Courageous Leaders Blog

While engaging in a conversation with a colleague we explored whether the time is ever right to be courageous? Will you ever be well enough prepared to be courageous in your conversations, your decisions and your actions? It reminded me of the dilemma many face when starting a family - is it the right time to have children - do we have enough money saved, do we have a big enough house, are we ready emotionally, are we getting too old? Ultimately most of us who eventually made the decision to proceed would agree there is never a "right" time to have children.

Leap in, allow yourself to BE vulnerable and most importantly relinquish the need for control. This is what gets in the way of most people wanting to action the value of courage. Leaders in particular can let ego, control and power get in their way - far easier to claim we are just not ready yet. In my experience you can never be ready. I facilitate workshops to guide people in being courageous - and naturally I need to role model what courage looks and sounds like.

I believe people too often claim the time is not right because they don't feel ready to engage in the conversations or make the behavioural choices to demonstrate courage. This is an important distinction to make - differentiate right time from being ready! The reason I say this is that the time is very often right and the excuse is used because the leader or person does not feel ready. They do not feel like they will have control.

I can honestly say that I have never felt ready in the moment, to be courageous. My heart still pounds, I still question whether I should engage in the conversation or take the action - and it takes great discipline to stop myself from using the excuse of the time not being right. It has nothing to do with time and everything to do with the feeling of readiness.

Return to the metaphor of having children - and it is nothing to do with the time and everything to do with feeling ready - because we lose control, for many we relinquish power and our ego can certainly take a bashing. Exactly the same in business for leaders.

Recognise when you rely on the excuse of time, appreciate you might never feel ready and then challenge yourself to unleash the courage to do it and say it in the moment.

I recently engaged in a wonderful conversation to explore how courage could be used as an excuse for maverick behaviour - for example where someone doesn't want to adhere to good business process or implement a decision they don't agree with.

When organisations decide to embrace courage and invite their people to unleash more of it personally then leaders must be ready to engage in conversations to define what this looks and feels like in a constructive way.

I see people confusing courage with aggressively asserting an opinion and often at the expense of others.  Or at its worst, having the courage to defy a decision and making their own way forward without engaging in a conversation to explore any implications.

I do not believe this is courage at its best. Yes they have decided to face their fears and rather than retreat from a conversation or avoid sharing what they really think - have made a conscious effort to be courageous. However people can sometimes swing to the other end of the pendulum and instead of toeing the line as they have done previously, they display what could be perceived as maverick behaviours.

It is important to encourage people to find constructive ways to engage in these courageous conversations with each other; and because they haven't done it before they fumble their way through or bluster their way through!!

Courageous leaders engage in plenty of conversations to determine and agree on the behaviours they are going to use in the team to bring courage alive - dare I say it - it is a journey of exploration. And it needs to be very real and very confronting.

Recently I sat as a very dear colleague welcomed participants to the fourth day of a leadership development program I was facilitating. She shared the importance of humility when leading - that it was not about being self less but rather thinking of self, less. Fine and important distinction. My colleague then expertly progressed to link humility with being a servant leader and operating without ego.

The ego naughtily gets in the way of us being at our best and bringing out the best in others. Ego pops up to protect and defend us so we can stay "safe" and "right". It stops us from hearing and accepting feedback. It keeps us on the same track so we have predictability and can "look good".

It prevents us from learning and experiencing habitual events and situations with a different mindset. It cuts us off from new experiences. It strangles our creativity.

My colleague suggested the power of "egos anonymous" - where people gather to share how their egos have got in their way and prevented them from being at their best.

The ego works hard to distract you from your courageous path as a leader. So it takes courage to challenge it, find the triggers that enable your ego and then "stand up to it". Courageous Leaders acknowledge this and they work hard to challenge the ego!

I engaged in a few conversations recently about the link between courage
and business outcomes. What is the business benefit of engaging more
courageously with each other?

