A Leaders Response to Dissonance
"Dissonance"- Sounds of unrest; the opposite of consonance.
Leader Spotlight: Brandy M Ford
Change,Challenges,Problems,Instability,Conflict, and Disharmony can be used to describe “dissonance.” Things change, change brings challenge, and no matter how good a leader you are, there are things that you simply can't stop that from happening. How you handle the “dissonance” will define you as a leader and have a great deal to do with how effective you can be even to those around you. Some challenges come in the form of people or problems that present obstacles to reaching a goal. Far more come from within the leader himself, or from the situation of simply being a leader.
Every leader must face many of them and learn to deal with them in some way. A challenge is an invitation to rise to another level, to test yourself and improve in the process, to show that you can accomplish something that may seem difficult, or even impossible. Almost all leaders are made by recognizing, learning from, and rising to the challenges of leadership.
Today's Leader Spotlight is highlighting Atlanta professional Brandy Ford. Brand is the Founder of a non-profit ministry, GameChangers 180, that is dedicated to providing support and encouragement to members of the professional athletic community. Ms. Ford is also a motivator and advocate for Cervical cancer awareness. Unquestionably, she is passionate about helping others and refuse to quit. But she has proved to be a winner simply because of that reason; Quitting is not part of her vocabulary. Even Ms Ford has faced dissonance in her personal life that has caused her energy and faith to seemingly reach its lowest point, but she faced the challenges head on. When she was faced with dissonance within her business, she looked for creative opportunities and remained logical. I personally witnessed demonstrate another response to dissonance that is profoundly helpful; she sought the opportunity to collaborate and share the weight with others.
Leaders response to Dissonance:
Remain Calm
Face the challenge or problem directly
Seek creative options / Remain Logical
Collaborate with others
Life is not always smooth sailing. Nor do things move in predictable patterns. There will be stormy times and occasions when the unexpected, even the disastrous occurs. Strong leaders are prepared to struggle through hard times and see things to a more logical conclusion. The darkest days in the life of author Thomas Carlyle took place when his friend, philosopher John Stuart Mill, sadly informed him one morning that the manuscript Carlyle had given him to read was used by the maid to start the fire that morning. It was the only copy and had taken Carlyle months of time in research and writing. Carlyle alternated between rage and grief. One day he looked out his window and saw bricklayers at work. "It came to me," he wrote later, "that as they lay brick on brick, so could I still lay word on word, sentence on sentence." Picking up his pen he began to rewrite The French Revolution. His work endures to this day as a classic, and he is an example of one who was willing to struggle with an unexpected difficulty. Creative
Coaching through Music
“Music can change the world because it can change people” - Bono
