Leadership is not glamorous. Whilst there may be moments of pomp and celebration, your time is spent in service to your community.

Whilst those leaders who are innovative, out-there show-casing their latest and greatest programmes or ideas may be courageous in their sharing, I believe courageous leadership happens in the more shaky moments.

They are the private moments of overwhelming self-doubt. When the decisions you need to make have such wide-reaching implications, you can sometimes feel frozen in making them. When the heaviness of responsibilities keeps you awake at night running through all the possibilities and mitigations of your potential decisions. When you spend time agonizing over how to have a conversation with someone who you know won’t take it well. When you feel like you are spending all your time on compliance and it’s sucking the lifeblood from you.

Courageous leadership happens in the dark of the night, or the dawn of the day when you pull your shoulders back, raise your chin and step determinedly into the sunlight.

Courageous leadership occurs, when, despite shaking on the inside, you stand for what you know is right.

Courageous leadership is breaking-through when all you want to do is hide.

Courageous leadership is about opening your ears before you open your mouth.

Courageous leadership is also asking for what you need and creating space for yourself.

Courageous leadership is not glamorous. It is damn tough. It’s when you dig deep within yourself, connect with your deep why, values and inner strength and pull them up from the pit of your gut, and step back into the arena.

What does courageous leadership mean for you? Drop me a line or make a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Big aroha and awhi to all you courageous leaders.

MA 🙂