What's your Courage Quotient?

In the mid-1990's, Daniel Goleman introduced the term "emotional intelligence" to the business world contending that our ability to manage our emotions and relationships with others was twice as important as our intelligence quotient (IQ) and experience in predicting our success as leaders. Ten years later, we see frequent reference to "EI", and have many different assessments that will help us measure our own EQ - emotional quotient. Most of you reading this would agree that having a high EQ is at least important, if not essential for those in positions of leadership"formal and informal.

I agree and will further contend that equally important is having a high Courage Quotient, (CQ).

In my home country, the USA, we entered the 21st century full of optimism, somewhat carefree and "fearless" particular since we had successfully navigated the Y2K transition. And then that fateful date, September 11, 2001, "9-11" changed my country, yours and our world forever. In literally a matter of minutes, we went from a state of "fearlessness" to one of total fear. And when faced with fear, we gather courage.

On that fateful day and for many to come, we saw and heard demonstrations of courage at its extreme. We saw how the heart takes over, and we saw a spirit come alive. We learned why the derivative of courage is "corage" from medieval Old French, meaning heart and spirit as we saw our firefighting professionals run into the burning buildings, witnessed people leaping for their lives from the 65th floor, and hearing of others with the courage to answer the phone wondering if they will hear the inevitable..... It took courage to go on to the next day, and the next....

Courage is about heart and spirit. And it is about tapping into that heart and spirit every day of our lives. I am probably considered one of the lucky ones, for I have no personal story to tell about loosing a friend or family member, or even fearing the lost of one from the events of that day, and all that have transpired as a result. Yet it is preciously those events that threw me into fast forward on my journey of courage, and put courage forever more on my radar screen.

Fast Company dedicated their September 2004 issue to Courage, with the following lead in "Is courage obsolete? Heroism is awfully hard to find in the era of expedience, excuses, and evasion." I found it ironic that this leading edge magazine posed this question three years following 9-11.....what happened during those three years that led them to ask that question?

The good news is that the editors were able to find "walking among us" the truly courageous. Furthermore, they found that the wise words of Aristotle in approximately 350 BC were true, "Courage is the first of human virtues because it makes all the other virtues possible."

The unfortunate news is that during that time we have several examples of leaders who chose not to face their fears--- those inner fears of failure; of being wrong; of self doubt; of letting go; of facing the mirror; of saying "the emperor has no clothes on". Perhaps the truest sign of courage is when we are able to live our life true to our values, to a purpose, and owning the consequences that result. Holding ourselves 100% accountable for our choices is one of the basic behaviors of courage.

Living a life with courage requires us to build our courage muscle, and just like building our other muscles, it takes commitment, exercise and practice. It takes truly knowing ourselves and our comfort zone, and consciously choosing everyday to step outside of it"at least once. It takes connecting our heart and our mind, and trusting our gut. It takes identifying all of our fears and facing them, head on, often just asking what's the worse that can happen? It takes goals, and humility to say, "I'm wrong" or "it didn't work." It takes action.

Christopher Reeve showed us how to live a life with courage, giving credence to the philosopher Seneca, "sometimes even to live is an act of courage." In an essay he was writing at the time of his death, he shares his profound story of living a fearless life, and reminds us, when we do, we make the world a better place for those who come behind us---perhaps that is the ultimate reason for having a high CQ. (Ode issue 22)