“This is one of those times when leadership sucks.” It was all I could really say to this young leader I was recently coaching. She knew what she had to do, and it was not going to be easy or comfortable.

Hard decisions are part of being a leader. Whether we are a CEO, a middle manager, or a front line employee – Whether we are a coach, a team captain, or an underclassman – Whether we are a husband, a mother, or a child. When it is time to step up and lead, no matter our title, sometimes leadership sucks.

But if I consider myself a Leader of Character, I must be willing to make those tough decisions even if I do not like making them.

10 Times Leadership Sucks

1. When you fire someone you liked and believed in, but they didn’t perform well.
2. When you fire a top performer because of their bad attitude and negative influence on your team.
3. When you tell your boss about something your team screwed up.
4. When you confront a teammate about her immature behavior.
5. When you work hard on the parts of your job that you hate doing.
6. When you are a coach and bench your best player before the big game because of his off the field behaviors.
7. When you tell the truth to your supervisor, while everyone else has decided to lie.
8. When you stay late at work to help a teammate finish her work.
9. When you tell a friend what he needs to hear instead of what he wants to hear.
10. When you confront your boss about her treatment of other employees.

The Choices Leaders Make

In each situation above, the leader has three choices. The leader has the choice to do nothing, choose the comfortable thing, or choose to do the right thing. Doing the right thing is the choice a Leader of Character consistently makes. But, it does not mean that doing the right thing is always enjoyable.

In fact, choosing to do the right thing will often come at a personal cost. The choice could make your life harder. The choice could put you on an island alone with your values. The choice could make other people angry, and they may not understand.

But, a Leader of Character does not make choices based on whether others will like the decision. They understand that when it comes to choosing between right and wrong, they will likely have to choose something that will make other people unhappy.

The Bottom Line:

Anytime I thought leadership was getting easy, the Good Lord would put something in front of me that reminded me that leadership sucks sometimes. This is how leaders grow from being a common leader to becoming a Leader of Character. They choose to do the things they know are going to suck, simply because it is the right thing to do.

Being a Leader of Character takes Courage. Being a Leader of Character takes Humility. Being a Leader of Character takes Selflessness. If as a leader we choose to be courageous, humble and selfless, there will be some times that being a leader sucks.

Leadership is not for the faint of heart. The rewards can often come years later when a former employee or player sends you an email or calls and thanks you for being the uncommon leader who was willing to do the hard things, because they were the right thing to do.

Choosing the path of least resistance usually ends up turning into the highway to hypocrisy. The easy choice will lead us to become something we never intended to be. The hard choice may suck in the short term, but the rewards are well worth the discomfort.

Question:

What aspects of leadership do you avoid because they may suck?

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