Work Courageously

Oh, how easily we can veer off the path of integrity.

Athletes, educators, corporate heavyweights, religious ministers – none of us are immune to the temptation to surrender self-respect for self-interest. All of must remain vigilant about whether we are stepping into a slippery grey zone that is often hard to retreat from. Integrity doesn’t come in shades of grey. Living and leading with integrity means that we must tune into our conscience to guide our decisions, and refuse to compromise on what we know is right regardless of how inconvenient, costly or politically inexpedient it may be. That doesn’t mean we don’t work to find mutually agreeable solutions with those around us; it just means we don’t sell out to our principles for the sake of our ego, our status, our hold on power, or bank account.

Is “False Pride” doing you a profound disservice?

When I took on the role of “Kyle Comfort Services Manager” I couldn’t afford to be too proud. I had bills to pay, and wanted to save money for more adventure travel. Yet I constantly encounter people who let a false sense of ‘pride’ – driven by a fear of losing face and maintaining a certain image in the eyes of others – keep them from doing things that would ultimately serve them.

Do your big dreams overwhelm you? Focus on the step directly ahead

Martin Luther King Jr once said, “You don’t have to see the whole stair case, just the first steps.” And so when it comes to doing something that leaves a wide cavernous gap between where you are now and where you ultimately want to be, don’t think that you need to know how to bridge it before you take the first step forward.

What matters most is knowing the direction you want to head, even if you aren’t clear on a specific end-point destination (I sure wasn’t at eighteen!) Once you know the direction, then think about what you would like to be doing 12 months from now that would be moving you toward it. Then think about what you’d be doing 6 months from now. Then 2 months from now. Then 2 weeks from now. Then tomorrow. Then today.
Life rewards action!

Is Facebook making us lonely? Why we mustn’t hide behind technology

As our online networks have grown ever more expansive, our relationships offline have thinned, leaving many people feeling more alone with fewer confidents than they had in the era “B.F.” (Before Facebook.) As social media appeals to our vanity and vulnerability, we must be vigilant not to hide behind the technology in communicating with the people around us, escaping the ‘real work’ of addressing the issues which arise in real (and truly authentic) relationships.

Why you are wired for inaction!

we human beings are wired to be risk averse. In other words, we find it much easier to settle with the status quo, keep our mouths closed and our heads down rather than to make a change, take a chance or speak up and engage in what I call a “courageous conversation.” When weighing up whether to do something that makes us vulnerable to failing, losing face or some other form or loss, we have an innate tendency to over estimate the size of risks and under estimate our ability to handle them.

How do you define success?

Is how you define success keeping you from achieving it? How you define success determines not only how successful you feel throughout your life, but how successful you become in terms of the impact you make on those around you, the quality of your relationships, and the value of the contribution you make along the way. Taking time to decide how you want to measure your life, framing those measures in ways that enable you to feel enjoy success today – and tomorrow –enables you to stay more purposeful, more courageous and more optimistic, even when your efforts don’t produce the outcomes you’re working toward. Which, let’s face it, can be more often than we’d like.

Out of work? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Job Seekers

Losing your job is tough, whether it had everything to do with your performance or nothing at all. But regardless of why you lost your job, it’s how you respond in the days and weeks that follow that will set you up to get back to work quickly and successfully. Here are 8 keys to helping you do just that.

Do you have a Risk-Ready or Risk-Averse Mindset?

When we’re willing to step outside our emotional comfort zone, and become vulnerable to what we fear, we discover that most our fears are either exaggerated or unfounded, and that we are far braver than we thought ourselves to be. Not only that, whole new worlds up opportunity open up in the process.

My Message to Women on International Women’s Day: Don’t Wait For Courage!

Tomorrow morning I am speaking at an International Women's Day breakfast hosted by a leading Australian bank. As I start to prepare my notes I can't help but still feel dismayed at the state of play for women globally here in the 21st Century. Whatever data you look...

Parmenides Fallacy: Are you downplaying the cost of inaction?

By not taking a risk in our job or career – whether making a change or proactively trying to adapt to those going on around us – we run the bigger risk of being left behind. Professor Philip Bobbit from the University of Texas has even given a name to the human tendency to assume the present situation will remain the same. He called it Parmenides fallacy after the Greek philosopher who argued that the world was static and that all change was an illusion. So don’t kid yourself that choosing to do nothing isn’t a choice and doesn’t have consequences. As I wrote in Stop Playing Safe, “Usually things that aren’t working well only get worse.”

