The Courage to Stay Yourself Under Pressure

Leadership is a constant fight for what you stand for. Not a fight against people, but a fight to stay true to your beliefs while the ground keeps shifting beneath you.

Sooner or later, every leader faces the same questions. Do you trust yourself enough to endure the long road? Can you stay the course, or course correct, without losing faith, focus and hope? Will you be derailed by people who doubt your intentions?

I first wrote about courageous leadership years ago. The questions have not changed. The pressure has. Roles are being rewritten, reorganizations keep coming and markets can swing on a single headline. Under that kind of pressure, courage becomes the price of relevance.

Courage Is a Fight to Be Yourself

For me, that fight started with my own name. People have always stumbled over Llopis or swapped it for something more familiar. But I made a promise to my parents many years ago that I would trust the brand I was dealt, and that it would serve as the fabric for everything I would stand for. I took that promise so seriously that I met with a linguist at Webster's Dictionary and asked her how my last name would appear if it were in the dictionary. I'll never forget it: she gave me five choices. No one else was going to define my name for me.

Your authenticity will be challenged constantly. Your mental toughness will be rattled until you are tempted to pivot away from what makes you unique and conform to what everyone else wants you to be.

Those are defining moments. They measure whether you can practice courageous leadership or whether you will simply blend in.

The greater your self-awareness, the more you will trust your instincts and be brave enough to act when the moment calls for it. That self-awareness comes from understanding what your experiences have taught you, and being honest about what they have not.

Why So Many Leaders Fall Short

Short-sightedness is the common failure. Leaders who fall short are afraid to fight, to be accountable and to take ownership. They lack the courage to break free from the fear that is holding them back from their full potential.

To be courageous, you must want to be relevant. Relevance requires you to:

• Make the unpopular decisions that others keep postponing.
• Challenge the status quo even when it is comfortable and profitable.
• Take the calculated risks others won't.
• Speak up for people when you can sense what they are thinking but not saying.

There is also a simple test of courage: consistency. A leader who says one thing and does another is not courageous. Hypocrisy is the opposite of courage, and people spot it quickly.

Welcome Failure as Part of the Fight

The word failure scares plenty of people. Courageous leaders know that you must welcome failure, change and uncertainty in order to grow and become wiser. The wisdom you accumulate from experience, and from those who came before you, is what ultimately defines your success. I have written before about what failure teaches you about leadership, and the lesson holds: setbacks are information.

How many rounds of the fight can you endure and still keep moving forward? You will not truly know what makes your leadership distinct until you test your ideas and ideals under real pressure.

Courageous leaders take their courage further when they are mature enough to be vulnerable, when they are comfortable being uncomfortable. They are not afraid to fight, fall down and get back up with the determination to fight on.

Courage Is Measured by What You Share

The most courageous leaders feel a responsibility to make the path easier for those who follow. They are inspired by the people who blazed trails before them, and they know that the people who want your success to continue are the ones who help create it.

Your courage is measured not only by the path you create for yourself but by the wisdom you share to benefit others. Leadership is about teaching people how to be courageous themselves, so they can fight through uncertainty in business and in life with perspectives they can relate to.

This is especially true for the next generation. Much of the routine work they once would have learned on is disappearing, so they will need leaders who pass on judgment, not just instructions. What you are capable of achieving does not stop with you. It can advance the unique needs and aspirations of everyone you lead.

The Round You Are Avoiding

Every leader has one: the unpopular decision still waiting, the belief softened to fit what others expect, the person on the team who needs someone to speak up on their behalf. Name yours. Then look at your recent failures and ask what they taught you that you have not yet acted on, and what wisdom you are deliberately passing on to the leaders coming after you.

Courage is not a trait you either have or lack. It is a discipline you practice, rooted in the conviction to stay yourself. Will you be prepared and courageous enough when the moment calls for you to act?

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.