LEADERSHIP CHRONICLES - PERSONAL COURAGE

At a recent Warrior Training (Team Development) session I helped a team develop clarity on the
qualities of Personal Courage.

Personal fear, the unknown and a willingness to act greater than the personal fear are all characteristics and behaviour that make up Personal Courage.  Personal fear being a relative subjective fear that one may have, but one that may not be general to everyone, like the fear of flying or fear of heights.  The unknown simply put is uncertainty, when we try to imagine an outcome.  The willingness to act is your desire to make something happen.

I've coached for years and heard athletes share how they feel uncomfortable offering teammates direction in games when they themselves are making the same mistakes.  Interesting point as it pertains to people in glass houses throwing rocks.  However, far less important in the world of personal and team performance.

In our recent session, players/teammates opened up and shared about some reasons they feel uncomfortable or fear certain interactions or communications with teammates or coaches.  These personal fears are the hurdle that must be passed for courage and performance to exist.  The fears all centred around shame, fear of what my teammate or coach will think about me.

Courageous acts involve feeling fear.  There is a misconception that courage is this chest pounding demonstration of bravery or heroism.  One of the fundamental things that define courage is the connection with vulnerability, fear.  However, the act of courage also involves a special relationship.  The relationship between the willingness to act and a personal fear.  When there is courage, the willingness to act is greater than the feeling of personal fear.

Feeling the resistance of fear in a multitude of situations is normal.  The most successful people in society "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway".  Research shows that senior executives in business demonstrate this better than anyone.  Their success can be correlated to the level to which their desire to act is greater than the fear they experience.  This doesn't mean they don't make mistakes, but it means they don't get paralyzed by fear, refuse to act and miss out on opportunities to perform and grow.

I've added a quick snippet on Personal Courage from Robert Biswas-Diener a pioneer in Positive Psychology.  Robert is an expert on the development of Courage.  In Positive Psychology there are two general approaches to Courage development.  Managing the the perceived fear and/or boosting the willingness to act.  Consider this the next time your faced with a personal fear.