Doubt can undermine our ability to commit to a course of action. How do we manage through that in the time of COVID-19? Join us as we explore in this, the third of our short series of posts, distilling leadership lessons from classic stories of the journey home.
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“Orpheus is a long way from sweet sunlight. Deep beneath the earth, in the kingdom of death and darkness he stands before Hades, God of the Underworld, and his wife Persephone.
“Desolate and riven with grief, Orpheus has come to beg for the return of his wife Eurydice who died before her time, bitten by a poisonous viper the day after their wedding. What happens next decides whether he will ever see her again.
“He raises his lyre and starts to play and sing. All the souls of the dead begin to weep, so deep and overwhelming is the sorrow in the music. Hades himself, the hardest-hearted of all the gods, is moved. Persephone, who knows the sorrow of lost love, asks her husband to grant Orpheus’s request.
“Hades agrees to allow Eurydice to return with Orpheus to the land of the living. But there is a condition. She will follow behind him, but he must not look back at her before they both leave the underworld and emerge into the sunlight above. Orpheus is overjoyed and begins his journey back.
“As he walks through the shadows and terrors of the underworld, Orpheus strains to hear Eurydice’s footsteps behind him. Is she there? Sometimes he thinks he feels her breath on his neck, but he can’t be sure. Is she there? Is that the rustle of her tunic? He can’t be sure. Is she there?
“He reaches the river Styx and Charon the ferryman beckons him aboard. As Orpheus stands in the boat he feels it bob in the water. Has someone stepped aboard behind him? Is it Eurydice? He can’t be sure. Is she there?
“They cross the Styx and Orpheus begins the long climb up the foggy path that leads to the land of the living. His doubts are eating him up, but he’s so close now. He can see the faint glimmer of daylight ahead. Almost there. Did her foot disturb that pebble that rattles away behind him on the path? Is she there? Maybe Hades has tricked him, played him for a fool. Is she there?
“He can see the mouth of the cave now, just ahead. In seconds they will emerge into the sunlight and he will embrace Eurydice again as a living woman. But what if she she’s not behind him? Why can’t he hear her? What if this whole terrible journey has been for nothing?
“No longer able to bear the agony of doubt, Orpheus looks behind him. There in the gloom is his beloved Eurydice. He reaches for her, but she is pulled back into the underworld never again to return to the land of the living.”
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Doubt is a strange beast, and our relationship with it often undermines us. So how do you manage through it? We have found the principles, thought starters and short exercises below very helpful in our work with clients.
Guiding Principles
Doubts naturally arise whenever we consider and commit to action that carries real consequences
No enterprise, great or small, has ever gone forward without doubts being present, and any notion to the contrary is magical thinking
Doubt itself is never an obstacle to success, but our misunderstanding of doubt is.
Thought Starters
What if doubt and commitment are partners, not adversaries
What if there’s no conflict between them?
What if doubt is what naturally arises whenever we commit to something that matters?
What if doubt is proof of commitment?
What if Orpheus had understood this?
Three Lessons and Practices
Here are three key lessons that work well for leaders and teams wrestling with doubt. We offer them here with some exercises that will help you apply them.
Lesson #1: Embrace the doubts
Write down the doubts you have about:
The future of your business and its ability to succeed in this new landscape
Your ability to guide it forward
Your willingness to turn away from old mindsets and practices
How to connect with your own inner wisdom
Forging new strategies based on that guidance.
Lesson #2: Release the conflict
Consider each doubt as evidence of your commitment, then ask yourself what that reframing suggests to you. What new possibilities now present themselves? As you free yourself from the need to fight your doubts, what new energy does that release in you? How does that affect your commitment and resolve?
Lesson #3: Ask yourself for guidance
Trust yourself. Your identity and values have served you well (they got you this far, after all). Access those core values and observe what new intuitions arise to guide you, now that you have reframed your relationship to your doubts.
How have you coped with doubt as you lead your organization through unknowable times? Share your stories in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
You can read the previous post in this series here
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Tony Tiernan is president of Authentic Identity, Inc
Allen Schoer is chairman of The TAI Group, Inc