You can lead or follow....it IS your choice

I’m sharing here, a 3rd email sent to the CEO’s in my portfolio on April 5th:

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Many of  you know Zoe Schlagg, for those who don't, most recently she was founding member and Managing Director of the Techstars Impact Accelerator here in Austin, Then late last year she left Techstars to work with Eric Schmidt at Schmidt Futures.

Zoe is one of the smartest and deepest thinking people I know. While we worked together, several times a week, I'd find myself in the midst of some deep conversation with her about something which I had little to no knowledge of other than some peripheral curiosity (which is usually what would lead to the conversation in the first place). 

About a year and a half ago, during one of those conversations, she dropped the theory of retrocausality on me and my mind was blow.  The concept has stuck with me since.  The basic premise of retrocausality is that the future predicts the present (not the other way around).

At the most basic level, I sort of understood it and could picture some event in the future shaping something which happened in this moment on a linear timeline however 'how that actually might work' was not connecting for me. 

Then yesterday, Zoe and I were catching up for the first time in a few weeks and we were talking about leadership.  We were both pointing out examples of present day people who we believed are either being good leaders right now as well as those who we believed were doing a poor job.  And more specifically, we were talking about people who think they are being good leaders, and aren't as well as people who are natural leaders and are rising to the occasion right now (even if it's not in their job description).

During the conversation we somehow got on the topic of retrocausality and it struck me for the first time what it actually meant, at least in the contextt of leadership.

Great leaders can form a mental picture of what they want their future to look like. They then cement that image so deeply in their minds that it becomes a (future) reality.  And then from that moment onward, that future reality sets the stage for the events of (each) day from the present until that future becomes the present and a new future image is created.

In other words, they are leading with a vision of the future so ingrained in their mind that they are able to rally and lead people to create the path with them each day - so in a very real sense, their future is predicting the present - retrocausality.

The biggest challenge I see with the concept of leadership, especially in hard times like these, is the confusion between having a vision and creating the path towards it versus 'being in-charge' and directing people, without any owned vision of where you are actually going.  The challenge with being in-charge vs leading is that you basically just become a follower to others who have vision and are leading around you.

You can even hear the difference in the language. You'll hear things like "I'm not sure what the future holds, but this is what we should do now" from someone in-charge where a true leader will say something like, "This is where we are going, now let's figure out how to get there"

And here is the thing, I do believe it's an active choice for most.  And the biggest blockers to being a true leader (vs being in-charge) is insecurity and fear.  The insecurity to believe you can set a vision and the fear to make that choice.  When this happens a' leader' just turns into someone in-charge (who is basically just following everyone around them).

Right now the world needs two types of people to manage through this, leaders and those willing to follow great leaders.  People 'in-charge' are not leading and are really just being lead by others around them...or getting in the way. We all need to decide who we are, especially in the tough times. 

I believe you are all leaders, it's why I invested in you. I believe you have the ability to envision a future and chart a course there, that is why you embarked on THIS journey to begin with.

So as you sit around this evening, planning for the week, my ask is that you take a few minutes to picture the future YOU are building towards then look at what you plan to do this week, to take yourself and your team one step closer....

...and as you do that, don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams...