How to: Stand Up and Be Counted

Being a leader gives you opportunities to champion for change. Your ideas will sometimes be welcomed, but at other times, you’ll have to be ready to stand alone and take some criticism. This calls for a strong sense of purpose and self-confidence.

What does this look like?

Someone who’s willing to stand up and be counted:

suggests bold ideas
champions ideas and positions that others don’t agree with
is comfortable with different opinions
knows their purpose
overcomes fear.

How can I do this?

1. Do some self-reflection

Re-think risk. We can tend to overestimate the risk of failure and underestimate our ability to succeed. This can stop us from taking risks and making changes for the better. Remember that doing nothing is costly too. Make sure you weigh up the risks of not taking action.
What’s your purpose? It’s easier to stand alone when you have a clear purpose. What risks are you willing to take to honour your purpose at work?
Have confidence in yourself. You won’t conquer the fear of standing alone unless you’re confident in your ideas and your ability to overcome obstacles. Gradually build your confidence by taking on tasks or projects that are slightly outside your comfort zone. Steady growth is better than occasionally throwing yourself in the deep end.
Give other people’s opinions less power. We all like to be liked and tend to avoid criticism, disapproval or rejection. But when we let others’ opinions dictate what we say and do, we’re giving away our power. Reclaim your power and be true to your purpose.
Tame your inner critic. The voice in your head that says you’re not good enough is simply fear trying to protect you from emotional pain. Acknowledge your inner critic, but let it know you’re going ahead anyway. Don’t let fear run your life and leave you with regret and frustration.

2. Prepare for push back

Know your stance. If you want to make a stand, you need to be confident of your stance, but also ready to acknowledge that you might be wrong. Interrogate and refine your thinking until you can explain in a few sentences what your stance is and why you hold it. Be able to explain how it benefits others. Scope the problem, develop a rationale, and pursue it until you’re proven wrong.
Sell your stance. Whenever you take a stance, you’ll inevitably receive both support and criticism. Don’t be intimidated by other viewpoints. Take them into account, think through your response and be prepared to discuss your idea respectfully and professionally.
Invite criticism. Ask others for advice and support. Be objective about criticism and avoid personal clashes.

3. Reframe failure

Know that many innovations and first efforts fail. Research has found that successful general managers have made more mistakes in their careers than others in lower positions. They get promoted because they have the courage to try, not because they’re always right. Other studies suggest that really good general managers are right about 65% of the time. That means they’re wrong 35% of the time!
Change your thinking about failure. Accept that errors, mistakes and failures are inevitable. Don’t let the possibility of being wrong hold you back from standing alone when you believe you should. The more comfortable you are with failure, the more successful you’re likely to be.
Start small so you can recover quickly. Start with small risks and build your way up to tougher challenges. Always learn from your efforts by reviewing what worked and what didn’t. Try to do something differently or better each time.
See failure as an opportunity to learn. Every failure is a chance to learn, better yourself or find a new route to success.

4. Be accountable

Take the blame as well as the credit. If you want to stand up and be counted, you have to be willing to take responsibility for the results of your words and actions—whether good or bad. Don’t blame others or make excuses. Be willing to acknowledge when you’ve made a mistake, to apologise and to discuss what needs to happen next.
Pause and reflect. Always take time to reflect after reaching milestones, even if you haven’t succeeded. This indicates to others that you’re interested in improving, whether the results are stellar or not. Reflect on what you can do differently and better, but don’t let missteps stop you from standing up in the future.