The Courageous Communicator Quest Challenge Series

I’ve talked to a lot of folks recently who say they don’t want to just lead – they want to be great leaders – yet they struggle with how to get there and do it effectively. 

So it was with that the Courageous Communicator Quest Challenge was born. You’ll spend 13 weeks working through 13 challenges and reach heaps of personal accomplishments, all as part of your journey to becoming one remarkable leader. 

It all starts with heeding the call. Maybe you’ve been leading for a while; maybe you’re new to it. But no matter what your situation you’re ready for a new adventure, a new path, a new way of doing things... 

This is going to challenge you like you’ve never been challenged before, be harder than anything you’ve ever done, and call on personal reserves and abilities you might not even know you had. And when it’s all over you will be changed. You will be a leader by nature. You’ll no longer be concerned with how you’re “supposed” to do things, or what someone else says you “should” do. You will be transformed: In every fiber of your being, you will understand what it means to lead. 

The Fictions of Leadership 

To start, you will need to unlearn some of what you have learned, tackle your fears head on—rather than going around them—and accept that much of what you’ve been taught, absorbed through osmosis, or told yourself about what it takes and what it means to be a leader just isn’t necessarily true. Because most of us—whether by creating reasons to explain, justify, or otherwise excuse our weaknesses as leaders, or just accepting those that are handed down by others—are all too good at letting fictions about leadership define how we understand ourselves as leaders. 

But these tales of fantastical leaders and their superhuman skills are the stuff of myth. A myth—defined as: “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon”—is the way that we as humans explain things that we just can’t otherwise wrap our heads around. And historically, great leadership has been a thing most of us just can’t quite grasp. 

Why are some people so good at it, such naturals, while so many of us can’t lead our way out of a paper bag?

People created myths to explain the seemingly inexplicable: The “born leader” and all those supporting myths that help explain the mysteries of why some people are such effective leaders, while the rest of us are so bad at it. 

A Dose of Reality 

Leadership myths are comfortable and reassuring. They absolve us of responsibility for results we don’t want. They're only real, however, if you let them be. Most people let them...but not everyone. 

Some people refuse to accept that as mere mortals—people who aren’t “born” to the roles they’re supposed to play—they should be comfortable with failure. These courageous individuals refuse to accept what others say they can and can’t do. Or about what they should or shouldn’t be able to do. Instead, it’s about looking within themselves, facing fears, and tackling challenges head on. They know that with determination, courage, and growth, they too can become like those mythical leaders. They are the Courageous Communicators. 

And you, too, can be one of them. 

The Courageous Communicator Quest is not for the faint of heart. In each of the four parts, you will face challenges that will test you in new and different ways. Some might be easy for you; with others, you might want to quit, to walk away, to say, I’m just not cut out for this. Other times, you might feel overly confident, Ha! This one’s easy. I’ve got this down. But is it really? Do you really? 

On your Quest, you will need to leave the safety of your mythical comfort zones, to journey to new lands of self-understanding and communication with others, to challenge yourself to do things you never thought possible. 

But in the end you will achieve greatness. 

Lookout for your first of 13 challenges on Thursday. Stick with me—before you know it—you will be an even more Courageous Communicator. 

—David Grossman