Leadership Trait of the Day: COURAGE

Heroics Not Required

This is easy right – courage is running into a burning building, attacking the enemy in the face of a barrage of machinegun fire, standing your ground to perform you mission in the face of certain death like these Marines did.  (If you have not read Gen. John Kelly’s speech about Corporal Yale and Lance Corporal Haerter, stop reading this article, click on that link and read that instead.  It will make you cry, give you chills, and make you proud to be an American all at the same time.) 

Yes, those are all examples of courage – physical courage – bravery if you will.  However, this is only one aspect of courage; the other part is moral courage: standing up for what is right in the face of criticism, mockery or resentment.  You show moral courage when you are willing to confront a situation for the sake of rightness, independent of the cost.

Both types of courage are captured in the Marine Corps’ definition of courage:

Courage is the mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables a Marine to proceed in the face of danger with calmness and firmness.  Knowing and standing for what is right, even in the face of popular disfavor.

Moral and Physical Courage - the most iconic photo
of courage in my lifetime. 

The good news is that the vast majority of people will never be asked to demonstrate physical courage in the face of danger.  The bad news is that moral courage is a much more difficult characteristic to demonstrate.  I have been faced with both, and I would pick a firefight over a weighty moral decision any day. 

Let’s take a moment to look at what is and what isn’t moral courage.  Let’s start with a very current event - Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, just dropped the hammer on Donald Sterling, the owner of the L.A. Clippers for some disgusting racist comments and beliefs espoused by Sterling.  People are lauding Silver’s decision and his “courage.”  I fully support Silver’s decision, but it wasn’t courageous. 

Why?  Because everyone wanted Silver to punish Sterling to the maximum extent possible – doing what everyone wants and following the popular path (even when it is the right path) does not require courage. 

Moral courage requires a decision that could be costly. Some examples of moral courage in the workplace include telling a supervisor about how your co-workers frequently doctor their time sheets, disclosing illegal accounting practices to an external auditor or releasing incriminating confidential documents to the media.   “Whistle blowing,” the disclosure of illicit or unsavory business practices to the public, is another form of moral courage.  Each of these could cost you friends, jobs, or public smears.  There is a cost to standing up and taking the “right” action.

Atticus Finch - Paragon of Moral Courage

True moral courage is difficult.  It is so difficult, it tends to be lacking in many people.  This is not a new phenomenon.  The great 19^th century American author Mark Twain remarked that it is “curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.”  The famous World War II General George Patton observed that “Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”

So, we know that we are most likely to get called upon to show moral, not physical courage, and we know that moral courage is sorely lacking across our society and can be difficult to demonstrate.  Where does this leave us?  It leaves us with the type of challenge that makes a leader, a Leader – the task of modeling and developing moral courage.   

So, how as Leaders can we build and demonstrate our moral courage and instill in our subordinates the necessary moral courage? 

Click through for some ideas. 

A Leader’s first task is to model moral courage.  As a Leader, it is your job to set the standard for your organization– as President Harry Truman said, “the buck stops here.”  Unethical organizations are usually headed by unethical people.  Conversely, ethical organizations are headed by ethical people. 

If you want to have an organization full of ethical people, you need set the example.  Here are some ways a Leader can model moral courage: 

Accept Responsibility for Your Errors – Never, ever, ever deflect blame and duck responsibility.  If you say “mistakes were made” instead of “I made a mistake” you are teaching your people that it is okay to dodge responsibility for their errors. 

The Marine Corps vernacular here is “man up” (“woman up” works just as well for me!) and “take your lumps.”  It may hurt, but you teach your people that everyone is accountable. 

Stand Up for What is Right, Even When it is Unpopular – This is moral courage at its finest.  The mission requires people to work on a Saturday – make them work, even if they are mad about it.  You need discipline a popular team member for a major mistake?  Do it.  You need to fire someone for deficient performance?  Do it. 

Leadership is not easy, and it is not a popularity contest.  Leaders need to make the tough decisions.  This makes me think of my favorite clip from the Dark Knight – nothing involving Batman, but the right moral decision from an unexpected source. 

Put your Mission and Your People In front of Yourself – Part of being morally courageous is sacrifice.  You need to show that you make the right decisions, even when they hurt.  So, if there is a deadline that requires you to reschedule plans, do it.  You need to stay late to help out your people, do it. 

When you set an example that sacrificing your personal wants for the good of the organization, your people will follow. 

Tell me, can you be the model of moral courage?