I recently read a short interview with actor Stanley Tucci, a popular actor, director and writer. He has a memoir coming out soon and the interviewer asked him what it was like to write. Tucci said, “It goes through those phases where you go, Why am I writing this? I have nothing to say, this is the most boring book anyone will ever read. And then suddenly you read it and go, Oh, that’s not bad. The same thing happens with screenplays, or when you’re directing or acting. The doubt is really important.”  

His last comment caught my attention, “The doubt is really important.” Conventional wisdom has long insisted that we work to extinguish doubt wherever it lurks. We are told to stoke the fires of confidence, psych ourselves up, visualize success, and push those sabotaging voices that whisper defeat out of our minds.

Doubt is essentially fear based and will have us focused on any uncertainty or perceived gaps when we compare ourselves to points of reference.

In contrast to conventional thinking, doubt is normal. If you are wrestling with doubt, you are not alone. Often, the most accomplished among us have the greatest struggle with doubt, precisely because they are trying to do even more. The bigger the attempt at doing something new and challenging, likely the larger the doubt. 

If you’re having that experience where doubt seems to create drag on your forward movement, energy level or general ability to have a positive outlook, there is good news. 

Doubt is an important piece to setting ourselves up for success. It’s a key factor in our growth and can drive us in a positive direction.

So, what do we make of this idea that doubt is really important? Let’s take a positive perspective and consider some ways that doubt can work for us.

· Doubt can motivate us to be less complacent. 

· Doubt can improve preparation and performance.

· Doubt can encourage seeking out better results.

· Doubt can change how we think about problems.

· Doubt can generate a new perspective.

· Doubt can experiment with new approaches.

This flip-side perspective on doubt helps us become better at what we are doing. When “in doubt,” leverage it to authentically grow your confidence by bravely working through it. Take it with you as if it’s along for the ride instead of it having a sabotaging role.

Some strategies can seem to bolster our confidence, but often they are short-lived workarounds that circumvent the doubt sitting at our core. When we take the shortcut of ignoring, avoiding, or distracting ourselves from our doubt, we often miss the success and growth we could have. 

Driving through the middle of our doubt with intention has a different payoff and outcome. An honest, head-on encounter with your doubt can be the better path to real confidence, growth and development of your true competency. 

When you build something that’s left standing on the other side of doubt, it becomes a solid staging ground for your next adventure, your next area of growth and a representation of your true achievement. 

Embrace doubt, do not let it intimidate you into less. Allow it to fuel your movement forward because it’s a naturally occurring part of the growth process. When our beliefs shift from doubt as an opposing force into a catalyst, it flips the script in a positive way. 

Finally, be patient and realistic with yourself. Personal growth often comes from connecting your experiences with your beliefs. When the experiences of your accomplishments make contact with your observations of others like you being successful, they join forces to grow you forward. This takes time and some repetition but, in the end, it builds mastery.

Doubt is less a problem to shake off and more of a muscle that needs to be stretched, used and exercised to work to our advantage. When you engage and work with your own doubt, you have an opportunity to become stronger and more capable of doing the great things that are yours to do. 

I recently came across a fantastic comment from Jacob Morgan who is an author and speaker on leadership and the future of work. He stated, “All leaders must be coaches and mentors. But it goes beyond spending 10 minutes with someone and teaching them something to be slightly more successful. The goal of every leader is to make people more successful THAN YOU. True leaders aren’t afraid of supporting employees who become more successful than them. They want their people to outshine them and become strong leaders for the future.” 

As important as this concept is in today’s changing leadership landscape, it often goes unrecognized or is diminished in organizations, leaving professionals standing alone and isolated as they try to navigate the counter-currents of opposing leadership cultures and mindsets. 

Two challenges come to mind that create key disconnects, impacting the effectiveness and sustainability of leaders in any company where they exist. 

1. Organizational incentives are misaligned to a people-first definition of leadership.

2. Leadership is defined with different ideas and approaches.

As you sort through your own leadership definition challenges, here are a couple of thoughts to keep in mind.

You are not alone! There are others out there that see and experience the same thing that you do. Your experience is valid!  Believe it or not, the larger organizational and industrialized systems around us sometimes have it wrong. Work and leadership advocates are increasingly drawing these themes into open discussions.

Create a North Star definition of leadership.  Establishing a true direction with a common definition for leadership is essential for effective and healthy organizations. When you advocate for a unified  definition it will serve to anchor you, those you lead, and those you work with. 

Start a conversation that seeks to define and create support for a common definition of leadership. It will give your organization an opportunity to consciously evaluate their own varied leadership definitions, and then provide insights that are necessary to help the organization establish a definition of leadership that will enable growth.  The goal is to have a leadership definition that is adaptive and keeps people focused in a common direction that’s sustainable. It's possible to reimagine leadership in a way that multiplies the value already residing within an organization with a network effect.

