Leadership Courage: 3 Keys For Displaying It When It Counts

Welcome to Vantage Leadership Consulting’s newsletter, where we cover timely and important issues in leadership, management, and the workplace. We encourage all of our readers to join in the discussion and to engage with our shared community as we explore what being a "world-class leader" means today.

The latest edition is written by?Beau River, Partner at Vantage. A previous version appeared in his column for?Forbes.

In the?first part?of this series on courage, we explored the global dynamics that require a courageous response from leaders. Driving corporate sustainability remains the most important long-term strategic initiative needing bold action in the modern business age, and not just because our planet’s livability hangs in the balance. Blackrock CEO?Larry Fink?recently described why his organization prioritizes this work: “We focus on sustainability not because we're environmentalists, but because we are capitalists and fiduciaries to our clients.” There are positive indicators for leaders displaying the kind of fiduciary commitment Fink describes.?Formal reporting?on sustainability action and performance is gaining traction among the largest companies in the world, and the consequences of?greenwashing?are becoming more serious.

Finding ways to do the right thing by all stakeholders (e.g., your people, the organization, the community and the environment) is a daunting task that requires a healthy dose of courage – a quality that is often difficult to summon, and only apparent when you see it in action. Understanding the intersection between what is best for each stakeholder – including the leader personally – is the first step to identifying a courageous course of action. Additionally, there are also moments that ask leaders to take action to serve the greater good of their business ecosystem in a way that does?not?benefit them personally. How can leaders step into all these moments with the clarity of mind and gumption to make the right choice – even if it’s not the easy one? There are three acts that help leaders identify moments that require courage:

·??????Cultivating mindfulness?and maintaining the ability to see alternate perspectives have proven crucial in identifying moments that require courageous action. Understanding what is needed to serve the greater good of an organization also requires us to manage our ego, which inherently seeks to serve one master above all else.

·??????Managing anxiety, even more than other charged emotions (e.g., anger or disgust) has a significantly larger impact on our ability to organize our thinking, sustain connections with colleagues and remain agile in our decision making. We also know that?uncertainty?makes it even more challenging to manage our fears and relationships. Heightened anxiety also increases intolerance of alternative approaches and challenges to our subjective logic.

·??????Knowing your limits?and maintaining self-awareness can be the difference between keen insights and faulty decision-making. It’s a fine line between a well-adjusted ego that contributes to leadership success, and an inflated one, which can lead to derailment, excessively self-serving behavior, burnout and overlooking the importance of courage.?Research?has found that leadership derailment was 629% more likely in leaders who fail to see their limitations and are out-of-touch with their teams than leaders who were willing to see and address their limitations.

The good news is that acts of courage are within our reach. By increasing our?awareness of our internal worlds, and understanding what our business environments require of us to ensure long-term success, we give ourselves the opportunity to be bold in the right ways. To understand how to prepare for courageous action and display it when it counts, we sat down with?Jon Macaskill, former Navy Seal Commander, entrepreneur, podcast host and mindfulness teacher to understand his views on leadership courage.

Beau River: Given your experience in addressing challenges and adversity, both in and out of uniform, let's start with your definition of leadership courage at this point in your life?

Jon Macaskill: Personally, I have found the good leaders in my time both inside and outside the military to have four common traits that enable them to engage people and lead courageously in unknown circumstances. In my view, high-stakes, dangerous circumstances require more than just courage in the moment. They require a set of approaches that support courageous leadership. Truly courageous leaders display preparedness, resilience, grit, and compassion. These attributes are also how I came to see mindfulness as so vital for leadership. In order to be prepared for the unknown we have to think about the future – not worrying about the future, but thinking about it. You have to know where you stand right now, you have to be present in the moment, with the people around you. You have to know what resources are available, what’s lacking, and how to increase your preparedness. You have to learn?why?you got knocked down: what you did right, what you did wrong, and what you could have done better. In order to have courage, you have to be mindful and brave enough to take a look at what you messed up and learn from that. This all comes back to preparedness and how vital it is for both displaying courage when it counts and remaining mindful for future opportunities.

River: What have you learned from watching courageous leaders in action?

