Do You Demonstrate the Courage to Lead?

Courage is only a thought away.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
—Anais Nin, French-born U.S. writer

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

The number-one reason that leaders fail is that they are too soft; they have weak backbones. They lack the courage to be as effective as they should be and need to be. As examples, they often:

• Place a higher value on being liked than on being effective
• Embrace consensus management rather than take personal accountability
• Take great care to not "rock the boat"
• Sacrifice integrity for approval
• Deflect tough decisions to others or wait until the last possible moment so they make only safe decisions
• Work on the easy things at the expense of the most important things
• Avoid necessary and timely confrontation
• Allow the behavior of others to shape them, rather than taking the initiative to shape the behavior of others.

Is this anyone you know? Do you demonstrate this behavior? It's not easy standing up to those that surround and consume your day, be they executives, clients, vendors, contractors, peers or team members. But if you expect to be consistently successful as a leader, you must demonstrate the courage to lead yourself and your team to success. It's not about effort or lofty intentions; it's about results.
To help you muster the courage to lead, we must talk about understanding your:

• Job
• Domain of responsibility
• Duty to lead despite that which is happening around you.

Having the courage to lead first requires that you understand your job: your roles and responsibilities. If you are uncertain about them, define them at a high level as bullets on a single sheet of paper and present them to your boss. Don't ask your boss what your job is; tell your boss what you perceive your job to be and seek agreement and support. This approach demonstrates initiative and leadership and shows that you care about your success and your boss' success.
Once you understand your job, you are now in a position to "mark your territory." Your domain of responsibility is defined as all responsibilities and commitments that fall within the scope of your job: your assignments. You are entrusted to demonstrate the leadership required to execute everything within your domain successfully.
A project manager's domain of responsibility includes the performance of everyone on the project team and the dozens of others whom you need to perform some service to ensure the project executes and ends successfully.
One's domain of responsibility is almost always broader than most people first think. One of my clients recently had a project completed significantly late and over budget. The project manager said that it wasn't her fault primarily because the vendor's deliverables were late and sub-quality. She continued that there was nothing she could do about a vendor who was halfway around the world.
The project sponsor said, "I don't recall you coming to me during the project and requesting funds to travel to the vendor's location to do whatever was necessary to help the vendor deliver on time and with the expected quality." Had the project manager fully understood her job and the domain of responsibility that came with it, she might have been able to lead this project to a more successful conclusion.
Everywhere I travel, I encounter leaders who become voluntary victims. They might not always readily admit that their predicament is of their own doing, but it almost always is. In my experience, at least 90 percent of leaders who are micromanaged by higher-ups caused themselves to be micromanaged by their own actions—or I should say by their inactions: their lack of consistent demonstration of courage to make things happen.
Being consistently successful as a leader requires courage. How can you acquire the courage—the backbone—to consistently lead effectively? It's not always easy, but with the right mindset, you can turn around weak and ineffective behavior. Most times you know the right thing to do. Why would you want to go through your job—your life—being too soft, fearing failure, afraid to assert yourself, taking abuse from others, playing the victim, not pursuing your dreams, not believing in yourself, not demonstrating the courage to make things happen? This is your moment. It is a duty. It is an adventure. It is yours to seize!
One last thought: Many people wish they could muster the courage that they respect so much in others. If this applies to you, fake it! As insincere as that may sound, fake it! Why? Because no one can tell the difference. And after a while, you will believe it yourself. You become what you think about all day long. Courage is only a thought away.
You are a leader. Everyone is waiting for you to demonstrate the courage to lead. You can do it!

Neal Whitten, PMP, president of The Neal Whitten Group (www.nealwhittengroup.com), is a speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor, and author. His latest book is Neal Whitten's No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects.

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