With the deep and wide impact of the pandemic, we have collectively been experiencing what it’s like to have our work and life’s compass go haywire with the needle bouncing between true north and other random directions. It can be like finding yourself lost in the fog of personal and professional experiences and needing to once again find the best direction.

What is going on? Where have we come from? Where are we going? Who are we? Who am I? What am I doing? What do I want to do? Who do I want to be?  What's worth doing? These questions represent a classic crisis of orientation that people are finding themselves working through as personal and professional life have been pushed and pulled like taffy.

If you are a leader, a creator, a community builder or even a great friend to someone, here are five enablers that will help inform your direction and gain clarity about where you are going, why you are going there, and who you want to become along the way. 

Allow for Autonomy

You are you. We all have a need to be recognized and be empowered in our own journeys, standing at the controls. Being engaged with the context and the power of choice along the way is essential for establishing a sense of significance and trust in ourselves and with others. 

Allow for Community

You belong. A high rate of change and disruption can really strain our connectivity to where we sense we belong. Make room for reestablishing or strengthening connections to how you live and work as well as who you live and work with. Life is a community event and experience so don’t settle for isolation. 

Allow for Purpose

You have a role to play. You belong in the stories that you participate in. You are not only central to your own narrative but you are also beautifully and intricately weaved into the stories of many others. Be intentional with how you think about and engage the stories you are connected to. Consider your larger contribution in the bigger picture. Determine what is important to you and how you want to grow related to your purpose. 

Allow for Well Being

You deserve to be well. There is an abundance of loss, burnout, confusion, stress, anxiety, lack of security, and emotional and physical exhaustion. “Self-care” has certainly become a bit of a buzzword but the age-old concept of taking care of yourself so you can keep going and be of help to others is a true theme. The growing research connects our sleeping patterns, stress level, activity level, and nutrient intake as drivers of our health or un-health. You are not a machine, you are human and that is absolutely a better thing. We all need to own and care for our physical and mental form responsibly.

Allow for Identity

Humans are amazing. We are each unique and at the same time inevitably designed for change. Though we sometimes hold tightly to fixed positions, definitions and patterns for stability, we also crave adaptation and movement. It’s important to allow and design for your own evolution. Keep adding, expanding and iterating on how you define who you are and who you want to become. Have a vision for yourself but also allow it to flow and adapt when change, challenges, surprises and opportunities intersect with that vision. 

Sometimes you end up going to great places that you would otherwise not have planned on going. Life is dynamic, not static. Surprise, the same goes for you! We are all naturally drawn to the “doing” of life and business which, alone, can leave you directionless. But when you consider these anchoring enablers, you gain a sharper awareness of where you are going and why. You’ll likely find yourself holding a valuable map.

At one time or another most of us have experienced being stuck. Maybe stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire or stuck on a waiting list for tickets to a concert. More importantly, maybe you have been stuck in a personal or professional work pattern that feels as unpleasant as the sound of a needle stuck in the scratch on a vinyl record. You desperately want to break out of it and move towards something new, something better. The truth is, we all get stuck at some point. It’s a very human experience. Growth and learning comes from the journey of working to become “unstuck.” But how exactly do you do that? Here are four principles that can help.

Expand your perspective. There are times when you are limited by short-sighted narratives. It’s easy to see a current experience as a short story with a single meaning or message. But the reality is that it’s part of a larger composition, like a book is made up of chapters containing paragraphs of detailed thoughts, ideas and happenings. In order to see the full landscape, leverage a broader perspective and gain visibility of the bigger story.

Walk with someone. Nothing elevates and broadens your perspective like walking with another person or community. Walking with others can provide additional presence. Think about what it means to be on a quest. Quests inherently carry an emphasis on the journey as opposed to the destination. You are a traveler and finding others to travel with is important for becoming unstuck. The presence of others along the way decreases the negative effects of isolation and increases the capacity of your own emotional reservoir and imagination to sustain and navigate the journey. 

Recognize there can be many stops along the way. For example, when you are on a journey it’s not all about leaving location A and arriving at location B. A journey has stops along the way, making for a full-on adventure between where you start and where you arrive. It’s the in-between where the best stories and learning actually live. There’s value in each stop and that’s where insights, growth and true opportunity come from.

Create your story, leveraging those who can help you craft it. The stories we tell ourselves and others profoundly shape us and your story is important. Be intentional about creating and engaging your own personal network of those who can offer specific expertise, guidance, and knowledge gained through their own experiences.

You are uniquely qualified as the author of your own story. When you find your needle is stuck in a groove, use these tools to keep the journey moving. Remember your story is of value, so go ahead and “unstuck yourself” and start that forward movement again.