In the workplace or at home, it’s important when you are a leader to foster an atmosphere of courage. This may seem cheesy or rather strange; after all, we tend to think of courage being what it takes to pull people out of building fires, not go about our everyday work or home lives. It’s true that heroic instances of bravery involve courage, but courage is more than that.
First of all, courage is required to fight fear. The most common forms of fear in the workplace and home involve the fear of repercussions for speaking up the truth. In many teams worldwide, there are those certain things that “aren’t talked about” because of fear.
Courage is important because it makes people feel like they have some measure of control over their surroundings and empowers people to take action and think positively. If people believe that they can’t say certain things out of fear and tread lightly around certain issues, they will be demoralized. Furthermore, if you are encouraging this atmosphere of fear, or even simply staying quiet about it when you know it exists, you will be seen in a poor light by your followers. Speaking the truth about things may be hard and involve team “politics” between various factions that tend to form, but it is necessary for an atmosphere.
The best way to encourage team members and those around you to show courage is to lead them by example. Talk about the things that are supposed to be shoved under the rug, make tough decisions without endlessly studying or preparing for them, be honest about everything (even yourself), including subordinates’ performance and what you think of their ideas, and take risks. If you have more power than those you lead, try to use it to help those under you. It’s hard to be courageous when you don’t have any power to do so. If your leader stands up for you and doesn’t let the atmosphere of fear intimidate him or her, you will empower those around you to do the same.
The truth is power. Encourage employees and team members to speak honestly, and listen when they say things. Chances are good that even if they don’t mean to, the truth will slip out subconsciously. If a comment is correct, even if it hurts, it deserves to be listened to. You can mentor those around you to be more courageous, and help those who show true courage into positions where they will have enough power to speak out about the truth with confidence.
A workplace, team or environment with courage is always better than one haunted by fear, where people are afraid to speak up about the issues that matter and the leaders won’t take the initiative to begin the effort to start a movement of truth. Part of being a leader is being able to take the lead in difficult situations like these; do so and you will become a better person on the whole.