Dare to Lead™
February 17th 2023
Building courage in a VUCA world. (VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous)
For the past several years I have worked as a leader and a coach in healthcare – the definition of a VUCA environment. Chronically under-funded, with over-extended staff battling a pandemic, burnout, and all the usual politics of a high-pressure, purpose-driven, organization. I also spent part of that time in an Indigenous organization, and was there early in the pandemic, when the discovery of unmarked residential school graves started to emerge, adding significant trauma to the mix.
Never have I needed courage more.
As a white settler, in a leadership role, in an Indigenous organization; As a parent with a young child, and aging parents, in a pandemic; as a middle-aged, queer woman with disabilities, facing the threat of long covid, and a recession. SO MUCH UNCERTAINTY!!! Staying present in the face of all that life is throwing at us these days takes immense courage. Leading a team through not only the work we are responsible for, but through the continuously increasing uncertainty of our world, required more courage, and more tools, than I had ever needed before.
The tools and principles of Dare to Lead™ became one of my anchors – leaning into vulnerability as a mark of courage, learning how to set clear boundaries that increased the trust in my relationships, learning how to lead conversations that enabled my teams to rumble with tough issues, and to find and create solutions together. I also leaned into cultural safety and humility, and trauma-informed leadership, but those are for another post (or few).
Dare to Lead™ is a courage building program: a highly experiential, interactive, program designed to challenge participants to deepen their self-awareness, and grow not only their courage, but also their capacity for compassion. This program helped me learn about the direct link between boundaries and compassion, and how to be empathetic without losing myself or my clarity. I also learned how to give better feedback, and how to ask for the feedback I needed – and be able to receive it.
Did you know that courage is not just a feeling or a trait that we either have or don’t? It turns out that courage is made up of four skill sets, all of which are learnable. If we don’t feel courageous, there are concrete actions we can take, skills we can build, that will grow our courage muscle.
The four skillsets of courage are:
1) Rumbling with Vulnerability
2) Living into our Values
3) BRAVING trust; and
4) Learning to Rise
Ironically, courage is a bit like trust – to grow it sometimes takes a leap or extension of it. But this program is built to make that possible. No one can guarantee a safe space for someone else, but in this program, we build a safer, braver, space, together so we can all have the learning experience we want and need.
If you are curious about the Dare to Lead™ program, and how it could help you, your team, and/or your organization to become more courageous and inclusive, please reach out to Tara or Shoshana. We’d be delighted to chat with you about where it might fit into your organization.
