The VIA strengths of courage are bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest; practising these strengths have resulted in the following organisational benefits:
- Improved accountability and responsibility
- More effective working relationships
- Increased self-efficacy and self-confidence
- Broadened perception of what is possible and improved resourcefulness
- Increased goal achievement
- Increased ability to learn from mistakes
- Increased positive energy, positive mood, empathy and conscientiousness
- Increased prosocial orientation
- Inspired others to act courageously
Adapted from the works of Haidt (2002); Herman (1971); Hitz & Driscol (1989),
Huhnke (1984); McQuaid& Lawn (2014); Peterson & Seligman (2004); Ryan & Deci (2000); Shepela, Cook, Horlitz, Leal, Luciano & Lufty (1997)
How do you build courage in your organisation? A few ideas for your consideration that can be easily implemented include:
- Embrace the “F” word … that is “failure.” Normalise and forgive mistakes. Rather than blame, learn.
- Rather than compare and compete, collaborate.
- Cultivate an unexpected workplace relationship. Broker a new interaction every week. Be sure to have a clear moral, worthwhile goal to do so.
- Use mindfulness to harness your courage.
- Speak up skilfully: one-to-one, in a meeting, to a large audience.
- Support courage acts through coaching others. Be courageous and coach.
I’m keenly exploring courage and leadership in organisations and have two questions for your consideration:
- What are the (day-to-day) organisational issues that you would want leaders to demonstrate courage in addressing?
- What would you like your leaders to do/achieve through demonstrating courage?
Let us know what you think.
@CourageChick
