My courageous neigbour (sic) photo by Konrad M
Managerial Courage. I touched on this in a previous post but I’d like to explore the subject a little more. If courage is lacking, it makes it hard to do the right thing when difficult issues arise. Managerial courage means taking on a project or making a decision without being 100% sure that it will work. It means having a conversation with a good worker about poor performance and spelling out expectations. It means not letting small indiscretions slide hoping they won’t turn into big ones.Here’s the thing – courage is always in play but the type of courage can change according to the circumstances. Adrian Furnham talks about three types of courage: courage to fail, interpersonal courage and moral courage. Let’s take a look.
Courage to Fail
This one’s pretty simple. If you’re afraid that you’ll get it wrong, it easier not to do it. Here’s an example: An employee explains an innovative change that will increase productivity. You like the idea and think it will work but you’re not sure. Plus, you don’t believe your boss will support it so you don’t mention it. No worries right? At best, productivity levels remain the same. But what about the intangible effects on the staff? The employee feels that his worthwhile contribution was ignored so why should he continue to give his best effort. He talks to others and so on. The next thing you know you’re in your bosses’ office trying to address the drop in morale (and the resultant drop in productivity). You get the picture. A good manager is not afraid to fail because failure creates opportunity for innovation. Additionally, a great manager embraces appropriate failure as necessary for growth and then gives employees permission to make those mistakes.
Interpersonal Courage
This goes back to my fundamental management principle: know your people. As a manager, you have to relate to your employees personally to coach and counsel them effectively. I don’t mean that you have to know every detail right down to their shoe sizes but you do have to know what’s important to them. What do you do if a strong performer starts to slip? If you don’t know anything about that employee you have no idea what may have caused the change. If you don’t know the cause, your solution probably won’t get the results you want. What do you do if an employee comes to you complaining of scent allergies and identifies one of your strongest performers as the catalyst for his allergy attacks? Issues don’t have to be big ones to impact your staff and ultimately, your business. As the boss, you must be strong enough and sensitive enough address issues in a way that fosters understanding and teamwork. One way to help develop interpersonal courage is to increase your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient).
Moral Courage
This one is simple: Do the right thing. If you don’t know if something is morally right or not, your body will tell you. We know when we’re about to mess up whether we’re telling a lie or watching someone walk out with the company cashbox. We get a visceral feeling in our gut that warns us of impending embarrassment, failure or jail time. The gut check is the best moral courage indicator I know.
For example: two of your employees are close friends but something happens and they wind up going at each other in the break room. You break it up, give them a good talking to but decide not to document the incident. After all, they’re friends right? And besides, if you document it they will be disciplined and awarded suspensions and loss of income. You care about what could happen to these guys and you may even be thinking about the increased workload their absence would create, but your gut is telling you write it up. Don’t ignore the feeling. Use your critical thinking skills to help you look beyond the immediate and see the big picture. Thinking it through will move you from the emotional to the rational and ultimately to the right decision. In the break room scenario, you immediately understand the risk to your two employees but if you play the tape forward, you will also see the potential for greater risk to all employees and ultimately, the company if a workplace violence situation ensues. Now you have the information to back up your actions.
There is one other benefit to developing managerial courage. Once you develop the courage to manage you’ll be on your way to having the courage to lead.
Reference: Furnham, A. (2002). Managers as change agents. Journal Of Change Management, 3(1), 21.
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