Lead With Your Butt

There was a peace activist from the Vietnam War era who was also a priest named Daniel Barrigan. And somebody once asked him, “Where is faith? Is it in your head or is it in your heart?” And his famous answer was, “Faith is where your ass is at.” As the leader of your business, you can get caught up in what you know to be true or this belief you have in where the company’s going.

And you can get frustrated because your team doesn’t share that. They don’t follow. They frustratingly continue with the habits that are short of that goal. And the lesson from Daniel Barrigan is, it’s less important what you believe or what you think about your company’s future and who, what the value is. It’s more important how you act. Your team will be watching you much more than they are listening to your words or embracing your ideas.

So the encouragement here is to yes, have a plan, have a vision, necessary for sure. But to activate it, you need to do the work. Lead with your butt.