{"id":657,"date":"2008-02-11T11:59:29","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T11:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/leaderships-lon\/"},"modified":"2008-02-11T11:59:29","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T11:59:29","slug":"leaderships-lon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/leaderships-lon\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership&#8217;s Lonely Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/epicliving.blogs.com\/.a\/6a00d8341c78f953ef01156fddf61d970c-pi\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cycle\" border=\"0\" class=\"at-xid-6a00d8341c78f953ef01156fddf61d970c \" src=\"http:\/\/epicliving.blogs.com\/.a\/6a00d8341c78f953ef01156fddf61d970c-800wi\" style=\"width: 115px; height: 116px;\" title=\"Cycle\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The title of this post is not intended to depress you.&#0160; The title of this post is to prepare you, so you can know how to navigate the inevitable.&#0160; Time to put up a road block to &quot;denial.&quot;\n<\/p>\n<p>If you recognize yourself as a leader (someone who has influence-great or small), then times of loneliness are familiar to you.&#0160; You know what I mean.&#0160; Remember when you spoke out in defense of a colleague, but no one joined you?&#0160; How about when you embraced an idea that took longer to become a reality than many had patience for?&#0160; If you&#39;re trying to get your arms around the idea, then I hope what I&#39;m writing will inform and inspire.&#0160; <\/p>\n<p>A lonely road can be defined in the following ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A place where you are taking a path less traveled. <\/li>\n<li>A place where you are facing fierce opposition. <\/li>\n<li>A place where you know you&#39;re right. <\/li>\n<li>A place like the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crossing_the_Rubicon\">Rubicon<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>A place of deep questioning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For those of you who lead in corporate America I feel a special connection.&#0160; Please keep in-mind that leading is simply influencing.&#0160; Leading is not exclusive to a title or job description.&#0160; My loneliest times can be found during that period of my life spent inside of corporate America.&#0160; Oh my, did I learn though!&#0160; I learned what crucibles were all about.&#0160; Ever been in a meeting where your authentic voice was ignored?&#0160; I say authentic, because counter-genuine leadership is so prevalent today.&#0160; Ever tried to tell your manager that customers are growing tired of the delays?&#0160; But your manager turns it back on you and implies you&#39;re not a team player.<\/p>\n<p>Most mile markers on these roads are truly opportunities to grow.&#0160; Even though you may feel strange because of your circumstances.&#0160; Call it what you will, but you must go through in-order to grow into the leader you were meant to be.&#0160; <\/p>\n<p>So how do we navigate through the lonely roads?&#0160; Here are some practical suggestions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recognize that lonely roads are places of discovery.&#0160; The happy\/success roads rarely teach you and grow you. <\/li>\n<li>Lonely roads will help you know who is for you.&#0160; True friends stay with you on lonely roads.&#0160; Sycophants, posers and fair-weather friends won&#39;t go with you on lonely roads.&#0160; You need to know who you can count on. <\/li>\n<li>This might be pre-navigation, but don&#39;t think that lonely roads are for others. <\/li>\n<li>Your greatest crucible will be the object of your greatness communication. <\/li>\n<li>Find and stay close to trusted advisors\/mentors. <\/li>\n<li>Focus on your vision.&#0160; Without a vision, lonely roads will convince you to give up. <\/li>\n<li>Remove the incongruent values from your life. <\/li>\n<li>Remember, expression deepens impression, so keep talking about your dreams.&#0160; You are the dream and the dream is you. <\/li>\n<li>Find those you can help and do so.&#0160; There is healing in helping others as they navigate a lonely road. <\/li>\n<li>Start writing (a blog, a journal, a diary).&#0160; You don&#39;t want to leave your head full of your anger, your doubts, your fears.&#0160; The blank page is your friend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title of this post is not intended to depress you.&#0160; The title of this post is to prepare you, so you can know how to navigate the inevitable.&#0160; Time to put up a road block to &quot;denial.&quot; If you recognize yourself as a leader (someone who has influence-great or small), then times of loneliness&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}