When people hold themselves personally accountable to turn up more
courageously then conversations are different - they are more open, more
real, more challenging and ultimately result in improved:

1. Decisions - higher quality, greater speed, willingness to diverge
before they converge into a final decision and higher levels of buy in
to implement and embrace the decisions

2. Engagement - when people are real with each other and share openly
there is heartfelt connection and people bring themselves completely to
the resulting actions and activities

3. Intellectual application to business issues - when people are
enCOURAGEd to bring their thoughts, ideas and feelings openly and in a
very real way then you are leveraging the intellect of each person and
this adds up to far greater intellectual capability than just that of
the boss - it is simple mathematics!

4. Innovation and entrepreneurial thinking - because people are actively
invited to think outside the box and test the boundaries without fear of
retribution, labelling and judgement

5. Collaboration - increased speed at which people work together to
achieve a result in an innovative way, while feeling inspired and
engaged. Ultimately this provides a competitive advantage in the market
place.

And it all starts by bringing personal accountability for being
courageous. It works quicker and with greater success when it is
initiated and lead from the top - the existing leaders.

My initial and quick thoughts demonstrate the business outcomes for
putting courage into action are significant.

Watching a movie on the flight over to NZ got me reflecting on how people let fear drive them apart. It is very easy to do - fear to have the conversation you really want to and need to have - means you say nothing, make assumptions, dive into your own thinking and drift further apart.

This is so damaging in a relationship (business or personal) and once the rot sets in it is very difficult to reverse. So notice it, own it, name it and deal with it. Life is far too short not to - why invest in the new when an investment in the existing could result in the release of such potential and such exponential possibilities that we could not even imagine what we could create. So face the fear, talk about it, stop ignoring it or pretending it is going to be OK.......it won't be OK unless you address it openly, directly and bluntly AND with the amazing intent to release the potential you know is there waiting to be unlocked!

Think of a relationship where you have drifted apart - acknowledge the fear that has perpetuated this wedge and space - own it, name it and determine what conversation you can have to remove the rot. Think about the context and then identify the necessary content.

I am going to do this with a business relationship and will keep you posted on my outcome and my emotional resilience.

In this fortnightly series, Alison Glynn-Baker discusses some key concepts in Mandy Holloway’s book, ‘Inspiring Courageous Leaders’.  She also poses some provocative questions.  We invite you to provide your opinion and join the discussion.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by [those] who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare… Impossible is nothing.”  - Muhammad Ali

Nine = Infinity

Mandy talks about the sustainability conundrum.  How can a business achieve sustainability in terms of people, financials and the brand?  For example, it is tempting to cut investment in people when the world threatens to go into economic meltdown.  Some would say it is imperative.  But is it?

Impossible is nothing.  And possible is everything.  The nine components of the Courageous Leaders Model are positioned around the Infinity symbol.  This represents infinite personal and professional possibilities.   The potential to do business differently.  The potential to evolve as a leader on a journey of life-long learning.

Nine=Infinity. The Nine Elements of the Courageous Leaders Model

The rest of this blog series will explore Nine = Infinity in more detail.  Here is a quick introduction:

As an emerging leader, how do you build the courage and conviction to lead differently? The first of the nine components is leadership mastery:  embracing your best self and reaching mastery in relationships, the business and technically.

You build confidence in your leadership mastery by spending time in reflection.  One tool you can use is Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, which I will discuss later in the blog series.

Once you have confidence to make the right choices, how far will you go to put your leadership mastery into action?  Are you prepared to take full responsibility for the consequences? This is the concept of conviction.

As an emerging leader, once you have developed courage in your leadership mastery, you can overcome a fear of or indifference towards having necessary, challenging conversations with your existing leaders.

Both emerging leaders and existing leaders need the courage to connect and commit - to meet in the middle, on common ground.  As an emerging leader, you need to have the conviction to challenge the status quo.  Sometimes even challenging existing leaders.  And as an existing leader, you will need to unleash your courage to be challenged and to change.  What starts off as an intimidating wedge of fear for both parties becomes a ledge of learning, untapping that infinite potential we talked about earlier.

