Momentum is a leaders best friend. When a leader has momentum on their side everything they do seems to work. Momentum makes you look better than you are. It is easy to move forward when momentum is taking you there, you simply ride the wave and do your best to keep up with it. Momentum puts wind in a leaders sail. It causes them to go further than they could have ever gone without it. It takes the team and the organization to greater places. When you have momentum it feels as though nothing can stop you. You dream big and risk more.

However, where there is a lack of momentum, even the best ideas seem hard to catch traction. Lack of momentum is a leader’s worst enemy. It makes you look worse than you really are. It is hard to move forward when there is no momentum helping you get there.  Even the best surfers can not do anything when the waters are smooth as glass. They have the training and potential to do great things, but are limited when there are no waves coming in.

Momentum is the “x” factor in leadership. It is hard to describe, but easy to feel. You know when you have it and you know when you don’t have it. When someone asks a leader, “How are things going?” what they are really asking is do you have momentum or not? You will never hear a leader that has momentum respond with an apathetic, negative, sad response to that question. Anyone with momentum behind them has a pep in their step and something to talk about.

Leaders are momentum seekers. They look for ways to catch opportunities that will bring momentum. A professional surfer will calmly wait for the right wave to come along before they decide which one to catch. They know how to read the wave in order to know if they will be able to make the most out of it. Many times a surfer will pass on good waves in order to wait for the great waves. When they see their opportunity wave they paddle out and make sure they seize the moment. It is in that moment that they will find the momentum to carry them on.

Momentum is about seizing the right moments. There are moments all around us, everyday, that have the potential to create momentum. It’s those moments that bring with it the opportunity to do great things. Leaders are able to see the moment before others see the moment. When others see something average, leaders have the ability to see something amazing. In the days before modern harbors, a sailor had to wait for the flood tide before they could make it to port with their ship. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, which means, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbor. The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment they could get into harbor. They knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare used this idea of ob portu in one of his most famous passages from Julius Caesar.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Leaders are like the sailors of old, they wait for the right moments that will bring about momentum for the future.