One day in 2018, I walked the streets of Kuala Lumpur and stumbled upon a vendor with a sign on his cart. It read, “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better you are.” He was selling create-your-own snow cones and may or may not have offered me one. I can’t…
“You are brilliant.” I uttered that phrase to an audience of HR professionals in higher education as part of a challenge for them to own their brilliance at work and in the world. Almost as soon as I asserted the last word, I noticed what seemed like bewilderment and intimidation in some of their expressions…
When it comes to courage, we cannot separate possibility from risk. A listener called into The Courage Hotline podcast and asked me how stand in her courage — how to stand firm in saying how she wanted to represent herself in the world — without coming across to others as cocky. The last part of…
At the end of a recent presentation I delivered about taking more risks in the workplace, I got a question from a young professional who seemed fully frustrated. “I’m new to my career and team, and I feel like my team doesn’t listen to me when I speak up in meetings. It’s as if they…
In my ongoing quest to learn and understand more about courage, I recognized the need to understand more about risks, which are a central part of courage. That recognition led me to the worldwide bestselling book, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein. In reading the book, I uncovered three…
In April, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of Atlanta-based entrepreneurs who recently earned their Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certification. This certification helps socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs better position themselves to compete for federally funded projects. I shared with this group three, critical mindsets, or mental habits, to remember as they…
I spoke at the American Camp Association national conference in February on the topic of conjuring courage to have hard conversations. It turns out, there were several hard conversations young professionals in attendance wanted to have, including holding staff accountable, making camp more racially and gender inclusive, and confronting higher ups who create hostile work…
Rollercoasters may come to mind when you think about wild rides. Maybe even a basketball game that boils down to the final second. But, an entire calendar year? No one imagined 2020 would be as much of a nail biter as it was. It is being called the year of the pivot — the year…
So, you want to take a risk? You want to speak up with an unpopular opinion in a meeting of like minds and bring your whole, real self to every personal and professional space you occupy. You wish to have hard conversations about racial and gender equity and ask for a raise (yes, during a…
If you look at any list of must-have qualities for great leaders, you will almost always find courage included. Courage has been referred to as a defining characteristic of great leaders, the most important leadership virtue, and essential for leadership. Courage is a choice to face a risk for a worthy purpose. But, the virtue…