The Giving of Courage: The First Duty of a CEO

  By

Tom FitzGerald

He was the Chief Executive. He had been in this position for several years. Many thought he had done well, better than his predecessor had for sure. Others thought otherwise. That is the lot of CEOs - not everyone will love them.

His personal life was a mess and many knew. Too many. He was finding it harder to muster support for things that needed doing. There was talk of his retirement. "Lame duck" was mentioned. Successors were discussed.

Nevertheless, on the day of crisis, in the time of trouble for his people, by instinct or by wisdom or by inspiration, he fulfilled the first and foremost duty of a leader -

He gave courage.

He did so quietly. He did so simply. He did so without pretense or bluster or grand rhetoric. His means were mostly silence. Just being there. Standing there before his people in witness.

He was their Chief Executive - he gave courage. Not just to his own people, but to the country, and perhaps the world. In that moment he was leader to us all. And all acclaimed him. All took courage and were stronger and with that courage could mobilize and focus and work again.

His name was Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani. Chief Executive of New York City.

He gave courage!

We men and women of business don't talk much of the needs we have for courage. It is not expected. It is not taught in B schools. We do not have the words. It is embarrassing since the absence of courage is seen as fear.

But talk about it or not, we need courage. Our people need courage. In the final analysis courage is what drives our businesses. It gives us the power we need go to work, to take risk, to create, and to thrive. Without courage we grow weak. Our people grow uncertain. They and we are fearful; find it hard to decide; find it hard to invest in our future; find it hard to communicate a vision of a prosperous future to clients so that they can invest through us.

I am not talking here of fierce, heroic courage needed in the face of great danger. The New York fire fighters and police showed that - in their lives, in their actions, in their deaths.

No, I am talking of a quieter kind of courage, an ordinary kind. The kind that let Giuliani stand silently and simply, there upon the devastation. The kind that let him represent us all and take symbolic responsibility for our future. The kind that let him become the focus of our fear, our anger, confusion, shock.  And then helped transmute these emotions into resolve.

Giuliani's was a quiet courage. A mundane courage, one might almost say. The kind of courage that could be shown on almost any occasion. But it was a courage so rare, it seems that when he showed it we were in awe of it and him.

We took courage.

Most of us, perhaps all of us, live our lives with feelings of uncertainty, of anxiety. It is part of the human condition. Our culture seems to cultivate it too and our educational systems seem designed to magnify it. Yet, for us to truly function, to succeed, as individuals or as groups, we must have courage; it is a prerequisite for success.

When we find a company where people exhibit courage, quiet courage, the courage to listen and speak, to argue, decide and thrust ahead, we find a successful company. We find the converse too, for failing, unsuccessful companies seem to breed timorous people. Or is it vice versa?

Courage breeds success. Success breeds courage. Someone must begin the process of giving courage and then sustain it. That is the duty of the leader. That is the first duty of the leader - no matter the title or position, CEO, COO, VP, manager, supervisor -

To give courage.

Giving courage is more, much more, than giving "encouragement." Encouragement, once a word of substance, has come to mean very little. Perhaps it is now a kind of vanilla cheerleading. Perhaps it is an exhortation to do better. Perhaps it is a kind of verbal incenting.

En-Couragement means in its original sense, quite simply: the giving of courage to others; the instilling of courage in others; the creation or evocation of courage within others. A profoundly simple thing. A profoundly important thing. An incredibly rare thing too.

Who must we give courage to?

First, of course, we must give courage to our people. They need it from us. Just as we need and must take courage from our leaders, so our people need it and must take it from us. They can take it and multiply it if we give it. They expect it whether they know it or not, or whether they can articulate their need or not. If they do not get it, they will resent us for not providing it.

Secondly we must give courage to our peers, those who work with us, shoulder-to-shoulder and sometimes eyeball-to-eyeball. We must also give courage to our clients; they work shoulder-to-shoulder with us too.

Lastly, we must give it to our leaders. For sometimes our leaders are afraid. Giuliani gave great courage to his leaders.

How do we give courage?

It is no great mystery. It needs no special knowledge or cleverness or training. Just think of the best bosses you ever had and ask, "What did they do?"

What was it that Giuliani did? What did the mayor of NY City do that imparted so much courage to us all? In simple terms, there were just seven things, but all were acts of faith and generosity:

• First, he was out there. He stood there to be seen, to be counted. That was the most important act of all.
   
• Second, he assumed the burden of responsibility, however guiltless as he was.
   
• Third, he bore witness. He acknowledged the enormity of the injury and the challenge.
   
• Fourth, he showed emotion. Showed by voice and words and tears that he cared, that he felt.
   
• Fifth, he gave rich praise to those who labored.
   
• Sixth, he voiced certainty of success.
   
• Seventh, he spoke to his people as a people, as a single entity, recognizing their oneness and evoking their unity.

Most of us, thank God, will never face so great a challenge. Day-by-day, hour-by-hour, as managers, we have a need, a duty, to give courage to our people. So that they may grow in strength and hope and energy.

We can do it just as Giuliani did: 

• First, we can be there.
  For us, in our ordinary work, it means getting out and being where the challenges of our businesses are - in the plants with our workers; on the registers with our staff; before our clients with our sales people; wherever the challenges and our people are.
   
• Second, we can take on the burden of responsibility.
  Even if it is the responsibility of someone else.  Taking responsibility is a defining act of leadership.
   
• Third, we can bear witness.
  Acknowledge the size and scope of the difficulties and the problems and the challenges to be overcome. Though they may be just the usual ones, they deserve to be acknowledged too.
   
• Fourth, we can show emotion.
  Show genuine, real emotion, human emotion - happiness, sadness, friendship, confidence, and concern. Business is driven not by cold logic, but by human motivation which is triggered only through the heart. If we are not demonstrative by nature, and many of us in business are not, then such little emotion as we can show will be seen as being all that we can do and appreciated all the more. Charisma is not really needed.
   
• Fifth, we can give praise to those who labor.
  Give honest praise, generous praise, public praise. Praise even though the work is not dangerous, even though the results are not remarkable. For work done day-by-day and every day is in itself heroic. It deserves praise - while the praised still live and can be heartened.
   
• Sixth, we can voice certainty of success.
  The need our people have for reassurance is at least as great as ours. And ours is great.
   
• Lastly, we can speak to our people as a unit, as belonging to a single entity (not just one-on-one, though that is important too) and evoking that unity, recognizing the oneness of the group and its common cause.  Remembering that a company is a living, breathing entity, with its own personality and needs.  As alive as a human being.

Rarely in our lives are we, as managers required to show great physical courage. Day-by-day, as managers, as chief executives of our companies, whatever their size, whatever their position within larger organizations, we have the duty to show the mundane kind of courage, the kind that Giuliani showed.

For that is our duty - to give courage. The kind that is unpretentious, open, honest and without shame. The kind that says: Here I stand, God help me; I take responsibility; I need help.

The kind that says: There is a future; there is hope; we will win.