What is courageous leadership?
This week in the United States, we hosted our first Presidential debate. For those who don’t pay attention to the media, I will just tell you that the majority of analyst and the American people agreed that no one won that debate—it was the equivalent of two 3-year olds fighting over a swing-set. I watched in disbelief that these were our candidates. These two men are the ones that the American people are going to have to choose from to lead the country. Both of these men felt that how they behaved is appropriate for someone in leadership. My, how our standards of leadership have fallen.
Someone messaged me and asked what brave culture and courageous leadership look like. “How does that show up in the workplace and how do you create it?”
There is a lot to unpack in those questions. Which is why it’s so rare to find. There is so much surface level aspects to leading that we typically focus on, that are useful skills but don’t require you to truly dig deep into what it takes to lead with courage.
In order to have brave culture, you have to have brave, courageous leaders. That’s because leaders are the largest contributing factor to culture. You can’t have great culture with terrible leaders—you just end up with good perks and benefits.
Culture is:
how people feel when they walk into the office
how open they feel to speak up in a meeting
who has a seat at the table
if inclusion is actually a reality in the teams or just a good slogan
how safe it is to bring your whole-self to work
how values are lived, expressed, and used in decision making
This is culture, and now with so much of the world working virtually, we’re realizing it. So many of the companies that depended on their casual Fridays, ping pong tables, and free snacks are discovering that they didn’t do the real culture work and their employee’s have taken off their rose colored glasses and don’t like what they see.
This is why leadership is crucial. Each one of these things are dependent on the leader to create the atmosphere for them and ensure they are upheld.
I’ve looked a lot at leadership and I’ve found it’s not how you lead when things are good, when you’re inspired and motivated, or when things are growing and energized that matters. It is
When our opinions and ways of doing things are challenged
When we are frustrated or our buttons are pushed
When our resources are cut
When you have a choice of taking the easy way out or doing what’s inconvenient for you
When you have to choose between yourself, your own comfort, and your own way—or sacrificing it for those you lead
This is when your leadership is actually put to the test and you find out if you are truly leading or merely managing with influence.
I read an article in the midst of quarantine and it said that lots of companies were finding that their leaders were using Covid as an excuse to cut people they had issues working with (aka “low hanging fruit”) but couldn’t make a case for previously. I was appalled. What an example of how watered down and superficial our current leadership programs must be if these were the leaders we were creating—ones that would cause undue harm, at the worst possible time, just to make their jobs easier rather then doing the work of leading and developing those they lead. This is not leadership and it shows just how much we have stripped the humanity away from our culture.
There is not a simple step-by-step answer on how to create brave cultures, but I can tell you it starts with creating brave, courageous leaders.
How do we do this? You start with yourself. You must do the internal work to understand your own triggers, your breaking points, your limitations, where your selfishness kicks in, your insecurities, your fears, and learn how to dive into those places and do the internal work so that you can lead others well, even when the going gets tough and you’re in your low points.
Leadership is hard. You will have people you don’t like, and who might not like you, that you will have to lead. You will have people challenge you. You will be put in circumstances that will require you to choose between tremendous sacrifice, patience, and dying-to-self or choosing to make yourself more comfortable and your job easier.
You can’t have both. You can’t be self-serving and be a leader, they are fundamentally opposed to one another. Leadership, true leadership, is a life-long act of guiding while serving others above yourself.