Courage In Leadership Isn’t What We Assume It Is

We often associate courage with decisiveness, boldness, or charging ahead in the face of fear.

But in the context of self-awareness and growth, especially as leaders, courage is something less assertive, but also more demanding.

Courage is not the absence of fear.
It’s the presencing of fear.
It’s the willingness to stay with discomfort long enough to sense a deeper truth underneath it.
And from that presence, to choose our next step, sometimes to pause or even retreat, and sometimes to act despite the feeling of fear.

The path of self-awareness and real growth is made of many moments that require this kind of courage.

Because It isn’t easy to face the parts of ourselves that avoid, protect or fail.
It takes courage to sit with those truths without giving in to numbing, denying or rationalizing.

And yet this is exactly where resilience is born.
Not from a version of courage that urges us to push ourselves harder or “do better.”
But from a deeper version of courage that is anchored in presence.
From a quieter trust that what’s hard to face is also part of our wholeness.

This kind of courage isn’t loud, but it is real and you can rely on it.