Leadership Courage: Embracing Risks for Growth and Success

In our Front Line Leadership program, we discuss 4 very important leadership attributes with our leaders which are Attitude, Accountability, Courage, and Trust.  We always have some great dialogue on each of these attributes with the leaders sharing examples of how leaders can demonstrate each of these and equally how they can very easily damage their reputations within each.

Thinking of leadership courage, and reflecting back over my career, my greatest career opportunities and leadership development growth has come when I have pushed myself, or have been pulled, outside of my comfort zone.  Without exception, every single of what I would consider to be my greatest career accomplishments and where I have grown the most have come when I gathered up as much courage as possible to challenge myself to do what initially scared the life out of me.  Each time, I learned and grew exponentially.  In many cases, the risks could be considered high.  Failure and definitely losing my job were real potential outcomes.  There were failures along the way but boy did I learn from those, so were they really failures?  They are only failures if you don't learn from the mistakes or miscalculations. 

Moving out of your comfort zone takes real courage!  It's scary and is not without risks.  However, if you plan carefully and mitigate AND accept the risks, the rewards and growth realized are without doubt, career and life changing.

Are you being courageous and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone?    Leave comments on your thoughts and or experiences of when you have been courageous with your leadership.

Below is a link to a very good John Maxwell video that talks about Courage.  Well worth the 2 minutes!  Enjoy and be courageous in your leadership!