Express Your Managerial Courage

By dodging the question of power and authority in management, yes-(wo)man managers are ruining the workplace. Is leadership not a matter of breaking free from a herd thinking and standing up for a project when it is necessary? It takes courage to be a manager. So, don’t go for a yes-(wo)man approach, put your management to the test, express your managerial courage… Be a manager!

Demonstrating managerial courage is being a superhero. It is the responsibility of rational leaders who are able to face reality and express it. In sensitive situations, courageous managers stand up for unpopular positions, for their teams and for their actions. Inefficiency in most companies is based in large part on carelessness and employees who always agree with their management for the sake of a certain peace.

Empower management with courage

Ask yourself which manager inspired you the most. Was it because he or she had a strong personality, a vision, listening and analytical skills and an ability to make decisions? Has he or she not been able to stand up for your team’s interests even if it meant challenging his or her leaders?

In fact, being a manager requires taking a three-dimensional vision. In other words, it is about acting on people, information and operations. It can be achieved by delegating, sharing information and stepping away from action. Entrepreneurial courage can also be mentioned.

This entrepreneurial capacity makes it possible to drive change. One facet of courage is to dare to ask your team to adopt the same discipline as you do with yourself. A manager is also someone who makes complex decisions, such as dismissing an employee if necessary, making a fair assessment, even if it means conducting a tough discussion with an appraisee and making an unpopular decision for his teams.

Of course, this role requires freedom from one’s own beliefs, leaving one’s comfort zone and making decisions. This is what could be called courage in the workplace. Finding a balanced approach is not an easy task, but necessary to be a manager.

There is no managerial courage without an organisation that encourages it

Courage goes hand in hand with a form of honesty and self-awareness. Honesty implies having values to perform an act. Linking what you say and what you do. Be consistent with your own values and those of the company. All this implies a certain self-awareness.

However, in some companies, there is no room for contradictory views. Fearing a backlash or the uncertainty , some managers are more likely to nod. We all know that courage does not always guarantee success and even puts the person who shows it at risk of being left out. While some, among the coward and submissive hypocrites, will be able to move up the ladder without having risked much. However, this form of conformity raises real questions about organisational performance, profitability and also about the working atmosphere. Indeed, many organisational problems, complex situations and conflicts are caused by a lack of “guts” or an ambient lack of initiative. What’s the outcome? Demotivation, loss of productivity, loss of self-esteem, burnout and a stressful work environment.

Let’s face it, there are no courageous managers without an organisation that encourages them to do so.

A company, through its values, its recruitment, its interaction zones, will recognize initiative, freedom of expression and confrontation of viewpoints. With courageous leaders and managers, it will gain in performance, collective intelligence and talent retention. However, recruitment models and assessment grids must also recognise courage as a strategic quality. In such a context, managers will have the opportunity to express themselves to serve the company and their teams. As a result, such a manager’s employees will in turn be courageous and committed.

Is there any room for freedom of speech?

How does your company support risk taking? What room does your employer leave for judgment, for expressions of feelings, for different analyses, and for freedom of speech?

Get yourself some brave managers! Let’s recruit them together!

To go further, have a look at :

Leaders and decision making: a study of the drivers of courage by Rasoava Rijamampianina, published in Problems and Perspectives in Management [PDF]