Can you recall a team off-site meeting where real conversations happened and real work got done? Where everyone felt that the time was well spent? If you are lucky enough to recall such an experience, you probably worked for (or are) a courageous leader.

Without leadership courage, department meetings are one-way talk-a-thons. Any inclusion is for appearances only. Silence or corporate nods stand in for meaningful conversation and buy-in. Disagreements are avoided or presumed non-existent. Agenda is king. Participants extract their souls from the meeting to cope with the tedium.

When you inject leadership courage, you increase the likelihood for meaningful exchanges of divergent opinions. You might even achieve real buy-in, make important decisions, and move forward confidently and aligned.

You CAN Handle The Truth

I recently had the opportunity to facilitate an amazing three-day conference for roughly 200 division leaders. The Senior Vice President was new to the job and to me: I had no real sense of his style or his tolerance for ambiguity and truth.

I wanted to create a venue worthy of the participants and the thousands of on-the-job hours sacrificed. Rather than talking heads preaching from the pulpit, I wanted real conversations that would deliver 199 views of reality to the leader.

I proposed a ludicrous idea: provide Audience Response Keypads to permit each participant to respond instantly and anonymously to provoking questions.

He courageously agreed without hesitation.

Not sure what we kind of feedback we would unleash, we publicly committed to asking the questions and revealing the answers instantly.

Imagine a new leader laying out a vision for change and then asking publicly,

“How clear was my vision?”

“How urgent do you believe this is?”

“To what extent is this rubbish?”

And not just asking for the sake of appearing inclusive, but asking and revealing each anonymous response.

After two days of inclusive conversations, he asked one last courageous question: “Do you believe that we should move the department in this strategic vision? Yes or No.

Keeping in mind that responses were anonymous, what percentage do you think responded “yes”?

87% said “Yes, we believe this is the direction we need to go.”

Imitation Courage

Too many new leaders mark their territory by making sweeping changes and overhauling organization charts rather than invest in the hard work of listening, learning, and leading.

A recent HBR study confirmed that while most new leaders prioritize organization overhaul, only a small fraction of those efforts improve performance, and most reorganizations actually harm performance and crush morale. You know; you’ve lived it.

True Courage

Authentic courage doesn’t swagger, but is humble. A courageous leader asks hard questions, listen to all inputs, learns, and adapts based on new information. The courageous leader doesn’t worry about looking all-knowing. Real courage apologizes when it makes mistakes. Real courage says something like: “I know that many of you want me to tell you exactly what we are going to do differently, but I won’t. I won’t because I don’t yet know. I can tell you that it will take all of us to figure this out together. I am committed to holding a vision, removing obstacles, gaining support, and helping you do what you do best. Someday, we might find it necessary to move some of the organizational boxes around, but that will be much further down the road and only when we are clear how it will facilitate decision-making and serve our vision.”

The root of the word courage is heart (from Latin cor, French coeur): The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.

Before you summon your team to the next retreat, find your courage and create a venue worthy of your talent.

And hire a great facilitator.