Work has the capacity to present us with challenges and moral dilemmas that will test our courage in all kinds of ways, and it would be a tragedy to give up on the 65,000 hours that the average worker spends at work as an opportunity to pursue our personal evolution towards courage.

1. Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Courage in
Theory & Practice
Roz Savage

2. Main Points So Far
❖ Trajectory of courageous life vs average life
❖ Courage is not the absence of fear, but feeling the fear
and doing it anyway
❖ When Motivation > Fear => COURAGE
❖ Courage (and just about everything else) is a function of
the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are
❖ Developing courage is a dance between what we
choose and the challenges life gives us

3. Week 8: Managerial Courage
❖ Managerial cowardice
❖ Engagement and disengagement at work
❖ Courage and identity
❖ Proactive courage

4. –James Freeman Clark (via Grace)
“Conscience is the root of all true courage;
if a man would be brave let him obey his
conscience.”

6. 34.4 hours* 50 weeks * 40
years = 68,800 hours

8. Why managerial courage
matters - and will it still matter
in the new world of work?

9. Week 8: Managerial Courage
❖ Managerial cowardice
❖ Engagement and disengagement at work
❖ Courage and identity
❖ Proactive courage

10. –Jeffrey Pfeffer, Leadership BS
“Workplaces are mostly horrible.”

11. What examples do you know
of managerial cowardice?

12. Managerial Cowardice
❖ Backstabbing
❖ Avoid work
❖ Evade hard choices
❖ Won’t listen
❖ Afraid to discipline
❖ Don’t follow through
❖ Don’t think for themselves
❖ Hide behind power
❖ Won’t grow or change
❖ Phoney
❖ Don’t connect with people
❖ Can’t adjust to failure

13. Week 8: Managerial Courage
❖ Managerial cowardice
❖ Engagement and disengagement at work
❖ Courage and identity
❖ Proactive courage

18. Will disengaged employees
be courageous employees?

19. MOTIVATION > FEAR
=> COURAGE

21. Frances Hesselbein
❖ CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA,
1976-1990
❖ Replaced hierarchy with web of
inclusion
❖ Diversity: “If I’m a Navajo child
on a reservation, a newly
arrived Vietnamese child, or a
young girl in rural Appalachia, I
have to be able to open the Girl
Scout Handbook and find
myself there.”

22. Safia Minney
❖ CEO of People Tree
❖ “Slow fashion”
❖ “We are deeply committed to
empowering the poor,
protecting the environment,
and changing the kind of world
we live in.”

23. Edsel Ford
❖ President of Ford Motor
Company 1919-1943
❖ Took him a year to persuade
Henry Ford to replace the
Model T with the Model A,
thereby saving the Ford
company from failure

24. Discussion of why
courage at work matters

25. How can Courage be
Encouraged?
❖ Increase engagement throughout the company (Barry
Schwartz TED talk)
Events
Pattern
s
Systemic Structures
Narratives

26. How can Courage be
Encouraged?
❖ Increase engagement throughout the company (Barry Schwartz TED
talk)
❖ Tolerance of resistance to decisions
❖ Flexibility in procedures, discretion permitted
❖ Moral exemplars “giving permission” to be courageous
❖ Minimal hierarchy
❖ Genuine pursuit of diversity
❖ Acknowledgement of individual’s multiple identities
❖ Atmosphere of trust
❖ Willingness to overcome status quo bias

27. Week 8: Managerial Courage
❖ Managerial cowardice
❖ Engagement and disengagement at work
❖ Courage and identity
❖ Proactive courage

28. Identities
Self Identity
Group Identity Role Identity
Relational
Identity
Position within
organisation
Boss, middle manager,
or subordinate
Self, generally consistent
across contexts
Membership of a group
or organisation

29. Courage as Identity Work
(Koerner)

30. Tension Between Identities
Tension
{ I decided
I realised
I knew
Relief
Pride
Joy
} { } Shame
Regret
Frustration
{ }
Verb
Courage
=>Positive
Emotion
Cowardice
=>Negative
Emotion

31. >
IDENTITY CONFORMITY
VALUES COMPROMISE
PURPOSE RISK AVOIDANCE
MOTIVATION FEAR
COURAGE
SELF-DETERMINATION
ACTION
CHOICE

32. Week 8: Managerial Courage
❖ Managerial cowardice
❖ Engagement and disengagement at work
❖ Courage and identity
❖ Proactive courage

33. Courageous Decision-Making at
Work
Proactive Decisions
Reactive Decisions
Moral
Energy
Moral
Apathy
5%
78%

34. You can’t speak up if you’re not at
the table,
and you can’t be at the table
if you didn’t apply for the job

35. “Requirements” are not
Requirements

36. The Courage Calculation
(Reardon)
Setting primary and
secondary goals
Determining the
importance of
achieving goals
Tipping the power
balance in
your favour
Selecting the
proper time for
action
Weighing risks
against benefits
Developing
contingency plans