Courage Is A Skill You Can Develop
We live and work in a world that continues to be blurred and uncertain. Yet there is a timely, timeless and time-tested quality for navigating the ongoing uncertainty. That quality is courage. Today courage is fast becoming a superpower for facing the messy lives we ALL lead.
Unfortunately, courage is not a chip you can insert or an injection you can take. Nor is it a gene embedded within your DNA.
Fortunately, courage is a skill that can be trained, developed, observed and measured within all of us.
Jackie, a certified Dare to Lead facilitator trained directly by Brené Brown on the four courage skills, emphasizes the importance of courage in leading ourselves and others through challenges, risk and uncertainty. She echoes Churchill’s sentiment, “we are judged in the testing moments of our lives. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because… it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
So, how do you develop this superpower called courage?
1. Embrace The Suck:
Courage is about facing uncertainty and exposure head-on.
Rather than avoiding difficult issues, a courageous mindset leans into hard things.
Courage and vulnerability go hand in hand. They are opposite sides of the same coin. Think about it, you dare to take a chance on an idea despite the potential for failure. Regardless of whether it lands head or tails (whether you succeed or fail), it’s an act of BOTH courage and vulnerability.
Courage is challenging yourself to embrace hard things. And when you dare to say “yes” to hard things you embrace the suck. And the suck is not knowing how it will turn out. Yet, you vulnerably lean in and give it EVERYTHING you’ve got.
That, my friends, is courage.
2. Live Your Values:
Imagine, you value accountability and honesty. Your colleague is underperforming and missing deadlines. Other team members are talking about your colleague behind her back, break room kinda stuff, “Geez, Jenny keeps over promising and under delivering, I’m done covering for her!”
You have a choice. Engage in the gossip, participate in throwing Jenny under the bus and taking behind her back. Or, embrace the suck and engage in a tough yet tender conversation. Ask if she’s okay. Let her know you believe in her and want to help. Ask, what she needs to meet the deadlines and increase her performance.
Honoring your values means talking WITH your colleague (not about her). Knowing and practicing our values consistently builds integrity and fosters trust, both within ourselves and with others.
3. Grow Trust:
Trust is not a title, a position or something we can command from others.
Trust is earned through small genuine gestures of care and concern over time.
Fostering trust is as simple yet profound as making sure people feel seen, heard, and understood by you.
Trust inspires people to speak their truth, challenge the status-quo, take risks and ask for help
Trust allows for a dare to try, dare to explore, dare to innovate mindset.
4. Rise Strong Together:
Courage is contagious. Bravely addressing difficult situations sets a precedent for others to follow.
Courage is about mining the potential in yourself and in others. When you consistently embrace the suck, live your values, and inspire trust you earn the right to draw the potential out of others.
Your ability to rise strong and lead with resilience will happens when you dare to re-wire behaviors, rewrite narratives and rumble through challenges together.
This is your Call to Courage… it’s time to face the uncertainty with confidence by developing these essential skills.
So even though the future remains uncertain, there is a time-tested path forward. That path involves doubling down on developing courageous leaders. And doing so will increase performance, accountability and engagement.
Warning: It’s important to note, courage is not about wielding power over others or forcing vulnerability.
Courage is a superpower that should be used to uplift and enable ourselves and those around us to do the extraordinary.
Courage is about embracing the suck, setting clear boundaries, and rising strong.
