Many key leadership traits are timeless, like integrity, sound judgment and dedication. But effective leadership today requires attributes that go far beyond those to address the unique challenges and opportunities of the digital era. It’s not just about being tech-savvy or entrepreneurial — it’s about having a bold, flexible leadership mindset that positions your organization to not only survive the present, but thrive in the future. It requires courage, a certain kind of “organizational bravery” that today’s leaders must work quickly to adopt in order to drive their organizations forward.
Organizational bravery is more than just being confident; it’s about making decisions that, at first, may be considered unpopular or controversial, but that are ultimately right in the end. Some people would simply call this taking a tough stand, but it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Organizational bravery is rooted firmly in principle as opposed to an arbitrary show of boldness just for the sake of shaking things up. After all, the ability to make tough decisions when they’re aligned with your principles is the very definition of being brave.
The Biggest Barrier To Organizational Bravery: Short-Term Thinking
It’s easier to make a short-term decision than a long-term one because the short-term decision has an immediate impact, giving the impression that it resulted in a more concrete return on investment. That’s all well and good today, but how will that decision look over the next three, five or even 10 years? Brave souls understand the importance of accounting for the future. They’re able to take a hard look at pressing business challenges and make an honest assessment of all future consequences that any given action may have — especially if that choice has fewer tangible short-term benefits.
For example, a company faced a major decision years ago: choose between moving all operational data off of its existing legacy platform to a new one, or only migrate what was immediately necessary. The first option was expensive, so they chose to leave some data behind on the legacy platform. Fast forward to several years later, though, and there was still a good amount of critical business data left on the old platform. This has resulted in a tremendous loss of efficiency and revenue each year, with total monetary losses to date estimated to be in the tens of millions.
Traits Of Organizationally Brave Leaders
Leaders who adopt the organizationally brave mindset are dynamic. They’re skilled at establishing transparency and trust, which earns them loyal followers. It goes without saying they’re confident individuals, but not arrogant. In fact, some of the bravest leaders I know battle self-doubt at times. However, that usually makes them more receptive and responsive to constructive feedback, so they develop a thoughtful way of collaborating with others. They may even encourage colleagues to disagree with them — a positive thing, considering that a team of sycophants rarely provides the diversity of opinion needed to innovate.
Most notably, though, they make risk-taking a prominent part of their leadership portfolio. Though it’s not like they have much say in the matter, considering how organizationally brave decision-making involves shaping a vision that’s more than three years into the future. Any number of changes could occur in that time — markets can collapse, technology evolves, processes change and regulatory and legal environments shift. That’s why organizationally brave leaders must have the fortitude to make plausible, informed predictions for the future and deliver on them. Nearly all the innovative companies we know today did just that — we didn’t know we needed an iPhone until Apple produced it for us, but its instincts were spot on.
Developing Organizational Bravery
Although I’ve emphasized how organizational bravery requires boldness and foresight, it’s best to start practicing it on a smaller scale. First, identify someone you work with who you think personally displays the characteristics discussed. Focus on what attributes make them great and how you can replicate that behavior in others. If possible, seek them out as a mentor so you can engage with them regularly.
Next, clarify your principles and act on them, whether that means respectfully disagreeing with a colleague or providing difficult but necessary feedback. Just because you’re not making sweeping, visionary decisions each day doesn’t mean your actions are insignificant; in fact, many seemingly small decisions can have a larger impact on an organization — especially when they relate to talent management. For instance, while it may be easier in the short term to avoid firing a disengaged employee, not doing so could have even worse long-term effects on team productivity and workplace culture.
Other ways organizational bravery can manifest itself include things like taking a chance on job candidates whose resumes or pedigrees may not make them the obvious choices, but whose unique experiences could bring a different way of thinking to your organization to help it achieve its goals. It can look like tackling retention challenges by investing in your current workforce through new upskilling and professional development opportunities. That’s what true leadership looks like today: leading with bravery toward principled goals for the greater good of your organization and the people who power it.
