Leaders are held with high esteem and are viewed as great individuals. You have to be a great individual in order to be a leader, right? Of course you do. Leaders display great confidence and charisma, able to talk to just about anyone about anything, no matter the subject of conversation. But behind the facade of greatness lies doubt, fear, uncertainty, and loneliness that is difficult to express, to put on display and to share with others.
As leaders, you are expected to project confidence and strength. You must display authority and stability so that others can feed off of your energy and elevate themselves to be better. But behind the great aura that people perceive sometimes lies self-doubt, fear, anger, frustration, stress and even the sense of inability to move and just simply take another step forward. Yes, these are all real feelings that leaders at some points in their careers have. Yet they must mask those emotions, suppress them deep down, sacrifice their own well-being in order to support others as they raise others up to achieve their goals.
It can easily be missed or overlooked that leaders are, too, human, with human emotions and life experiences. Leaders too have pressures to deliver, deadlines to meet, bosses to answer to, and personal life struggles they must constantly balance and juggle. Leaders can’t bring their problems and pain to share with their team members, hoping for understanding and empathy. They certainly can’t run to their superiors winning about the struggle and challenges they’re facing. They must internalize all those emotions, process it themselves, take control of their own emotions, set it aside, and get in front of their teams and be the strong confident leader that’s expected.
This can sound like a deterrent to stay away from trying to be a leader. But it’s not. The purpose of this is to share so that we are all aware that our leaders may too suffer the struggles that we face, possibly even more, but they don’t show it. You as a leader are recognized for the sacrifices you make to be a great leader. So have this understanding, empathize for each other and appreciate your leader and yourself as a leader. You are appreciated.
Photo by: Bethany Legg
Denny Nguyen, a veteran IT leader and experienced operational manager with 15+ years working in the software and software related service industry. Currently, Denny oversees global operations of LogiGear including IT infrastructure and services, and facility worldwide and marketing and business development for the APAC region.
Started out as a test engineer, Denny has excelled his career into project management, IT management, account management, customer relation management, and marketing and sales management. In 2004, when LogiGear began to establish its present in Vietnam with two Software Testing & Research centers in Saigon and the third center in 2009 in Danang, Denny was instrumental and the key leader who was chartered to build out the entire foundation and infrastructure for LogiGear to grow for the next twenty years.
Thank you