The next of the nine elements of the model is challenge and how we respond to it. It is critical to drop the defensive behaviours, manage our emotions and embrace conflict.

How we respond to change is critical for our life-long learning, and for the sustainability of a business.

The last of the nine elements of the Courageous Leaders model is a high-performance culture. In a high-performance culture, a united population of courageous leaders is engaged in constructive and supportive behaviours, and is running a business which is sustainable in the long-term.

Maybe by embracing all nine components in our journey towards becoming Courageous Leaders, we really can create infinite possibilities.  Is it impossible to make business about more than just the share price?  As a Courageous Leader, what else could be possible? This is your chance to have your say.

Don't have a copy of Inspiring Courageous Leaders? Buy it now


About Alison Glynn-Baker: Alison Glynn-Baker has 15 years’ experience in professional services marketing, business development and operations.  Through her own consultancy, she has combined her two passions - training and writing – to help clients improve performance both personally and in business.

 

As we still experience the GFC lag - with corporate collapses rising, redundancies prevalent and increasing pressure on cost cutting -  I thought it important to remind people of the power of the upward spiral of courage. When people operate on this upward spiral of courage they come to situations with curiosity, interest, intrigue, energy, enthusiasm, collaborative thinking and a desire to find a creative solution not discovered before. While we still experience the lag of the GFC it is easier for people to come from the downward spiral of fear - with an overwhelming desire to protect, control, comply, regulate, shrink and order. Such an approach does not inspire people to bring their best to what they do and so we limit our ability to think outside the box and find different solutions to our dilemmas.

I recall when I was working in South Africa and experienced such liberating and inspiring passion when we came from Upward Spiral of Courage. We were experiencing tough economic times much like the current GFC lag and the Managing Partner of our firm felt his only option was to make people redundant in order to bring costs under control to ensure the bottom line was protected.  I challenged him to come from the Upward Spiral of Courage by inviting everyone in the firm to collaboratively come with passion, integrity, curiosity and creativity to find an alternative solution. I am thrilled to say that each employee chose to work together and we created a bigger impact on the bottom line than the planned redundancies  - by cutting costs not thought about by the Managing Partner and creating energy around finding more revenue!

So I invite each of you to come from the Upward Spiral of Courage and find better ways to create sustainability - not just financial...also people, brand and environmental. We CAN do it. Please share your stories and experiences and support each of us to grow and develop on this Upward Spiral of Courage.

Reading my daughters research for a project I came across this idea and loved it - firstly that your brain wants to select or reject information and ideas. Secondly if you don't allow the brain to reject something and can actually keep two things in your brain together for long enough then the brain can actually merge them together.

In our rush of daily living I believe we do the accept or reject far too quickly and do not allow our brain to sit with things and persist with a level of patience and with a level of acceptance of seeing this kind of chaos as constructive. So why not challenge yourself to do this for a day and see what happens?

I love grabbing inspiring quotes and making business sense of them - so lets look at this inspiring quote from Ms Frank:

"How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

It takes most business people a significant amount of time to grasp this concept - instead too much time is invested in justifying why they can't make the changes necessary to unleash the improvements. Why one person cannot create change.

Switch your energy into making it work - be proactive. Do this rather than being reactive and protective. We'd love to hear your stories or receive your questions.

Reading this quote from Margaret Mead reminded me also of a story shared by Anita Roddick - founder and CEO of The Body Shop - she shared how you can make a difference no matter how small! She asked her readers to think of one mosquito in a tent and the impact it has. This got me thinking.....is this because the mosquito is completely focused, unconcerned about needing my approval and wanting to achieve its goal of drawing my blood even when I don't agree?

So back to Margaret's quote:

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Participants of our Courageous Leaders development initiatives believe they CAN make a difference; they can inspire change......and when there is a population of emerging leaders ready to challenge the status quo.....watch out I say! So to all of our past and current participants keep unleashing your courage to inspire change! And remember size, number, hierarchical position is not nearly as important as you think it is!