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What makes a person courageous? If it’s just about rescuing the helpless from burning buildings, then courage would be about being in the right (or wrong) place at the right time. We marvel at the feats of courageous explorers like Sir Edmund Hilary, the first person to summit Mt. Everest. Just as intrepid and even more heroic were the children who lined up as human guinea pigs for the initial tests of the first live vaccine for polio, more than half a century ago. In today’s world, courage takes on almost mythic proportion. Courage becomes an unreachable goal for many of us who won’t ever climb the world’s tallest peak or submit ourselves as scientific experiments. www.Dictionary.com 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.” And yet courage is so much more than that. In the end, courage is rooted in the ability to sublimate the good of self, for the good of the whole. Soldiers display uncommon valor when it comes to aiding a member of their unit or squad; they win commendations for their courage in the direst situations one could imagine. How do you display your courage when there isn’t a battlefield within miles, or a 29,000 foot peak to scale in the backyard? One way is to expand your perspective of what courage truly means. When my father was growing up in the 1950’s his family lived a comfortable life in suburban Long Island New York. Not the typical setting for displays of what we consider courage; unless you count weathering New York summers without air conditioning. His father (my grandfather) owned his own accounting business, and while there were successful years as the practice grew, the early years were lean ones. Decades later, after my grandfather had passed away, the family learned just how desperate those times were. My grandmother shared the story of a struggling young couple in the late 1930’s, trying to decide whether they could afford to have their first child, or if they should end the pregnancy. A heart-wrenching decision in any time, all the more compelling for my father, since that baby was him! After the Depression, and before WWII, courageous men (and they were almost always men in those days!) were aviators like Charles Lindbergh or G-men in the mold of J. Edgar Hoover. The courage and faith that my grandparents displayed wouldn’t win any medals then or now, and yet the impact of their courage now extends three generations into the future. The word “Courage” comes from the French word for heart, “Coeur”. Here are some “common” ways to be courageous. The benefit of understanding what courage looks and feels like in every day life is that as we recognize our own strength, we become more emboldened to accept life’s challenges – in our homes or in the boardroom. Confidence to pursue my vision of success: Allow yourself to be the determiner of what defines your fulfillment. In 1987, when I began a 17-year career in financial services, my paycheck and my peers defined success. By 2004 when I left the industry, money meant very little to me. The sound of my two sons’ laughter is now my vision of success. Outsight to consider what my actions mean to others: Like the story of my grandparents, every decision you make impacts the people around you. “Outsight” means you stop and consider the ramifications of your words, actions and decisions. Eliminate my negative self-talk: I call this “Drive Time Talk”, because my most self-critical moments happen when I’m alone in the car. Make it a habit to recognize and react to the periodic negativity you generate. Ask yourself, “Does this serve to make me stronger?” Understand the value of my own courage: Did you speak up in a meeting when no-one else would? How about the time you reached out to a person in need? Or resolved a tense situation by reaching a consensus? All these instances require personal courage. Taking stock of your own performance after you’ve failed is natural; giving yourself credit for strength is seen as braggadocio. Since most of us don’t play professional sports – we have to be our own cheerleader! Rely on my intuition: Amazon.com lists 4249 titles under the search word “Courage”. Reading the books won’t hurt, however substituting someone else’s standards for measuring courage leads you back to scaling Mt. Everest. Your intuition tells you what is courageous for you; it may be appearing on stage, or giving tough feedback to a peer, or talking to your kids about sex. Practicing the five elements of COEUR is a great reminder of the value of your own courage. “Practice” is the key concept, since so many of us are programmed from an early age to consider our own bravery as a trait reserved for the dramatic. Practice your common courage every day, and your legacy will be felt for generations to come. Here is what Mike Faber’s Courageous Choices keynote can mean for your business, association or civic organization. • To leaders: A more engaged and creative workforce, who understand their responsibility to proactively leverage their experience and expertise. Courageous Choices opens the door so that team members are willing to share development goals, challenges and successes. Professional growth happens at the individual and group level, and is more lasting because the environment recognizes and rewards the risk that demonstrating courage entails. • To Participants in the ranks: Greater awareness of how their personal courage can become an inspiration to colleagues. Intrinsic courage is acknowledged, leading to deeper levels of connection and commitment between team members and leadership. • For organizational progress: An environment that recognizes and values the courage of its individual contributors means employees become more confident in their ability to confront and overcome challenges. Customer satisfaction increases as employee confidence and satisfaction rises, resulting in revenue increases. Depending on market segment and industry, between 40 and 80 percent of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty was accounted for by the relationship between employee attitudes and customer-related variables (Employee Satisfaction & Customer Satisfaction, Guidestar Research White Paper, 02/05). To see if a Courageous Choices keynote is right for setting the tone at your next event, contact Mike Faber at http://www.fabercomm.com or call Faber Communications at 877-262-2402.
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