The Leadership of Hope

We recently traveled to the Jersey Shore, to get a bit of ocean time amid quarantine (let’s face it - salt air can solve a lot of things). Our arrival occurred right before the remnants of a hurricane came ashore. So while there were a few days of awful weather, the last day was gorgeous. Stunningly, beautiful gorgeous beach weather.

Hope is a lot like that isn’t it? Stormy, dark, unsettling - and yet knowing that after the storm, even if there is debris, the sun will rise.

Napoleon said “Leaders are dealers in hope.” And boy, we sure have had a lot of challenges as leaders this year in being dealers of hope - COVID, remote work, racial tensions, an election, remote school, just to name a few. It can feel like the middle of a hurricane, no? Yet while we must acknowledge and recognize the realities we are living with, we also must be the dealers and champions of hope.

Hope business is hard work. It requires faith, vulnerability, fortitude, resilience. It is not for the faint of heart. Yet it is our role to make our teams successful - we must know that during the darkest times there is light, that to know the light we must understand what the dark is and use that to propel us forward, to create change and a new path. The dark and storms actually work in our favor, if we let them.

It’s our job as leaders to steer our teams through the storms, with an uncertain outcome, but a belief and certainty that the storm will make sense- and that the light and sun will come out on the other side.