It would be fair to say that we at Texcel are obsessed with the concept of trust. In a world where most people seem to have lost their trust in politicians, large corporations, and even their colleagues, we are fixated on reversing this trend.
There are at least two aspects of this issue – establishing trust between an entity and its employees and establishing trust at an individual level. To date we have focused on the latter aspect, and we will continue this here with a discussion of some other important components – courage, patience, persistence, and perseverance.
Courage is the ability to confront fear, pain, uncertainty, or intimidation. It is not the absence of fear, but rather the inner strength to push forward and take action despite it.
As is so often the case, Mark Twain said it very succinctly – “a brave person is not someone who is fearless”. If a person is fearless, the behavioral component of fear is not at issue, for there is no reason to avoid or escape something that elicits no sensation of fear (subjective or physical). Therefore, a fearless person cannot be considered to be courageous.
But fear is necessary in life. Fear occurs at some point to everyone. Fear is experienced by all successful leaders, athletes, and innovators. Fear is not a weakness – it is a natural reaction to uncertainty, risk, or difficulty. And change can only occur if people take actions in spite of their fears.
So how can we promote courage?
Aristotle believed that an individual develops courage by doing courageous acts. Most of us aren’t born courageous, so we shouldn’t expect to magically acquire it without practice. Courage is a habit, a virtue. You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by “couraging”.
There are three generally recognised types of courage:
- Physical courage. This is the most recognised form of courage – the willingness to confront bodily harm, pain, or death.
- Moral courage. Perhaps the rarest form of courage – the ability to stand up for your beliefs, ethics, and principles even in the face of social opposition, unpopularity, or institutional danger.
- Psychological and emotional courage – the ability to admit you’re wrong, endure heartbreak, or simply open yourself to vulnerability.
As the American academic, Robert Sternberg, said:
The world has plenty of people with high IQs. What the world lacks, and desperately needs, are more people with the courage to do the right thing at a time when so many leaders, including those of high IQ, are scrambling to do the opposite.
Interestingly, most philosophers and psychologists agree that courage involves persistence in danger and hardship. This thought leads into the linked characteristics of patience, persistence, and perseverance. Combine all these characteristics, and you have the ultimate assurance of success:
- Courage – the ability to confront fear, pain, uncertainty, or intimidation.
- Patience – the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or setbacks without giving up.
- Persistence – the steady, firm commitment to continue taking action despite difficulty, opposition, or hurdles.
- Perseverance – the steadfastness and unwavering commitment to your goal despite a lack of immediate success.
Remember, failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely. Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult can become easy.
As we all know, it can take a long time and much concerted action for an individual, an organisation, or a function to establish itself in a position of trust. But the loss of that trust can happen incredibly quickly.
In previous blogs, we have asserted that how you behave towards others (manners) and your sense of perspective (seeing what is important rather than what is merely in front of you) are important if you are wanting to establish trust. Now we are saying that the four characteristics discussed above (courage, patience, persistence, and perseverance) are also critical to establish trust.
All part of our goal to leave things better than we found them.