Macaskill: A true courageous leader leads with an abundance mindset that allows them to navigate the unknown. The overblown or tyrannical boss leads from a scarcity mindset and a place of fear. These bosses try to control everything because they fear not knowing everything and questions of their legitimacy. The courageous leaders start by admitting they are not the smartest person in the room and want to learn from those around them. They are not afraid to ask questions, and have questions asked of them; they are not trying to avoid a loss of stature or perceived social threats.

River: How would you further describe the relationship between mindfulness and courage?

Macaskill: I think there is a direct relationship. By definition, to be mindful you must also be courageous in exploring how you are physically and emotionally responding to a situation and events. To lead courageously, we have to take stock of our body and mind and manage our reactions before we can control the situation. This is based on the realization that our internal state directly impacts the external context. In our leadership landscape, there could be plenty of things that cause anxiety. The first piece to addressing this is to take a step back and go inside to what is happening emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Focusing on breath and physical sensations is the first step in calming your body, mind and nervous system so you can become aware of what it is you need to do in the external situation.

River: This is interesting because I feel popular depictions of courage are commonly represented as reflex actions, like selflessly jumping on a grenade without processing the decision. But I think what you're saying is that mindfulness actually allows for the courageous action to be identified.

Macaskill: That’s absolutely right. In your example, why would a person do this and sacrifice themselves to protect others from injury or death? At the very least, this requires the mindfulness to notice what is happening externally and the internal calculations that lead to that behavior. The person would have to understand the proximity of the danger and its impact to themselves and those nearby. This awareness is in itself a moment of mindfulness. It could be a short period of time, but mindfulness is happening in consideration of a stimulus that drives the thought, that drives emotion, that drives action.

River: Is there a simple situation where you saw, or were most impacted by, someone’s leadership courage?

Macaskill: There are two examples that come to mind that highlight the need for both bravery and vulnerability to lead courageously. The first situation happened on a particular operation when I was on the radio back at headquarters. The SEALs on the mission ended up having one of their team members killed. Where I saw tremendous courage was in the communication from the Ground Force Commander (GFC) as he communicated with headquarters. When we have lost someone on the battlefield it is a moment of high arousal and very challenging. The GFC got on the radio and communicated with as much calm and composure as I’ve ever heard. Because he was so collected and courageous, he helped everyone remain focused in a terrible moment. Ultimately, his team was able to carry on with that mission, even though they had lost a guy. If he had yelled or let his anxiety spill out, all of us at headquarters probably would not have been able to understand what was happening and consequently not been able to offer the support that was needed. His composure also helped everyone on the battlefield manage their emotions, which were very high. What they needed was a leader to step in and calm them down and that's exactly what he did. That to me, was one of the most amazing examples of courage I’ve ever seen. The second example is very different. I’ve also seen great courage in moments of vulnerability. I’ve seen great courage in warriors admitting they are struggling and asking for help to address their mental state. There is still a lot of stigma in the Special Operations community around people asking for help. It’s scary to admit that you need help mentally. Some of the most courageous acts I’ve seen is when a man who comes across as Superman – physically and mentally – admits that he's not okay and seeks mental health support. Those are incredible acts of courage that weren't on the battlefield, but they had a huge leadership impact in showing others it's ok to ask for help. To me, leading with this level of vulnerability is the epitome of leadership courage.

River: How can leaders leverage mindfulness as a tool for leading courageously?

Macaskill: I think it comes back to the level of compassion we can tap into with mindfulness meditation and the psychological impact this has on us. It literally changes the way we see things and perceive life around us. We know mindfulness meditation shrinks the amygdala and thickens the lining between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for rational thought, and the amygdala is there to defend us in a crisis. These areas of the brain determine whether we will react, or whether we will respond to situations with greater perspective. These changes cause us to think more rationally more often, better calm ourselves, and see challenges in different ways. This helps us identify and respond to situations where courage is called for. Mindfulness meditation is a process of physiological rewiring that literally allows us to be more courageous?and?more compassionate.

It is clear leaders must have both of these in equal measure to navigate the current landscape in bold and caring ways. Many thanks to Jon Macaskill for sharing his insights and experiences. In the next part of this series on leadership courage, we will explore how people can take deliberate steps to develop courage into their leadership repertoire.