HRDQ-U hosted a free webinar, Courageous Leadership: Using Courage to Transform the Workplace with Bill Treasurer. Over 600 people registered for the learning event.
Bill Treasurer is a Chief Encouragement Officer at Giant Leap Consulting, a courage building company. He is also the author of Courage Goes to Work, Courageous Leadership and his latest book, Leaders Open Doors. For over two decades, Bill has led training programs for organizations such as NASA, Saks Fifth Avenue, the CDC, UBS Bank, Lenovo, the US Department of Veteran Affairs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Here is what some one of the participants had to say about the webinar:
“Bill Treasurer is an exceptional virtual facilitator; he kept the group engaged, shared real-life stories and gave us valuable tips/tools we can put into practice immediately. Thank you!”
“If my manager will not approve the purchase of this offer I may try to budget in my personal account. It was that good, to me.”
“HRDQ does such an outstanding job of bringing great webinars to the public! Thank you.”
So what exactly makes Treasurer an expert on the subject of courage? He explained to the participants that he has been to places far and wide (such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi and all throughout the United States and Canada). “I’ve worked with thousands of executives all over the globe doing courage building and everywhere I go, I learn something from my clients about how to be more courageous. They inspire me every day and then I take the lessons that I learned around the globe and I work with people like you to inspire a culture that promotes creativity and courage.”
He continued, “I think that courage is the first virtue of business and it’s the first virtue of organizations and it’s the first virtue of leadership. I mean just think of all the important concepts that connect to the idea of courage. To be a leader means to render bold decisions that some people are going to disagree with. To be a leader means having courage. To be an innovator and a creative person means to draw outside of the lines and even make some mistakes.”
Treasurer then posed the question, “What’s driving the need for more courage in your own organizations?” He asked the participants to reply.
Some of the responses were:
- Getting buy-in in their organization
- Accountability
- Customer satisfaction
- Transitioning new and younger leaders into the new leadership roles
- Changes to policies and technologies
- The need for greater risk taking
- A fear driven management organization
- A company that is going through the Affordable Care Act
As you can see, there are many factors that drive the need for courage in the workplace!
Courage is a skill and people with courage perform better.
Next up were a few examples of courage. Treasurer explained the difference between the comfort zone and the discomfort zone. “Comfort and growth don’t coexist.”
The concept of fear was then addressed. “The key here is sweaty palms. When’s the last time you did something that caused your palms to sweat at work?”
He continued, “Another good question is when is the last time you did something for the first time? When’s the last time you did something for the first time? Now if you’re a leader, so that’s your first responsibility is to make sure that you’re the first one up and off whatever high dive platform you’re wanting people to jump off of but you have a second responsibility as a leader too and that is to make people uncomfortable. Let me say it again. Your job as a leader is to make people uncomfortable.”
Speaking of the high dive platform, Treasurer told a personal anecdote of his experience as a diver and what he learned from it. The sport changed his life and helped him shape who he is today. For the whole story, listen here.
Trust is important when it comes to courage. “Trust takes courage. To be the first one to sort of put down your weapons and get disarmed and say you know what, I know I might get hurt in doing this but I’m going to trust you. That takes a lot of courage. So we’ve got try, trust and tell.” Those are the ‘Three Buckets of Courage’.
The webinar concluded with, “Your final tip is to create safety for people. If you want them to grow, progress and evolve, you’ve got a make it safe for them to do so.” Think about that concept and how you can make it work for you.
