Leading At The Speed Of Courage: 3 Strategies To Lead Through Crisis

Forbes

12-08-2025

Award-winning global business advisor, coach, and speaker helping leaders unlock career-defining leverage at Olivia Dufour Consulting.
What if the future of leadership isn't about moving faster, but choosing to move more bravely?
In a world overwhelmed by urgency, where crises unfold in rapid succession and complexity clouds our judgment, speed is no longer a reliable leadership advantage. In fact, it can distance us from the clarity and discernment we most need.
In these moments, when strategy falters and certainty disappears, we don't need more hustle. We need more courage, backed by clear messaging. In the leadership blueprint High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard, he quotes world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma: "If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound."
When we experience moments of crisis, we tend to look for a captain to step up and devise a plan to weather the storm. In business, our teams seek that level of decisiveness to avoid confusion in our most critical moments.
This new era of courage-led leadership can be simply defined as a shift toward strategy with soul.
The Case For Courage
Most leadership systems are optimized for action, not alignment. They reward output and performance under pressure. But without courageous presence—without the ability to pause, to question and to move forward with integrity—we risk building reactive organizations at the expense of resilient ones.
From my experience advising global leaders, I've seen this firsthand: When fear is high, courage becomes the differentiator. Courage doesn't guarantee speed, but it ensures we move in the right direction, with clarity, conviction and accountability.
Slowing Down To Choose Intentionally
At the core of courageous leadership is the ability to slow down just long enough to choose well. To move with intention instead of instinct. To respond, not react.
A powerful coaching framework, the Ladder of Inference, reveals how quickly we can leap from observation to assumption to action, often unconsciously.
Courageous leaders learn to pause on the lower rungs of the ladder. They ask:
• What am I actually seeing here?
• What am I making this mean versus what it actually is?
• What is the most aligned, not just expedient, response?
That pause is a courageous act in itself, especially in environments obsessed with speed.
Cultural Wisdom: Courage As Harmony
While coaching tools offer clarity, cultural frameworks and ancient wisdom add depth. One that has deeply informed my thinking is the Cherokee principle of Eloheh, which translates to harmony, in forming principled relationships with people, purpose and our environment.
In their book Journey To Eloheh, authors Randy and Edith Woodley write: "We have heard it said that you can only move as a group at the speed of trust. We prefer to say that we can all move together at the speed of courage."
Courage, in this framing, is not centered around individual performance. It is a communal responsibility, an act of alignment that allows the whole system to move forward with a mission and vision.
The Three Pillars Of Courage-Led Leadership
When courage becomes a leadership operating system, it shows up consistently through three key behaviors to live by:
Courageous leaders speak plainly and directly, especially when honesty feels uncomfortable. They create space for others to do the same.
In Action: Normalize debriefing not just successes, but failures—without blame. Build candor into how your team reflects and learns.
Courage can't thrive in cultures of fear. Leaders must create environments where people can take interpersonal risks without penalty.
In Action: Make disagreement welcome. Reward constructive dissent as much as collaboration.
Courageous leadership doesn't avoid risk; it reframes it. Risk becomes an act of alignment with core values, not a departure from them.
In Action: Say yes to initiatives that reflect your purpose, even when the ROI isn't immediate. Trust your compass more than your calendar or a timeline.
Courage In Practice
Leading with courage can be embedded in team culture as small gestures that have a lasting impact, as well as large, scalable solutions to address deeply felt concerns head-on.
It might look like:
• Protecting a fragile idea in a room full of doubt
• Taking ownership for a misstep—immediately and publicly
• Choosing to wait 24 hours before responding to tension, when possible
• Naming the unspoken so the group can move forward
These types of behaviors model courage in action, which inspires teams to practice it in their own day-to-day.
Leading For What Lasts
Courage isn't disruptive. It isn't idealistic. It's the ultimate expression of radical compassion. It's the most reliable leadership asset we have in times of uncertainty because it roots us in clarity when nothing else is clear or linear.
When leaders prioritize courage over control, trust over speed and discernment over defensiveness, they create cultures that can withstand pressure without developing stress fractures. That's the kind of environment that evolves, endures and elevates everyone within it at scale.
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