Courageous Leadership

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Courageous Leadership

• Minnesota Council for Quality
• January 9th,2007
• Michael LaBrosse, M..cht

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Listen up!

• There are 5 frogs sitting on a log
• 4 decide to jump off
• How many are left?

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What do you think?

• Courage is taking action in the face of ones
  fear.
• Agree Disagree
• 1 2 3 4
  5

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The Case for Courageous Leadership

• 37 of Fortune 100 companies
• publicly identify courage as
• critical to sustainable success
• .

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Leadership vs. Management

• Every act of leadership is an act of courage.
  That is what distinguishes leadership from
  management.

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Leadership vs. Management

• Management Lens

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Leadership vs. Management

• Leadership lenses
• Wide Angle Telephoto Up Close

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The most challenging (and unused) leadership lens

• MRI Must Reflect Internally

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Where is everybody?
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Walking the Talk

• Values statements, corporate policies and
  ethical guidelines are decisions waiting for
  virtuous action

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What is courage?

• Before we can examine virtue in our organization,
  we need to examine our own personal understanding
  of courage, humility, ethics, integrity,
  compassion.
• Why?
• We dont see things as they are
• we see things as we are.
• Talmudic proverb
• 
  

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What is courage?

• Courage is the supreme virtue...
• for it is the guarantor
• of all other virtues.
• Mahatma Ghandi

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What is courage?

• Working definition
• Courage is taking action
• in the face of ones fear.
• Lets test it out.

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What is courage?
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What is courage?

• Finding 1 Fear is not a factor in courageous
  action.
• Courage is not about fearit is about the
  irrelevance of fear.
• Finding 2 We do not decide, or choose to be
  courageous.
• Courage appears to be a non-cognitive,
• non rational dynamic.

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What is Courage?
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What is courage?

• Finding 3 We do not accept or acknowledge our
  behavior as courageous.
• Courageous action does
• not recognize itself.
• Finding 4 We can (and do) act with courage in
  some situations and not others.

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What is courage?

• Finding 5 Authentic acts of courage always meet
  a universal standard of being right, fair or
  principled.
• Courage is not only about
• our personal value system.
• Finding 6 Courage is at once, personal and
  public.
• (The Courage Paradox)
• Courage is a universally available
• source of power that authorizes
• and propels our actions.

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What is courage?

• Proposed definition based on research
• Courage is any action we take
• when our heart is at risk
• and our soul is at work.

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What is courage?

• This universally available source of power has
  been quantified by behavior experts such as Dr.
  David Hawkins, a well known psychiatrist and
  teacher
• .
• His landmark book, Power vs Force, outlines the
  pivotal role courage plays in our capacity to
  achieve fulfillment in our personal or
  organizational life.

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How can I be a courageous leader?

• I have everything I need.
• Whenever I think the problem is out therethat
  thought is the problem.
• Begin by challenging myself and everyone else,
  with questions like

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How can I be a courageous leader?

• Whats really going on here?
• What would I do with a little more courage?
• What would this organization do with a little
  more courage?

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How can I create a more virtuous organization?

• Courage is contagious. All virtuous behavior,
  especially courage, will shine and guide others
  like a lighthouse.
• Remember the Iraqi women who were afraid to
  vote, then were encouraged by seeing other women
  taking the risk?

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How can I create a more virtuous organization?

• Where do I find my courage?
• Courage appears to reside inside the deepest
  truth of whatever reality we are avoiding.
• Find people that will tell you the truth, ask for
  the truth and challenge all truths. Become a
  truth detector (of your own truth).

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How can I create a more virtuous organization?

• Read and review articles and books on virtues
  such as courage.
• Spend time listening to your body through yoga,
  prayerful meditation and long walks. Your body
  never lies.
• Attend leadership development programs.
• Learn the Seven Zones of Leadership!

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How can I create a more virtuous organization?

• Apply the Platinum Rule to every relationship in
  my life, especially the difficult ones
• -Golden ruledo unto others, as you would have
  them do unto you.
• -Platinum ruledo unto others the way they
  would like to be done unto!
• Exit card/Investment card. If I cannot act
  virtuously because I feel trappedthen that trap
  contains your deepest truthand all the courage
  youll need to act.

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Stuff to Read

• Books
• Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
• Power vs. Force, Dr. David Hawkins
• Practicing Radical Honesty, Dr. Brad Blanton
• Good to Great, Jim Collins
• Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
• Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
• 7 Zones of leadership, Bob Terry

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How to find me

• Michael LaBrosse, M.cht
• Leadership Solutions, Inc
• www.leadershipsolutions.org
• michael_at_leadershipsolutions.org
• 612/990/0181