Leadership Requires Courage

There is an understanding of leadership I want encourage in you. It is so important, so vital in our time, that you might want to read this when you are alone and have a moment to contemplate it fully.

Leadership happens when a leader does what he or she ultimately believes is right for the situation they are in. Science helps, but leadership is not science. Identifying best practices helps, but leadership is not merely the aggregate of best practices. The counsel of others helps, but leadership is not just acting on advice.

Ultimately, leadership is a leader doing what they believe is right, wise, and productive. There is no one approach to leadership that works in all situations. So great leadership is a matter of a man or a woman taking their own counsel—after all input has been welcomed—and courageously making the decisions that need to be made. Only then are they leading with integrity. Only then are they fulfilling their calling.

Much of the courage of leadership is required when a leader takes a different direction from other leaders. It can feel like they are departing from the pack. It can feel like they are going it alone. They will be criticized. “Why don’t you do it like the others do it?” people will ask. Yet each leader has to be convinced in their own heart that they are taking the right path for their situation. Then they can withstand all that comes against them for what they have decided.

I have a number of friends who are governors of US states. They are all good people. Yet they are leading when it comes to mask mandates or vaccination mandates or immigration policy or law enforcement in very different ways. I will tell you that I think they are each leading wisely given their very different contexts.

Each has sought counsel. Each has considered the science. Each is well educated and broadly experienced and understands the issues thoroughly. Yet leadership greatness required that they each do what was right for their situations, politics and public pressure aside. Their policies and actions differ, yet each led in integrity and as wisely as they could for their situation.

I am not saying that truth is relative so that every leader can do whatever they wish, however they wish. No. Still, good leadership is a man or a woman choosing what they think is best for their people—in their time, in their location, and for their circumstances. They must consider what others have done, but they cannot be ruled by it. No one else is in their role. They must decide.

I say all of this because many of the issues of our time—the issues you will face—are not necessarily matters of moral absolutes or the certainties of the laboratory. They are matters more in the gray area, more about matters that can be decided a variety of ways leading to success. But context rules, and the smart leader has to know the issues as well as the context to know when he or she must depart from the conventional wisdom in order to lead well.

It takes courage. It takes a willingness to endure bitter opposition. Yet if the leader has decided what is best from an inner temple of truth and time-honored wisdom, then it is likely that the best decisions are being made.

Hear me, my dear leader. Your leadership future may not be filled with easy decisions. Still, you are not in your position by accident. You are there by design—both human and divine, I believe. So be your best and don’t cower if you have to take the road less traveled. Be wise. Be courageous. And act! Decide! That’s what the days ahead are going to require.