Courage: cornerstone of great leadership

Great leadership is difficult to define and understand. However, you know a great leader when you're working with one. I'd like to talk about the importance of courage as a core component to effective leadership and to share some of my own journey in the development of leadership skills.

Aristotle said, 'Courage is the first virtue that makes all others possible' highlighting its centrality in the development of a good human being. So, where do we learn to be courageous in our actions and what's the relevance to good management?

One way is to sign up for a management development programme, which is what I did when I joined a diverse group of managers at Namaste Culture, a training & personal development centre, almost 12 months ago. It took courage to recognise that I needed some expert guidance to reflect on my own management style. It took courage to share my management behaviours with other managers. In exchange, I felt humbled by the open sharing of the other managers and we soon all developed a strong bond that helped us to reveal the soft underbelly of our management styles.

Our collective courage in opting to learn more both about ourselves and about evidence based effective management skills has taken us to another level of understanding about what it means to be a good manager. It was as if the courage became infectious, and we helped each other to explore the painful challenges of managing people. Strictly guarded ground rules around confidentiality encouraged us to be honest and sometimes vulnerable in how we presented ourselves to each other. In so doing, we were able to discuss what it means to be an effective manager and a good human being. The trust in the group allowed us to acknowledge our worst fears, to affirm each other's strengths and successes, and forgive each other for our mistakes and limitations.

I think Aristotle would have been proud of us and our courageous engagement in professional and personal development. He may even have shared a tip or two about effective management himself!

If you'd like an opportunity to learn more about good management practice, while building your resilience as a virtuous human being, another 12 month course will begin in October. This course gave me the confidence and competence to manage my own career path, and have since joined the Namaste Culture team as Learning & Development Manager. For more information about courses, contact me on david@namasteculture.co.uk or my colleague, Helen, in the office on 01954 267640.