The
Need for Courageous Leadership
Gus Lee and Diane Elliott–Lee view
courage so essential to leadership they wrote a book
entitled, "Courage:The Backbone of Leadership". They found
that we tolerate unethical acts at work, and look the other
way when we observe character failings due to the lack of
courage.
The Lees also
say courageous leaders inspire ethical behavior from their
workers because they first require it from themselves.
Great leaders from Aristotle to Sir Winston Churchill
deemed courage “the first of all human
qualities.”
Why is courageous leadership training important? More
importantly, why is courageous leadership training specific
to the reservations important? The answer to both questions
is this: if everyone who was in a leadership position on
reservations acquired the leadership characteristics and
practiced the skills taught in a leadership training
program many of the problems that exist on Indian
reservations would disappear.
A person could say, if that is the case, why not send
everyone to leadership training and our problems will be
solved? Good point but unfortunately, it is not that
simple.
Why? It is one thing to learn what leadership
characteristics are and another to acquire these leadership
qualities. It might take some people days, months, and even
years to acquire the leadership qualities, much less
implement them in their daily routine.
Another reason is that it appears to be natural for a
person to think everyone around them needs to
improve/change but not themselves. Many who attend the
training will think, “I wish so-and-so was here
he/she really needs to hear this. Unfortunately, this
applies to many people who attend any leadership seminar.
Please click here to read more about the need
for courageous leaders.