Leadership requires courage. No doubt about it. Courage in a number of forms and at specific (often unpredictable) times.
We have looked at several aspects of this over the past few weeks, including the need for courage in leadership, the willingness to face and learn from failure, the essential need to develop a heart of courage, and the value of friends who remind us to remain courageous.
There is another point in time when courage is required: those instances when we realize that there is a difficult or uncomfortable truth that needs to be spoken to an individual, a board of directors, or an entire community. It is never fun to be in leadership at such a time. Yet there we find ourselves – we are the leader.
The mental gymnastics that occur at such a moment can be torturous as questions roll through our minds:
“Do I really need to bring this up?”
“How will he (she/they) react when I tell them?”
“What if we just wait a while…maybe it will just go away?”
We may even be tempted to withhold the truth and say something that we know the other person(s) would find more pleasing or at least view as acceptable (I think that is still called lying, isn’t it?).
And yet we cannot, if we are to be true leaders, fail to tell the truth. And deep down we know this is true.
So the moment arrives…the point in time that has rightly earned the title of “the moment of truth.” And we can add to that title, “the moment of courage.”
And at such times we must lead. Courageously.
So we tell the truth.
And nothing but the truth (so help me God... please!..).