Courage... where will it take you?

One of my favorite articles about the role of courage in leadership... have a read:

"Courage Makes Up a Leader" by Marshall Colt, Ph.D.
The Denver Post -- November 9, 1997

Courage. Dan Rather chose that word to conclude his newscasts several years ago...until he thought better of it. The nation balked, not at the word, but at the delivery--which didn't ring true. For courage is not a word to be spoken with a smile for blithe inspiration. It is a rare quality, extremely difficult to earn, requiring uncommon strength of character. Many aspire, few achieve.

Courage is more than fortitude. The latter is "hanging in there" when the going gets tough. When life doesn't go our way, we draw on fortitude to keep going. Courage, however, is the assertive acting out of a belief or principle. It is more than staying the course. It is a bold rudder command to radically change the course of events.

As business leaders in an oftentimes unjust world, we must not pay simple lip service to courage, but seek to embody it in our everyday challenges. Frequently a formidable task, with serious risks, it is the risking which gives courage its heroic quality.

Courage is acting with fear, not without it. It's doing the right thing when your stomach is in knots, when adrenaline is forcing you to act boldly or get the hell out of there. It is frequently a selfless act, sacrificing the best interest and safety of oneself for a greater good, sometimes paying a hefty price in the process. Yet, the courageous win far more often than they lose. While it takes "guts," in essence, courage is really LOVE. Love of justice, love of principle, love of people... above ourselves. It's what you'd do if you knew your kids were watching.
People rightly look to their leaders to make correct decisions and actuate them. That's what leadership entails. A leader inherently says, "I have enough courage (love) to lead the way." Leadership calls for not only successful accomplishments, but doing so with the best welfare of all constantly in mind. It requires courage on behalf of others, even in the day-to-day battles against bureaucracy, injury and injustice.

For courage is a continuum. It runs from the bravest feats of physical daring to the risking of one's career on a point of principle. Admiral Arleigh Burke said, "A man who doesn't have the courage to stand up for what he believes to be right in his own friendly councils, will not stand up on the battlefield for what he deems to be right...a man will not fight for principles unless he fights for principles in all arenas, friendly as well as unfriendly."

Courage can be lonely for it often calls for acting contrary to a larger, often more powerful, force. Will any of us ever forget the sight of that lone Chinese civilian in early June, 1989 who stood, unarmed, in front of a column of government tanks, blocking their advance? The physical and moral courage of one individual could not be illustrated more graphically. The image fills us with both fear for his safety and pride in his action. He is the pictorial personification of courage and we are awed.

Courageous business leaders fight for justice, the truth and the betterment of all. They intimately love, and through that love, uphold those values. They "stand for something," even if it means standing alone. Inaction, or the failure to take a stand, possibly to preserve one's career, is not characteristic of a true leader; and in the end, those people fail. True leadership requires the courage to follow through on what you stand for each and every day. For a life without standing for something is not a life, it's an existence.

So we must ask ourselves at day's end, if push came to shove, did we push back for rightness, for what was just, even at our own expense? We expect that of our leaders: a job courageously done, standing up, fighting the tough fight when it presents itself. We must expect no less of ourselves.

While an honest (wo)man is the noblest work of God, the courageous live forever. Reflect on the need for courage in our leaders and in ourselves. The kids are watching.