From the course: Jeff Weiner on Leading like a CEO

Courage of your convictions: Beliefs

From the course: Jeff Weiner on Leading like a CEO

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Courage of your convictions: Beliefs

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- Let's talk about the courage of your convictions. So where does conviction emanate from? This is something I've given some thought to because when you get up in front of people, especially in difficult times, and you're trying to convey or reiterate that vision, that longer term vision, it can be challenging. It can be challenging. And I have found that the stronger I believe in something, the more capable I am of conveying that sentiment to other people. So this is something to me that is absolutely instrumental in effective leadership, is the courage of your convictions. For me, that's about beliefs, it's about values, it's about alignment. And it's interesting because we've touched on some of these already in the course of talking about where personal vision comes from. So let's start with belief. And just to reiterate, believe in your vision with everything you've got. It can't be rationalized, can't rationalize your vision. You can't just try to check a box. Oh yeah, I need a vision as a leader. Let me just scribble something down. You can't have a vision that's there for cheerleading because it sounds good. You can't define your sense of vision because you think it's what other people want to hear. You can't define your vision because that's going to make you most popular or beloved. It's got to be from you. And that point about how heartfelt the vision statements that we share with another are. That's a big part of it. That's a big part of it. And it doesn't have to be exclusively from your heart. It doesn't have to be exclusively about emotion. But that joy that we first captured and the love that was shared, that's got to be a big part of it. And some of you maybe a little more head-driven, some of you maybe heart-driven. Some combination of that is going to be really, really powerful. Being able to explain why it is that you're pursuing what you want to pursue. Maybe a little bit more from the head. But communicating and conveying that deep passion and emotion that comes from your heart. And you've got to believe in that vision with every fiber of your being, because if you don't, nobody else will, full stop. You get up in front of a group of people, and you start saying something, and you don't believe in it, and people can sense that. Inauthenticity from a mile away. And so if you're up there and you're saying something, and the words are coming out of your mouth, I don't care how eloquent you are or how articulate you are. If you don't believe it, people will know that and they will tune you out, especially when what you're trying to accomplish is hard, or the going gets rough, because people will get into self-preservation mode. And they're going to try to sniff out all the things that don't make sense and that aren't true, so they can protect themselves. So you got to lead from that place of deeply held belief, very, very important.

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