Seven Strategies for Highly Effective New Year’s Resolutions

(Reprinted from original CourageWorks column in Forbes Magazine) We've all been there: Brimming with resolve on December 31st as we boldly declare the goals and changes we plan to make in the year ahead, and by January 31st that resolve has evaporated into the...

Ita Buttrose: Lessons on Courage from the Australian of the Year

While writing my new book Stop Playing Safe, I approached numerous people who have been really courageous throughout their career and working lives. In between my fair share of “Thank you, but no thank you” responses (which were wonderful opportunities for building...

Lance Armstrong: A Human Lesson from a Fallen Hero

(Reprinted from my CourageWorks column in Forbes magazine) None of us are immune to the same temptations that Armstrong succumbed to. As self-serving, deceitful and cowardly as his behaviour has been, it’s also very human. The discovery of Lance Armstrong’s drug...

Sometimes just ‘showing up’ is enough (particularly at 6am)

After a month of pressing my alarms snooze button, I finally hauled my weary self out of bed today to a 6am exercise class. As I yawned my way through the various exercises I had to remind myself that sometimes just showing up is more important than anything else.

Could you be misdiagnosing your problems? (Hint: If they keep recurring,you probably are!)

You can’t treat a problem properly unless you’ve diagnosed it properly. What lies at the heart of so many of the big problems we are facing around the world, and the smaller (though no less significant ones) we face in our own lives is our insistence that we are right and others are wrong. We are so busy insisting that we have the answer, we fail to accurately diagnose the root cause of what’s wrong, prescribe the wrong treatment, and then only perpetuate the problem.

Over-committed? Three questions to ask before saying yes.

Make sure that what you commit to aligns with what you are most committed too. When it does, then balance naturally sorts itself out.
Only when you are really clear about what it is that you most want to fit into your life, will you be able to find the clarity, confidence and guilt-free courage to say no to the many requests, invitations and opportunities that come your way.

Does your life bring you energy… or drain you of it?

Does your life brings you energy, or drain it from you? Helen Keller once said, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.” One day I’m going to die. So will you. Now is the perfect time to make a fresh commitment to living a life that inspires you, so that one day, when you look back on your life that was, you can feel really good that you lived it to the full, and filled your days and years with things that brought you life and love.

Motivation Running Low? Maintaining it for the long haul climb toward your goals.

The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t isn’t their talent or brilliance, luck or lack thereof. It’s their ability to stay in action when the going gets tough, motivation wanes and the path of least resistance grows more and more alluring. Successful people do things others don’t. Will you? Here are six keys to keeping your motivation when the option of throwing in the towel seems increasingly attractive.

Disappointment: Why you should never let one go to waste.

Sometimes disappointment can hit with an intensity that can knock us down hard. When it does, we have to take the time to look for the gift our disappointment holds, and to be sure we unwrap it. Doing so sets us up to succeed in the game of life that much more.

Trusting gut instinct. Does fear cloud your better judgement?

What gets in the way of benefiting from our intuition with people is our fear of what will happen if we listen to it. Sometimes we have so much invested in the status quo we avoid anything that threatens it, giving people the benefit of the doubt far too long. We fear the reaction of others if we question their integrity – whether it be causing them offence or an outright confrontation. More often, we fear how our own life will be impacted if our suspicions are proven correct. Tuning in to our intuition takes courage because it requires that we risk losing something we want and facing a reality we don’t. Humiliation. Being alone. Legal action. Ugly press. Others judgments. Social ostracism. Loss of money, of face, of friendship, and of the identity we had of ourselves and whoever violated our trust.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Whether you want to make a change, grow your leadership, or better the world, The Courage Gap is your roadmap to close the gap between who you are and who you’re meant to be.

LEARN MORE

If you ever wish you felt braver, this podcast is for you. You’ll gain inspiration from a host of incredible leaders. I also share my own insights on how to be a bit braver in our relationships, leadership, and life.

LISTEN TO EPISODES

Pre-Order Margie’s Latest Book The Courage Gap