🔒How to be a courageous leader

Many of us wonder why some people have courage and others don't.

This intriguing question is the subject of many books, papers and podcasts. It's also a theme in the iconic 1939 musical “The Wizard of Oz.” We know we need courage, but it is surely elusive to many.

If you ask what courageous leadership looks like, people stumble on the answer because it is hard to describe. We know when it is not there, but how do we describe courageous leadership so that it is clear, measureable and therefore, learnable?

How can we become courageous without a clear definition and a clear path that provides a way to develop this elusive characteristic? How do we create organizations that not only profess courage but systematically blaze paths to innovation and creativity? How do we as leaders develop and embrace an appetite for falling and getting back up to try again … and again?

Simon Sinek, TED Talk sensation and author of “Leaders Eat Last,” tells us “leaders rush headlong into the unknown.” The very idea turns most of us into cowardly lions! Why is that?

Ironically, “courageous leadership” demands that we shed the armor we wear every day, armor we have convinced ourselves will keep us safe and our profits predictable. This armor blocks the door to re-creation, creative sparring and brilliant disagreement, the sometimes uncomfortable discourse we need in order to rumble with groundbreaking ideas. Putting our armor aside exposes our vulnerability, but there are no shifts without vulnerability and a culture that allows for it.

Brené Brown, author of “Dare to Lead,” points out that “Who we are is how we lead.” She and Sinek agree that these times call for a new approach to how we lead organizations, businesses and governments. It is about making the decision to either open hearts or squeeze them, to focus on people rather than numbers and to lead for the long term rather than the short-term win. Those are the choices we need to make, and that takes courage.

In “Leaders Eat Last,” Sinek reminds us that when groups face a threat, real leaders will put the group's interest ahead of their own self-interest. Leaders make sacrifices, they take the hit, they dedicate their time, energy, reputation — “maybe even the food off their plate,” says Sinek, because “when it matters most, leaders eat last.”

What does such courageous, self-less leadership look like in our workplace, the community in which many of us spend most of our time?

Courageous leadership at our jobs is evident when we say “yes” to taking on new projects that have no guarantee of success. It shows up again when we are willing to back members of our team should such projects not work. Boards of these organizations display courage when they support their forward-thinking executives, even after a bad quarter.

Brené Brown tells us, “The level of collective courage in an organization is the absolute best predictor of that organization's ability to be successful.”

So, how do we build courageous workplaces? We can start by being courageous ourselves, no matter what level of official leadership we have inside the organization. We can create and enlarge “circles of safety” by showing others we are trustworthy.

And guided by a greater purpose than our individual or organizational self-interest, we can genuinely care about one another in ways that make self-sacrifice and risk-taking feel like the most natural thing in the world.

Those we work with will be more willing “to rush headlong into the unknown” if, as the “once-cowardly” lion in “The Wizard of Oz,” discovered, we ourselves act in ways that foster trust, a genuine concern for each other and a higher purpose for our efforts.

Karen Senteio is the director of consulting and training for Leadership Greater Hartford.