Leadership Isn't For Cowards: How to Drive Performance by Challenging People and Confronting Problems

Chapter 3

Are You a Coward?

Relax! I’m not calling you a coward . . . yet. I am simply asking you to take a moment to evaluate the extent to which courage and fear influence the way you live and work. I am not here to judge—just to ask tough questions. What are you afraid of? What is the most courageous thing you have done or decision you have made in the last 12 months? What is a courageous decision you need to make but haven’t? How much are you willing to lose to do the right thing? I will leave the judging in your capable hands.

What comes to mind when you hear the word courage?

A firefighter rushing into a burning building. Steve Jobs first releasing the iPod. Aron Ralston cutting off his arm to free himself from a boulder. Any of the ordinary men and women who raise children, stand up for unpopular beliefs, sit by the bedsides of dying loved ones, or quietly carry on in the face of hardship and tragedy.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines courage as “the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.”1

Some say you either have it or you don’t. I suppose that’s true for a single moment in time, but overall, courage can, and should, be developed.

Courage, for the purposes of this book, has to do with the willingness to face what needs to be faced and to do what needs to be done. It involves making your leadership heartbeat felt by those around you. To do this, you must ...