True courage is from the heart

We recently hosted the first of our Nexus leadership sessions for our cohort of seven leaders drawn from across the UK and Guernsey. The evening before travelling to Guernsey, one of our guests became aware that someone was forcibly stealing valuables from passengers on his train. He and a colleague went to investigate, searched for and located the perpetrator - a ‘burly’ man hiding - with the stolen items - in the train toilet.  They decided to challenge him, which led to a 20-minute ‘highly physical wrestle’ before the uniformed police arrived and took over.

Would you have got involved? It’s relevant that our guest is an officer in the British Army and his colleague is an off-duty (at the time) police officer. They instinctively knew the right thing to do. Qualities like truth, justice and goodness overtook - in that moment - personal safety, even whilst many others looked on, filming through their smartphones. It was perhaps ironic that the theme of our 2-day session that followed was ‘moral courage’.  

The best leaders are courageous leaders. Not only that, they are courageous about the right things. They are good people making good decisions - in the fullest sense of the word ‘good’.

They do not flip-flop in their choices. They are not wishy-washy. Neither are they brutish or domineering, nor do they coercively push people to obey them. They are firm and fair, clear and kind, assertive and supportive. They possess a depth of moral courage which sets the foundation for them to decide with conviction and implement those decisions with compassion.  For us, moral courage is integral to excellence in leadership. Without it, decisions are at best flaky and unstable, at worst self-serving and corrupt.

Courage can be considered as the willingness to confront danger, uncertainty or intimidation. Facing fears in the pursuit of doing the right thing. It’s rooted in personal values, grounded in universal qualities - truth, justice, honour, kindness - and entwined with integrity.    

And courage is a matter of the heart. The root of the word ‘courage’ is from the Latin ‘cor’, meaning ‘heart’. Whilst courage is expressed in an active choice to act (or not act), that choice is a heartfelt one, welling up from within. The best leaders lead from the heart.

Herein lies a modern-day conundrum for many leaders that we encounter. Most - if not all - would agree that courage and heart are integral to effective leadership. Yet the meetings and measures that dominate most leaders’ diaries rarely consider courage at all. The things of the heart - values, vision, ethos, even culture are scarce on the agenda when compared with sales, revenue, client acquisition, donations, budget overrun and the like. If we are not careful, this sets the ideal environment for fear to take hold:  

• fear of failure will crimp innovation; 

• fear of criticism will suffocate openness; 

• fear of rejection will stall growth; 

• fear of not being needed will prevent delegation; 

• fear of the unknown will paralyse decision-making. 

As we’ve previously written, some fear is healthy. Recklessly jumping into a situation with bravado is terrible leadership and usually results in breakage.  Courage is in considering the risks, feeling the fear and overcoming it, not letting fear determine the choices we make.  

In our work with psychometric surveys, we have learned to spot some telltale signs that fear is becoming too strong an influence amongst a leadership team. Teams that are high in control, low in curiosity and suffering some ill effects (physical strain) are probably losing heart, especially if they are feeling under-stimulated and frustrated. For teams such as these, a refocus on purpose, finding something meaningful in the organisation and reconnecting with the bigger picture is essential. It’s like an electric shock to the heart. 

How can we, practically, keep our leadership hearts healthy? Here are a few ideas. We’d love to hear your methods, too:

1) Frequently reflect on what truly matters in life and work. Some people speed through life, cramming in activity and giving themselves little time to reflect. Being active is great until we fail to pause and keep some perspective. Helpful reflective questions include these: 

• What are my personal values and how well am I living them?  

• What’s the ultimate point of the work I’m doing? How would anyone know?

• What can I do that will help me to be a better person today?

2) Consider a situation that evokes fear. What initiative can you take to confront it? These reflections might be helpful:

• What’s actually true about this situation? How can I test my perceptions?  

• What is my role in this situation? Have I contributed to the problem? Is it my place to fix it? If not, how can I help the person whose responsibility it is?  

• Is there a troubling conversation that needs to happen? If so, when, where and with whom will I have it?

3) Use your meetings differently. Nearly all of our clients have meetings. How can these be used to keep courage and heart in scope? Here are some ideas:

• Include the purpose of the organisation or team on every agenda. “This is what we are here for.” 

• Open every meeting by inviting feedback on what ‘doing the right thing’ would mean in the context of the meeting agenda. “Are we doing the right thing?” is subtly different than “Do we have the right strategy?”.

• “Any Other Business” is a flat way to end a meeting. Don’t rush the end of the meeting. After the usual “AOB”, invite feedback from the group as to how the meeting felt. Do you experience courage? Acknowledge and encourage it.

Courageous leaders, those who lead from the heart, are easy to follow. What can you do to strengthen your leadership heart in the weeks ahead?