"If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path."

Joseph Campbell A Hero’s Journey

Courage is the word most of us think of when someone does something heroic. Firefighters, police and other early responders, those who serve our country on the front lines—when ever you can find an adrenaline producing situation—you have found raw and openly displayed courage.

Yet real courage is often hidden from a crowd. It is what is built inside of us slowly, through facing situations that we are adverse to confronting and squaring our shoulders to change how we handle them. Courage is not the absence of fear—it is acting in spite of it.

You don’t go looking for these life tests, they come to you and demand your attention. Standing up to bully behavior is a hard one for many people because it often means you feel powerless and exposed. Yet this courageous act requires courage—lots of it. If I was to ask who are the bullies in your organization, you would know who they are—so would everyone else.

Their command and control narcissist behavior often gets translated into causing low morale at work, depression and anxiety in their staff, and for creating “the sitting disengaged” at a computer monitor. Often these people are the “stars” of a department turning their charm one and off when it suits how they get their way. Few people trust them, but they do fear them and often want to please them. If only to be able to stay out of their path.

Worse yet, laughter and fun inside an organizations, the life-blood of engagement and inspired workers, goes dormant. So does productivity and profits. Innovation falters and although profits may not fall immediately, the cost to your organization in the short and long term is very high.

All people flourish if given the opportunity to work together and create new frontiers with like-minded colleagues who build upon an agreed set of values. So what do you do when your values are being compromised, an unhealthy situation exists at work, and something needs to be done about bully behavior?

You get brave. You reflect upon your path and make the choice that fits your values and holds others accountable for their actions. You might lose something, your job or a promotion, your faith in human interaction, but you also might change something that was begging for a new direction. And you were brave enough to point this out when others slunk away.

This is what building character looks like. This is emotional running into a burning building to save lives, and it is just as important.

I recently was able to spend many days at a Summer Family camp for children with cancer, www.okizu.org. I am confident in knowing, after I noticed the Star Wars curtains in all the cabins and I became nicked named SKYWALKER (all counselors have a nick name), the Force really was with all the campers as they lived their “hero’s journey.” This is an uplifting experience few people could understand unless they experience Courage made visible, and it is important to know that you will eventually feel its power--should you keep practicing how to stumble into brave.

Courage at Camp Okizu abounds as parents, siblings and children confront their greatest fears and are called upon to grow in ways they never imagined. Yet when you walk in the cafeteria at a meal, you see laughing bald-headed, limb and energy challenged, and healing children who are taking life head on with a calmness that is powerfully inspiring.

The parents have to confront and wrestle with who quits their job, who has the best health insurance, what they do when the health insurance runs out, will they have to sell their house, who will be there to help them as they navigate how to heal their child, and most importantly, how do we stay brave, connected, and present for all of their children.

This is not unlike many companies struggling with what it means to be financially and emotionally successful. There are economic challenges, legacy building, growth problems, and defining their company values as a core to brand attachment and legacy. They are being called upon to create a leadership culture that has not been clearly defined in the past, and now they are challenged in creating it for their future. And this is not static; it takes constant work and reflection.

Courage and character is tested at a time like this and it is the front line employees and middle management who have the most to say. They are becoming aware of how they must speak with courage and conviction even when their knees are shaking and their voice quavering. They are becoming aware of what it means to step into the courageous behaviors needed to change cultural dysfunction, which includes some of the following behaviors:

• ideacide—the stifling of creative ideas or innovation

• distressing conflicts with peers or bosses

• continuous poor decision making

• substandard co-worker performance

• resignation to the “this is just the way it is” attitude

• a lack of self or company awareness as teams

• critical behavior and unrealistic expectations

• A layer of fear that is never stated but highly palpable

It is not easy to learn how to handle conflict, grow emotionally when tested with changing entrenched but nonproductive behaviors, or to name what is really the elephant in the room.

Job security, prestige and paychecks are strong motivators for holding a status quo steady. It is the brave who become an advocate for work/life balance, corporate and nonprofit community involvement as a part of company values and become a model for behaviors that include kindness, respect, collaboration, intelligent courage and the training required to develop a corporate culture modeling the values along the corridor walls.

No, it’s not easy to be this person, but you will find that embarking on your own hero’s journey is a requirement for engaging in your life, and not letting it passively slip away. Becoming an advocate for your values and finding your courage will not only create a joyful workplace, it will revitalize companies, employees, communities, and the path of your life, and others, as you join in travel on a hero’s journey.

Maria Cunningham Creates Workshops Focused On Long-Term Transformative Leadership. We Transform Company Cultures & Communication. Your Employees Will Be Inspired At Work!

Key Note Speeches/workshops on Leadership, Culture, Courage, Coaching and Mentoring, Communication, Kindness, FAIL to Succeed, and Speaking in Elegance

415.450.0566 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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