Many young leaders think their life and career will get “easier” when they make it to a leadership position. They also think it will be easier if they have the right team, better financial resources, a job in the right office or part of the country, first-class accommodations, or the perfect mentor or boss.
What they soon find out is leadership never gets easier. For that matter, life doesn’t either.
What experienced leaders have learned is that with ever new level comes a new devil. If you read the Bible from cover to cover you will learn God never called anyone to an easy task. Leadership never gets easier. What must change is not the challenge of the assignment, but the character of the leader.
Recently, Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson addressed this very issue. Below is video which has gone viral from a speech she recently gave a group of players. Check out her speech and then I will provide some closing comments:
Be someone who handles hard better. pic.twitter.com/JhkGCRg8o7
— Duke Women’s Basketball (@DukeWBB) July 5, 2022
The following are 7 leadership quotes and lessons from Coach Lawson’s address:
Print these out and put them on your desk or wall.
- “We all wait in life for things to get better.”
- “It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better. That’s a mental shift that has to occur in your brains.”
- “And the second we see you handling stuff, handling hard better, what are we going to do? We’re going to make it harder because we’re preparing you for when you leave here.”
- “So make yourself a person who handles hard well. Not someone who’s waiting for the easy.”
- “Because if you have a meaningful pursuit in life, any meaningful pursuit in life if you want to be successful, it’s going to the people that handle hard well. Those are the people who get the stuff they want.”
- “Don’t get discouraged through this time if it’s hard. Don’t get discouraged. It’s supposed to be and don’t wait for it to be easy.”
- “So make yourself someone who handles hard well and then whatever comes to you, you’re going to be great.”
So if you’re going through something hard as a leader, rejoice. You’re potentially on the right track. As Coach Lawson said, it’s not supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be hard.
The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.