Show Your Courage In Action

What is courage?

If your team were asked if you were courageous, how would they know? What would they say?

I'll admit that it's easier to desire courage than it is to act with courage. But courage comes from action.

What kinds of actions?

Standing up to a bullying boss. Taking the blame for a mistake that your team made. Confronting an ethics violation. Defending your values. Facing down someone who is discriminating or disrespecting another person.

The list is long. It's not about thinking about courage or talking about courage -- it's about doing.

People will respect your courage but first you must show them that courage in action.

How have you most recently displayed your courage?

What can you do to develop (and then show) even more courage?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Front Range Leadership: High Performance Leadership Training

doug smith training: how to achieve your goals

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What's the problem with anonymous feedback? The list is long. When people can say anything they want, without any accountability, they are sometimes rude. The feedback becomes exaggerated. Not knowing what to do with it (who do you try to please?) it frustrates the person receiving the feedback. Anonymous feedback encourages anti-social comments. It opens up a level of venting that is not healthy for either party. And, rather than building relationships, it tears them down. The best place for anonymous feedback is the garbage. It's too easy to be negative when no one knows who you are. Hold people accountable. Teach them that two-way communication is responsible, respectable, and useful. Let's keep the trash talking on the basketball court and build relationships of worth at work. -- Doug Smith

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