Ten Ways To Build Your Courage And Become A More Effective Leader
Courage is the most critical quality of a leader. From my perspective, all great leaders share this single quality. Courage is the ability to come face to face with fear and push through it. It is the force behind movement and growth.
Courage strengthens a leader’s determination to respond to and make a change. It empowers leaders to create the new, dismantle the old and commit to the future. The limit of your leadership and your potential for success depends on your ability to be courageous today.
I believe you are courageous every time you decide and act, every time you delegate and every time you pivot and modify your journey. Below are 10 ways you can build your courage and become a more effective leader.
1. Listen.
The courage to listen is what plows the learning ground. Listening with an open mind provides leaders with the opportunity to learn, form more informed decisions and build trust with their followers. Recognize the value of knowledge, and have the courage to listen and constantly seek new intelligence to improve your odds of success.
2. Dispute.
Great leaders have the courage to dispute themselves and see all sides of an argument without bias. Admit when you were wrong. This can free you from your ego and allow you to prioritize the success of the entity you lead.
3. Dissent.
Leaders must realize that they have a duty to dissent when they are not on board with an idea or a plan. Never consent to actions that are not aligned with the best interest of your organization. Be willing to trigger conflict in order to get to a better answer, but never aim to be confrontational.
4. Decide.
A leader’s role is to connect the past to the future with a clear vision and a series of actions — actions triggered by decisions. Progress is made only when decisions are made. Have the courage to decide in uncertain conditions and bravely face the consequences. Making a decision is the first step toward achieving results. To commit to continue the journey regardless of complexities is the next. Effective leaders are always ready to commit to deadlines, products, missions and causes. As a leader, the results you achieve are rooted in your decisions materialized through your commitments.
5. Invent.
When you choose to lead, you promise your followers to guide them from the present to a better future. You must innovate to fulfill that promise. To innovate, you must be courageous. Your organization must learn to be courageous, too. The courage to invent the future, whether with brilliant strategies or tweaks in products and processes, is a must-have for any good leader. To avoid stagnation and secure growth and prosperity, the courage to reinvent is even more critical.
6. Inspire.
Having the courage to inspire others and unleash their inherent entrepreneurial and leadership talents fuels greatness. But keep in mind that inspiring your team comes with a responsibility to take a stand for what you believe and walk the talk. Understand that courage is contagious, and courageous organizations have the potential to deliver superior results.
Allow others to inspire you as well. This can help elevate your game and enable you to see beyond your own limitations. Inspiration must be bilateral and requires courage in both directions.
7. Relinquish.
Great leaders have the courage to relinquish power. The courage to delegate is the courage to trust others to execute. Trust can multiply a leader’s power because it expands the creativity and execution ability of staff. Don’t just empower your team; help them unleash their own power and ignite a forward movement.
8. Dance.
To dance with opportunities and challenges is the true art of leadership. This means you must be aware of the timing of change and the need to pivot. The courage to dance is the courage to decouple from the old expired ideas and successes and find a rhythm and tempo for a new win.
9. Fail.
The courage to fail leads to a willingness to accept uncertainty. Leaders who are illusioned with certainty fail before they try. Great leaders have the courage to fail and are only afraid of failing to try. Remember that failure is part of being human. So, constantly seek opportunities to fail, learn and get to sustainable wins. Leaders who have never failed have never tried; they have compromised the future.
10. Succeed.
While the lack of courage to fail limits leaders’ ability to plan and try, the lack of courage to succeed prevents them from executing effectively as they contemplate a different, likely more complex world. Every success raises the bar and increases expectations. The courage to succeed empowers leaders to push through their self-defined and preconceived limits.
