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Courage is not the absence of fear rather the commitment to overcome it. Courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. It means you battle fear and confront it. Courage pushes you to resist the impulse to shy away from the things stirring up your innermost anxieties.

Courage is required and must be embraced – it is the tiny pieces of fear all glued together.

The lives of great leaders teach us those who follow their ‘why,’ their purpose, their mission-sized calling needs a mission-sized courage. Abraham left his home to journey to a place he wasn’t even sure existed. Moses overcame his speech impediment to lead the people of Israel to freedom. King Leonidas led an army of 300 in the battle of Thermopylae over the Persian empire of Xerxes.

General Patton led his 3rd army across France in the summer of ’44 into spring – 281 vicious days of fighting to victory against incredible odds. Nehemiah overcame fierce opposition to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days. There are countless stories of courage triumphing impending fears and likely you even have a story albeit not as world-changing. It was your world changing. Here are a few strategies to employ for building a Culture of Courage in your organization:

Expect Excellence. When you set scary standards, your level of excellence and expectation for your product,  service or experience is almost something nearly unattainable. Safe goals are set by safe leaders with safe visions. Shorter, easier standards from mediocre leaders allow this type of leader to continually ‘move the goalposts.’ Give your people a goal that scares them, and you’ll produce leaders who know what it means to overcome fear.

Embrace Failure. When a safe environment exists, lived by the leaders and demonstrated throughout the organization something incredible happens. Trust and cooperation emerge. This result allows for failure, for exploration and innovation. The road to success is many times put together through multiple failures. The Elegant Leaders allows for and even encourages your team to fail on the road to success. \

Encourage Innovation. Innovation requires taking risks. Bold risks create bold team members. Rewarding innovation will challenge your team to grow in their roles.

Explore Opportunities. Not every risk is a good one. The Elegant Leader is disciplined. Aggressively pursue a few things that make sense. Say no often.

Entrust Delegation. This strategy is one of the most courageous things you can do as a leader. Entrusting others with important tasks requires letting go, relinquishing control and expands your leadership. Liberally pass responsibility and authority to your team. If you want your team to be courageous, give them the chance to lead.

The Elegant Leader with Voltage system provides a benchmark where we assess a leader’s skills and potential and design a personalized program for implementation. With every great plan, the likelihood of success is in its implementation and now you can be great when you allow your mission-sized courage to ignite your head and your heart by His grace – this is where you find Voltage.

There’s climate and there’s culture and you must know the difference and their interdependence. There are reams of data why culture transformations fail and in many cases, you or your inability to flawlessly execute through your tier I and II leaders is honestly why they fail. It becomes ego at this point. If you want results, then you better be willing to submit that ego and drive your team by Leading Elegantly.

As the Founder and Managing Partner of Brookestone Associates, I created a system that’s been proven-in-the-field for nearly three decades delivering repeatable results while strengthening high-value relationships and returning 5-10X ROI. For more information, click here…

Need additional resources, click on the articles below.

How to Impact Your Organization

Culture – It’s What’s for Dinner

So You Want to Craft a New Culture

We offer a 90-day Quick Start program for you to test the waters. Elegant Leaders will run a pilot to ensure the direction is clear and the strategy is sound. Stop putting Band-aids on a broken leg! If you’re tired of tolerating mediocrity, if you’re not clear or successful what will happen and what will it cost you if you do nothing?

Click here for a FREE Gift – Does Your Company Have the Cultural Capacity for High Performance and Growth?

What we teach, coach you and your team can be implemented for years to come. We are the stake-in-the-ground that’s been missing from other service firms. If you don’t believe you’re going to stop at nothing to achieve the results you must have to be successful, then you shouldn’t invest. That’s why our clients consistently receive 5-10X on their investment.