Introduction
Many people recently celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. They ate special foods, attended parades, went out with friends/family, or maybe just sipped on shamrock shakes. With all these fun traditions, there is one that is commonly celebrated among most people, wearing the color green. Wearing green was introduced as a festivity to St. Patrick’s Day during the 18th century when the shamrock became a national symbol of Ireland. Sometimes, a rare variation of the shamrock is also used as a symbol of celebration, a lucky four-leaf clover. It is said that three of these leaves represent faith, hope, and love. These three characteristics can easily be applied to the best leaders we know. They believe/have faith in their team members, and that inspires them to grow. They nurture hope within their team to chase down the organization’s mission. They demonstrate love through respect and empathy for their team. But wait, what about the fourth leaf? The fourth leaf stands for luck. Does luck have a place in leadership?
Luck in Leadership
Thomas Jefferson once said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” And isn’t that the truth for many successful leaders? They pour their heart and soul into their work, using their natural abilities to achieve greatness. But, let’s face it, sometimes hard work just isn’t enough. This is where the art of risk-taking comes into play. A leader’s ability to make bold decisions that could either lead to triumph or failure can be a defining moment for an organization. But what happens when the risks don’t pay off? That’s where luck comes in. It’s the element that can tip the scales in a leader’s favor and make all the difference between success and failure. As leaders, we must seize every opportunity to create luck for ourselves and those we lead. But what would that even look like?
Leveraging Luck
Within the journal, The Military Leader, in an article, The Role of Luck in Becoming a Successful Officer, an Army Infantry officer who has completed five deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 22 years shared his thoughts on the role luck has in leadership. He provided four suggestions for respecting luck’s impact on success while acknowledging the steps leaders must take to cultivate the best opportunities for lucky outcomes. Each of these steps can be leveraged by leaders to cultivate luck for themselves and their teams.
- Drawing a line. There must be a firm line between your self-worth and your career. Accepting luck, both good and bad, positions leaders to not internalize successes and failures in an unhealthy manner. There are some outcomes that are outside of a leader’s control. Leaders should celebrate their efforts that lead to positive results and not beat themselves up over unfavorable ones.
- Prioritize influence. Leaders have a fantastic opportunity to connect with others. They can have a positive effect when they prioritize building deep relationships with their team members. This influence on team members will ultimately impact the effort they put forth in helping a leader achieve organizational success. Even when a leader and their team get unlucky and their actions on a project are unsuccessful, their bond is bound to put them in a position for future success.
- Pivot the spotlight. A successful leader is lucky to have talented team members around them who contribute to their success. Great leaders are mindful of spotlighting the talents of their team members and give credit where credit is due. Highlighting the contributions of your team members both in private and publicly demonstrates appreciation for their contributions.
- Create environments for luck. Cultivating environments that are full of opportunities for success should be a priority of all leaders. No leader has made it to their position of authority without a bit of luck; a mentor showed you the ropes of how to be an effective leader, that new job position just so happened to open up, and someone was willing to take a chance on you, or maybe you just so happen to be fortunate enough to be at a company long enough where you moved up the chain of command. Leaders must create opportunities for their team members to have experiences of luck.
Reflection: What luck have you experienced as a leader? How might you provide similar experiences of luck for your team?
