The Importance of Courage

As a learning professional, I actively recognize that some of the most important lessons don't always happen in the classroom or within a cleverly designed eLearning module. The come from the little moments in life that open our eyes to what's missing and what's possible.

Over the last few weeks, I watched another professional I know that I've worked with in the past struggle with a lack of courage in the organization he works for. He's observed that many of the leaders within the organization know that there are significant gaps in the way that the company is working, but nobody including my colleague (according to his own self reflection) has the courage to step up, acknowledge the problems, and propose solutions.

They're all comfortable in the status quo that allows them to work for a moderately successful company, earn a pretty good paycheck, while not having to take any risks that could disrupt this comfortable existence, but experiencing a subtle resentment and not growing as and individual or an organization.

The modern workplace needs courageous leaders. Note that I'm not using words like audacious or disruptive or innovative or experienced. There are many leaders out there that have all of those qualities, but never find the leadership strength that comes from courage.

What does a courageous leader even look like? For one thing they don't walk around the workplace wearing spandex and a cape. Courageous leaders show their courage in other ways such as:

• Recognizing and speaking up about processes or decisions that are holding the company back

• Taking ownership for their responsibilities AND for filling in any gaps that they find

• Pushing back against changes in policy that they know are not in the best interests or the company, its employees, and those who are stakeholders in the company.

Leaders are not just people who hold an important title within a company or have a lot of employees reporting to them. A leader is anyone who sees a problem and knows that it has to be fixed.

Someone once said to me that what we ignore, we accept. When we don't stand up to lead, we're ignoring what needs to change and accepting things as they are.

All learning professionals, when designing any kind of learning, should ask themselves how this course, module, program, or micro-learning will help someone become a courageous leader. Because when you look deep enough into any learning need, you'll find that somehow, someway, every opportunity to learn is an opportunity to build leaders with courage.