader, is to trust in yourself. You have what it takes to achieve your goals, and be a successful leader.