“The Magic 8 Ball is a toy used for fortune-telling or seeking advice, developed in the 1950s and manufactured by Mattel. The user asks a question to the large plastic ball, then turns it over to reveal a written answer which appears on the surface of the toy.”

- Wikipedia

A leader at one of our board tables was making an analogy. The decision-making process for many entrepreneurs or leaders is akin to shaking the Magic 8 Ball for answers. We all laughed…nervously. That sounded ridiculous and felt all-too-familiar, all at the same time.

The entrepreneur archetype is typified by a high-risk quotient. It is bold, audacious, and I would even say courageous to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. It also comes with a lot of isolation, loneliness, and second-guessing of nearly every decision they have to make.

This leader was differentiating a significant decision she had just made with the way other leaders make decisions (or maybe even with the way she had made decisions in the past).

She had shown incredible vulnerability and operated with great courage.
She had done what most leaders are frankly unwilling to do.
She had sought the wise counsel of others, acted on their advice, and in accountability, was letting her collection of counselors around the table know the results.
It had gone easier, quicker, and more successfully than she could have hoped.

And in humility once again, was acknowledging that this was a new muscle she was learning to flex. So honest. So beautiful. And she was now standing at the embarkation point on a journey toward patently better decision making and much greater success than she is already realizing. I am so proud of her.

This time she didn’t shake the 8-ball for answers. And our nervous laughter was confirmation that far too many of us still do that on far too many decisions.

Too many leaders approach business as a game of chance. Victims of an unseen assailant that lurks around every corner waiting to pounce. Subject to the whims of the marketplace and all those fickle consumers. Incapable of planning, operating strategically, or having much control with the outcomes of their futures as business owners and leaders.

We believe that poking our fingers in the eye of that misguided vision of a business is part of our jobs. To offer a methodical pathway toward business maturity. To force humility and accountability. To teach the conversational intimacy that allows a leader access to the very discernment and direction of the Divine.

For most of us, the idea that God still speaks, is concerned, interested, and available to us, comes as a revelation. The path to organizational success is paved with vulnerability, honesty, accountability, wise counsel, and accessing the wisdom of the discernment of heaven.

We are engaging a growing, diverse, and inspiring group of leaders. Our only requirements are that they are really interested in changing their leadership and organizations, that they are open to coaching, that they are humble…and they surrender their rabbit’s feet, dice, and Magic 8 Balls at the door.

Leadership is not a game of chance.

You have way more control over your organizational future than you have been led to believe. And if you choose, you can enjoy an abundance of wise counsel, discernment, and partnership on your journey.

Consider

Did Magic 8 Ball decision-making feel all-too-familiar?
Do you feel isolated, alone, and overwhelmed in your decision making and leadership?
Do you really think you can find the humility and courage it takes to not go it alone?
What is it costing you to continue to do life and leadership on your own?