In respect of change, and making things happen, I believe that the highest form of courage in leadership, whether it is within a family (where parents are leaders), community, or society at large is acknowledging that the reason things are not as I’d like them is down to me – the leader.
Akin to this is a kind of honest appraisal. That is, in assessing courses of action that I choose, and seeing what others see as well as what I want to see.
Alternatively, the highest form of irresponsibility in leadership is to assert that things are not as I’d like them because of others. This is very tempting for the inadequate leader.
If only we got rid of A we’d be able to do B. In other words, we try and find a scapegoat and blame him, or her, or them for our lack of success, effectiveness, luck, productivity etc.
This kind of thinking, may lead to 1): in a family, one child being labelled the black sheep, 2): in community or society, one section of the population being subjected to racism, discrimination etc. and 3): globally, terrible and horrific events such as war and/or ethnic cleansing.
So it is very important to build courage to be responsible into a team. How do we do this?
Courage is at the root of the word encourage and our aim is to encourage vulnerable people to make healthier life choices for themselves and their families.
In families in our Focus Group, making healthier life choices very often involves substantial change, and takes courage in respect of taking responsibility for our situation, and thereafter commitment to change.
So, obviously, this needs to be modelled at all levels of the organisation. And it starts with the leader!
Taking responsibility for our difficulties might not always be the most popular thing a leader will do – so in addition to courage it takes clarity and confidence.
I have experienced many false dawns in this area of work, where initial promise and enthusiasm for change is replaced very quickly by more of the same. This is summed up of course by the saying already quoted the more things change the more they stay the same.
This was about the French Revolution but it was partly true in Ireland also – as evidenced by the joke when I was young about the Irish Free State painting the post boxes green implying that this was all that really changed when the new Irish Government took over from the British in 1922.
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I will digress a little here to ponder on courage and responsibility at a wider level.
Are there any leaders that tried to bring about, enable, or facilitate real change? Not just a paint-the-post-boxes-green kind of change – and then took responsibility for all successes and failures within their area of change.
You may have knowledge of such leaders.
In my lifetime I can think of a few. I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King knew what real change was, and he had it thought through very well. Personally I am inspired by his ability to turn his life’s dream into reality. In this, he could recognise the huge potential that is often dormant in people, and he knew how to harness it by appealing to both sides of the brain (that is, the thinking and emotional parts), encouraging people that he led to choose good actions that would have a positive effect on their well-being rather than actions that would have a detrimental effect on someone else, e.g. a perceived enemy.
He did this by encouraging responsive rather than reactive behaviour, and placed spirituality, compassion and idealism on an equal footing with ambition, enthusiasm, and excellent organisation.
Perhaps the Pillars in the USA in the 1960’s did not know how to counter this non-violent campaign. After all – racism was rife, and, in addition to racism, there was glaring class prejudice. (I remember reading somewhere that the attitude of the corporate world changed when MLK began to encourage poor white people to join poor black people in the struggle for freedom and justice).
Were they afraid that things would not stay the same after they changed? Were they afraid that what MLK was initiating was real change, not a mere ripple in the pattern that would soon reassert itself again – as happens in most revolutions? Were they afraid that he was not the opposite side of the coin, but that he was a new coin altogether?
I don’t know why he was assassinated – but sometimes I think that it may have been because he not only saw this so clearly, but had the emotional intelligence and organisational ability to turn it into a popular non-violent movement.
Perhaps you might think that this is a little off point, but I think that it would be interesting, in respect of courage and responsibility, to look at the polar opposite.
While I was writing the earlier parts of this website many of the commemorative events of the First World War were in full swing. Looking at some of them led me to ponder on the terms courage, a term often used at these commemorations to describe those who fought and died in the war, and responsibility – i.e. who took responsibility for starting/perpetuating the war – pouring fuel on the fire so to speak.
I will recall the Sub-Chapter on Power and Control in Society and ask you to ponder on who suffers because of war, and who is courageous and responsible in wartime?
Surely it requires enormous courage to say I will not be bullied into fighting your war for you; I do not believe your propaganda, I, or my family have little or nothing to gain from it.
Now, this thinking may have been virtually impossible in the group-think that prevailed in almost all countries in Europe over a hundred years ago, but with the amount of awareness nowadays it is a lot easier to figure out who gains and who loses in wars.
Sad to relate, even a small amount of digging and a brief study of real facts nowadays will reveal that the unjust world economic order – driven by vast, global multinational military-industrial corporations and amoral financial interests – is mostly responsible for the wars that are being fought as you are reading this!