Courageous Leadership

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the tri­umph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who con­quers that fear.” — Nel­son Mandela

Lead­er­ship can be bru­tal­ly hard. It con­stant­ly chal­lenges you, increas­es your stress and often puts you in sit­u­a­tions you may not know how to handle.

A good friend of mine said that lead­er­ship is real­ly about courage – and I real­ized, talk­ing to many suc­cess­ful CEOs, that they get com­fort­able being uncom­fort­able. They get used to the tough con­ver­sa­tions, with tak­ing risks, and with failure.

Courage is about tak­ing risks. It’s about tak­ing the high road when every­one else goes low­er. It’s about con­fronting the bru­tal facts and doing things oth­ers don’t want to do. It’s about doing things you don’t want to do.

And courage is a mind­set. It’s the lens through which you take risks, have tough con­ver­sa­tion, stretch your­self and receive the pun­ish­ment of being in a senior role. Through this lens, you can take on those chal­lenges, and feel invig­o­rat­ed and proud of con­quer­ing them.

There is no ​‘in-between’ with lead­er­ship — it either slow­ly destroys your life, or it forces you to get stronger. — Your Oxy­gen Mask First

In a dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tion I had recent­ly, the per­son I was speak­ing with became angry and upset about a deci­sion I made. Although I under­stood why they were upset and knew there would be short-term con­se­quences, I knew it was the right decision.

Some­times you have to have the courage to do what you know is right, even when it’s painful.

I’ve worked with lead­ers who don’t have courage. As a result, their busi­ness is filled with medi­oc­rity – with their peo­ple and their cus­tomers’ expe­ri­ences. And, they suf­fer per­son­al­ly with a busi­ness they hate or is eat­ing them alive.

That’s why work­ing with a coach, men­tor or advi­sor is great. Some­times you can bor­row or rent courage from some­one who is more com­fort­able or expe­ri­enced than you.

It’s scary and chal­leng­ing to work through big obsta­cles but, with courage, there’s always a way through.

The Chal­lenge

• What issue do you, or some­one on your team, have right now that you may deal with dif­fer­ent­ly if you had the courage to tack­le it directly?
• Where could you bor­row or rent some courage, until you’ve found your own, to get the job done?

If we can help in any way, call us.