Growing is an essential and significant part of being a leader. You must constantly strive to grow your mind, body, and skills to serve your people better. However, it can often seem as if the advice and insights you read are based on a perfect world. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not perfect and presents many challenges to its leaders.

In this article, we are going to look at growth as a leader in the real world.

The Power Of Being An Underdog

Often when you start and are in the early stages of your business, you will be the underdog. You will have less experience, fewer resources, fewer contacts, and less pricing power than your competitors. You are the company no one has heard of the company no one expects to see. But being an underdog has some power.

When you are an underdog, you are often left alone. No one knows who you are, so your competitors are not threatened by you. This gives you the time to get to know your few customers, understand their pain points, and work on your product to suit their needs. This means that by the time you grow, are seen, and are attacked by the big dogs, you are prepared and have the data they wish they had.

Being an underdog is an advantage; use it!

Progress Trumps Perfection

When launching a new product, we are often focused on making the product perfect! We wouldn’t want to let our customers buy an imperfect project, right? Wrong! Perfection is built on data, data you cannot have without launching. So instead of focusing on perfection in all aspects of your work, focus on progress.

While the small wins may seem unimportant, they can quickly add up to a big win. Celebrate those small wins and focus on progressing every day.

You Are Your Own Worst Enemy

“If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will”

One of the biggest challenges we face as leaders are ourselves. Fear, doubt, and imposter syndrome are just a few of the many emotions leaders feel constantly. Some have to do with our biological brains, others have to do with our support system, but all are fixed by you.

Big goals can seem overwhelming, so break them into small actionable steps. Create discipline so that those small steps will build perfection. Create a culture of results. These are all decisions you can make to improve your life as a leader!

Leadership in the real world is very different from the movies or the perfect worlds often depicted in the media. The truth is, leadership is hard but worth it in the end.