How to Lead With Courage in Challenging Times

As Leaders, managing risk is a natural part of our work. A few months ago, we may have been facing the risk of a project not going as expected, risk of team conflict, or risk of our clients or bosses being upset with us. All of these are cause for concern, but now we’re in a much more challenging time and the risks to our businesses and our teams – as well as our families and communities are much more significant.

So how do we lead through risk and uncertainty with courage?

Showing up is the first and most important step. As leaders, we don’t have to be superheroes with all of the answers, but we do have to be present.  Susan Piver writes about ‘cultivating the space of receptivity’.  We need to be receptive to having the difficult conversations, receptive to the discussions that will end with more questions than answers, simply receptive to the information that our team and clients have to share with us even when - especially when - we don’t have the answers about what’s next.

In uncertain times, we don’t have the clarity we would like in order to lead and make decisions with certainty. This can result in being fearful or worried how we will be perceived and the tendency to shy away from sharing our contributions because we want to protect ourselves from being vulnerable. But when we don’t share, we can let ourselves and others down by not ensuring everyone has the full scope of what we have to offer. Keep reading on our blog