Turbulence, fear, courage + resilience

"Put on your own oxygen mast first. Then assist someone else." We've all heard the emergency announcement hundreds of times. We know what it says. The wiring and equipment is there. But at a time of danger in heavy turbulence, many of us still need a reminder to choose what's actually right, not what feels right in the moment.

When it comes to the turbulence that's gripping nearly every aspect of our lives today, we're hard-wired for courage. There's a neural pathway that we can power up, to override our limbic fight-or-flight instincts, according to research at Israel's Weizmann Institute. To weigh choices. To find common ground. To assess with data, so we test our biases and assumptions. And choose the best options, not necessarily the easiest or most obvious ones. If we flip the switch. And remind to choose courage.

"Courage isn't the absence of fear," say national leaders who've brought us through dark times when we didn't know how things would turn out. "Courage is knowing how to fear what we ought to fear and how not to fear what we ought fear." That's easy to say. It's much much harder to actually do.

If you join us for a Courage simulation, we'll replicate conditions that create fear. There's no physical danger, of course. But there is a startle response, information overload, performance anxiety, a tight timeline and budget, peer pressure and a bit of insecurity. Look around the room (or Zoom line) and you'll see most people at Level 1 and Level 2, waiting to see what will happen or annoyed about the turbulent conditions. If you want to join them in victim thinking or in noise and chaos, you'll be in good company. But that won't get you to a winning solution. Nor will it give you a sense of triumph, efficacy and the satisfaction that comes from owning your power and using it well.

That's where courage-building leaders come in. To lift colleagues higher than Level 1 and Level 2 - and into learning, inventing better solutions than the playbooks provided and being champions who turn to the group and say, "C'm on, folks. No winging. Let's seize opportunities, mitigate risks and make great things happen." At Levels 3, 4 and 5.

With practice, you'll get better at reading the room - and seeing whether your teammates, bosses, board and customers PowerUP courage or fear. You'll see what level they've chosen when it's clear that the path they knew no longer will work as well as it has in the past. If they're already learning, inventing and championing, your job as a leader will be getting them to fly in formation. And if they're stuck at the bottom of the U in shock, avoidance, grievance or paralysis, you can choose to Make Courage Contagious and help them with their oxygen mask. To profit through turbulence.