Doubt.

'Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds,
         At last he beat his music out.
         There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.'

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

'One of the reasons that a person is interested in what other people have to say is they know they don't know. Doubt is the place in me for you to affect me.'

- John Patrick Shanley

A Leader holds certainty with doubt.

A Leader is someone whom others choose to follow. People won't easily abandon their driftwood and tread water over to your raft if you're bailing water.

Doubt is never on the PowerPoint list of The 10 Qualities of a Leader.

Yet Leadership is inherently a transitional state between certainties. Leaders are on a journey from here towards their belief in Something Better Over Somewhere. Otherwise it's Management. (There's nothing wrong with that.)

People who complain about their Leaders almost always don't need Leadership. They need a Manager. Or a parent.

Almost by definition, if someone has certainty about where they're going and how they're going to get there, they are not a Leader. They're an airline pilot or a train driver. (There's nothing wrong with them either.)

Each of us hears the call towards Something Better Over Somewhere. Many of us respond, only to fall back as the tether between our ego and the opinions of the world tightens.

She breaks free and suffers the whiplash of our jealous displeasure.

She lays down a pathway of good decision making to a familiar beat of self-doubt that calls:

'Come! I am just like you.'