Courage is not something you’re born with. Courage is something that defines you only when you face adversity and overcome it. Which means, you can’t demonstrate courage until you find yourself, or put yourself, in the position to prove you are courageous. To rise to the opportunity!
In business, proving you’re courageous is done by making a decision. A strategic decision. The risk? That you fail. For the company, failure could mean anything from a marginal write-off to bankruptcy, with lots of room in between to manage the outcome. For the decision maker, sometimes just a degree or two separates being considered courageous from being called stupid. Yet, strategic decisions have to be made.
Changing the business model.
Introducing a new product or service line.
Repositioning the brand.
Opening a new market.
Making an acquisition.
Admitting to customers that you made a mistake.
One person, aka the CEO, may make the final decision on big strategy, but one person can’t do it all alone. Everyone in the company is in some way responsible for either the development of strategy or its execution, or both.
How strongly your people believe they can experiment, learn and apply new thinking will determine how courageous they feel. The more open and collaborative the culture, the more courage the company inspires. The more transparent and responsive the communication, the more adaptive and nimble the structure, the more inclusive and accelerated the idea development process, the more courage your company generates.
By creating the conditions for success in your company, you also create the conditions for your people to act courageously in their thinking, support and implementation of strategic decisions.
The courage to push into new territory. The courage to say something out loud that hasn’t been said out loud before. The courage to try new things and the courage to fail at them, within manageable boundaries, of course. And the courage to do what it takes to succeed.
Put your people in a position to prove they are courageous, and they will rise to opportunity.
