G10 Glasgow Look At The Importance Of Courage

GLASGOW, Scotland - Nov. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- G10 Glasgow

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G10 Glasgow Look At The Importance Of Courage

GLASGOW, UK, November 2013 – Being a courageous leader requires you to push beyond the norm, be willing to take risks and quit being a wimp. Courage is not an individual trait but an organizational one. It’s a natural instinct that all leaders confront fear of failure and fear of the unknown. But living in that fear is destructive for a team and will kill momentum.

Courage is not waiting for your fear to go away; it is confronting your fear head-on. Here are six essentials that can help build a culture of courage in an organization:

1. Set scary standards. Safe goals are set by safe leaders with safe visions. Give your people a goal that scares them and you’ll produce leaders who know what it means to overcome fear.

2. Allow for failure. The road to success is many times paved through multiple failures. Allow for and even encourage your team to fail as they attempt to succeed.

3. Make decisions. Don’t let ideas, strategy, communication, and important organizational markers sit idly by on the side without saying yes or no. Leaders are decision makers, and must do it constantly.

4. Reward innovation. Innovation requires taking risks. And bold risks create bold team members. Rewarding innovation will challenge your team to grow in their roles.

5. Pursue the right opportunities. Not every risk is a good one. Be disciplined. Aggressively pursue a few things that make sense. Say no to things that don't--even if it means saying no more often than you're comfortable.

6. Learn to delegate. This is one of the most courageous things a leader can do. Entrusting others with important tasks requires letting go and relinquishing control. Liberally pass responsibility and authority to your team. If you want your team to be courageous, give them the chance to lead. Early and often.

As G.K. Chesterton said, “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of readiness to die.” Courage mingles our desire to rush forward with a willingness to accept the possibility of being stopped in our tracks.

Yet if you desire to be a leader who changes the world, you have no choice but to exhibit courage on a constant basis.

The good news is that unlike some leadership traits, courage is not inborn; it’s learned. The natural response is to run from what frightens us, but life’s greatest leaps occur when we resist this impulse.

We have to be willing to get out to the edge, look at what is in the front of us, summon up the fortitude, and jump. The jump may be risky, but the decision to stay where you are is even more so.

For additional information, contact a member of the G10 administration team at nyomi@g10glasgow.co.uk

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