“Go After the One”
“Go After the One”
I could do this alone. Let me be honest about that. A lot of solo entrepreneurs do very well in the leadership and coaching industry. I’m fortunate to have credentials, a platform, real-world experience, and a trusted network to operate as a solo practitioner and do just fine. But that is not why I built Vanguard XXI.I built this company because I believe in something bigger. I believe a team of leaders of character, who are trusted practitioners, will transform the public square and foster civility and human flourishing. You cannot do that alone. For me, this holy season is a vivid reminder of that truth. The most powerful acts of leadership in human history have not been acts of self-preservation. They have been acts of sacrifice. Putting someone else’s flourishing ahead of your own survival. Risking everything for the lost one, not the found 99, who the rest of the world may have written off entirely. If you have read Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary or seen the new film, you know exactly what I mean without me saying another word.
Spoiler alert. I’m a huge Ryan Gosling fan, from Remember the Titans to The Fall Guy, (I wanted to be a stuntman as a kid). Gosling plays an unlikely action hero, one whose character arc development always comes through for team ahead of self. You’ll have to read the book or watch the movie to discover his character, Ryland Grace.Here is the tension for many leaders: how do they accomplish the mission and preserve themselves at the same time? That happens. It is real, and it is real good. But what happens when you complete the initial mission, preserve self, and then face a new conundrum? The mission shifts. The stakes escalate. People and organizations’ ability to thrive are on the line.
What was once self-preservation now becomes a choice between comfort and calling. The new mission in front of you, the one that demands more than the last one, the one that could cost you everything, is the one with the greatest potential for human flourishing. That is not a tactical or transactional decision. That is a character forming transformational decision. Here is the space where leaders are truly forged.A vision lacking passion will also lack trust. A vision lacking passion cannot support an adaptable strategy. But when you hold that vision out in front of you with everything you have, build an adaptable strategy to pursue it, and apply precision to execute under pressure, and then you do all of that for something greater than yourself, at your own cost? That is a more excellent way. That is transformational leadership.
Jesus taught in a parable that he is concerned less with the ninety-nine who are safe. He goes after the one who is lost. That takes courage, character, commitment, and conviction in a truth, hope, faith, and love captured in grace. Grace. Sometimes the most courageous leadership decision you will ever make is to go after the one. Whether intentional or not, Gosling’s character’s last name, Grace, serves as a powerful antidote to the self-centered, self-preserving, self-promoting marketplace that consumes leaders today.
That is why we do what we do at Vanguard XXI. Service above self. Accomplish the mission, and optimize human potential.We are leaders who transform leaders, coach excellence, and build winning cultures. It’s our Project Hail Mary.
- Anthony