4 Steps to Help All Personality Types Create Courage

You’ve had that feeling for a while, and it’s not going away. The daily battle to stay engaged and productive is wearing on you. It’s time for a change, and you’re either reluctant to move forward or don’t know how.

Courage is needed, and your mind drifts to those traditional heroic figures in movies such as Superman, William Wallace, or Luke Skywalker that overcame insurmountable obstacles and challenges with a tough-as-nails attitude and swagger.

Traditional Definitions of Courage

At our annual POW reunion events, we have a room full of my fellow Vietnam POWs as well as a very special group of Special Forces troops who conducted the Son Tay prison raid in Vietnam. Courage was the entry fee to this event, as everyone in the room had faced very serious personal and professional challenges that required tenacity and superhuman will. It’s always an inspiring visit with this group.

"The non-traditional definition of courage is the steady, day-to-day courage to do the right thing and make honorable, good decisions." [Tweet This]

This is the type of courage that truly builds honorable leadership and outcomes, and it’s a personal responsibility that we all must embrace regardless of personality type or natural behavior.

Two Types of Leadership

In my book, Leading with Honor, as well as my consulting work, there are two types of leadership shown.?If you’re facing a change, it fits into either of these categories.

Let’s take a closer look at them in these real-life examples –

1.Leading Yourself

One of my past consulting clients mentioned that he’s ready for a job change. After 20 years in his current organization, he knows that it’s time to take the next step in his career. But he’s stuck and has some fear of the unknown next steps in the process. Not only does he want to leave his current company right way, but he wants to find a new job that matches his goals and values.

2. Leading Others

One of my executive clients that is a CEO has a team member that’s not fulfilling their role or getting expected results. For the sake of this team member as well as a healthy culture for his organization, he knows that a change is required. His team is watching and waiting to see what he’ll do. It’s stressful, but he wants to do it the right, honorable way.

4 Points of Creating Courage

The courageous formula that I advise clients to use is simple but not easy. Do you need to get some traction and create some courage to move forward? Here are the four points:

1. Believe. You must believe that your decision is the right thing to do and that you can do it. Believe in yourself, take personal ownership, and enlist some courageous accountability from others.
2. Plan. Be intentional and plan how you want to move forward. Review the steps with some people that you trust to give good feedback.
3. Act. Make a choice and step out. Lean into the pain of your doubts and fears and do what you know is right, even when it doesn’t feel natural or safe. This is my definition of leading with honor.
4. Follow-Through. Walk out your plan and stay committed. Coach yourself daily or even moment-by-moment if it’s required. Ask those people you trust to check in on your progress on a regular basis. Accountability from others is often crucial to success when we are following through on tough decisions or changing habits.

Making Your Plan Unique

Another primary focus in working with clients is focusing on natural behavior—having an awareness and acceptance of your unique, natural strengths and struggles. As you’re creating courage and executing your plan, I encourage you to be exactly who you’re wired to be!

Are you an extrovert? Connecting with others is generally easy, but you’ll need help to create and fulfill the details of your plan—build some structure into it. Are you an introvert? Creating the plan generally comes easily to you, but you’ll need to coach yourself on building and connecting with your support network. We also use an assessment like Leadership Behavior DNA to assess an individual’s unique behavioral strengths and struggles.

Final Challenge

Whether it’s creating courage to change something personally or professionally, honorable leaders go first, set the example, and make the difficult decisions to move forward. But rather than courageously storming the gates, so to speak, develop an inner courage that’s authentic, humble, and honorable. That creates the best change for everyone. You can do it, and I believe in you.??

Please share your success stories in the Comments section below.

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