Jim Detert - Choosing Courage

This exceedingly readable book goes well beyond mere calls for courageous behavior in the workplace; it provides us with a rich store of exemplars, insights, tools, and tactics that can serve to literally rewire our habitual responses to whats possible. Jim Deterts concept of competent courage becomes less a matter of exceptional bravery and more a matter of choice.

MARY C. GENTILE, author, Giving Voice to Values; Professor of Practice, University of Virginia Darden School of Business

Leaders should take note. It just shouldnt be so hard to speak truth to power; its a leaders responsibility to create an environment where everyone can be courageous. As Professor Detert shows, thats both good for employees and good for the organization.

DICK RAINES, CEO, Carfax

As we watch with great disappointment our current-day leaders failures, Choosing Courage provides a road map for effectively demonstrating courage at all levels of leadership. This is a great read for leaders on the rise as well as those frustrated by the seemingly intractable polarization of many of todays challenges in both business and politics.

MARK BERTOLINI, retired Chairman and CEO, Aetna

At no time has there been a greater need for the lessons and guidance that Jim Detert provides in this book. Choosing Courage has captured the secret for how leaders and organizations can have a greater impactand that includes greater social impact, associate engagement, business performance, innovation, and personal growth.

TOM POLEN, CEO and President, Becton, Dickinson and Company

CHOOSING COURAGE

CHOOSING COURAGE

THE EVERYDAY GUIDE TO BEING BRAVE AT WORK

JIM DETERT

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

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Copyright 2021 James Detert

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to permissions , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the books publication but may be subject to change.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Detert, James R., author.

Title: Choosing courage : the everyday guide to being brave at work / Jim Detert.

Description: Boston, MA : Harvard Business Review Press, [2021] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020050840 | ISBN 9781647820084 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781647820091 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Courage. | Work environmentMoral and ethical aspects. | EmployeesAttitudes. | Industrial relations.

Classification: LCC BJ1533.C8 D48 2021 | DDC 179/.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050840

ISBN: 978-1-64782-008-4
eISBN: 978-1-64782-009-1

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.48-1992.

To the Detert women

CONTENTS

PREFACE: A TIME FOR COURAGE

We are living in an extraordinary time. As I write this, in October 2020, Covid-19 continues its global devastation of individual lives and entire communities, and protests about police brutality and systemic racial injustice are ongoing in cities across the United States and around the world. Amid this pain and despair, were also witnessing acts of true courage, from health-care providers speaking out about unsafe or unacceptable working conditions, retail clerks trying to enforce safety standards that those above them wont, or people of color demanding change in their organizations and beyond.

Though current events make the need for courage more obvious than ever, I committed to writing this book more than a decade ago. Around 2008, I began ending my courses with students and professionals with a short wrap-up lecture. Then I said: If we had more time, there are many more tools I could have shared to add to your toolkit. But heres the thing: in the end, I dont believe the range of ones toolkit is the primary differentiator between better and worse leadership. What I think matters much more is the courage to use those tools when needed.

Then Id give a few examples of workplace courage and share why I thought it was desperately needed for all of us to become examples for others. Not one student, then or since, said they worked in an environment where courageous behaviors werent critical or that they always happened when they should. Aspire as we might, there are as of yet few (if any) truly fearless organizations. So Id implore them to go out and make the world a better place, to do something courageous and report back so I could update my final speech with their stories.

Heres what has consistently happened since. People write me weeks, months, and even years after hearing these remarks to ask for resources on the topic because they need help preparing for a difficult conversation, engaging with an issue theyve been avoiding, or pursuing what they know is important but fraught with risk.

Thats why Ive spent the last few years reading everything I could about courageand courage in workplaces more specificallyand collecting my own data from thousands of people in different investigations of workplace courage. I didnt just want to add my voice to the cacophony of others just encouraging courage with no concrete road map or advice; I wanted to add something meaningful to the dialogue for those who know they should and would like to act more courageously. This book represents my attempt to distill everything Ive learned into a research-based but highly accessible guide for those Ive had the privilege of working with in person and the many more Ive yet to meet. I was truly inspired by the incredible stories Ive been told, and I want to share them with others.

Truth be told, I also needed these stories in a way I can only now articulate. I grew up in a relatively poor, single-parent family in a nondescript Midwestern city. I often felt impotent, knowing that my life wasnt what I wanted it to be but unable as a kid to do much about it. Perhaps most depressingly, when I looked around for inspiration, it was often lacking. Adults, too, including those in positions of authority, seemed too often to be (to use Thoreaus words) living lives of quiet desperation rather than competently and courageously charting a better future for themselves and others. All these years later, Im still disheartened and angered by the lack of courageous action by leaders and non-leaders alike. I just cant stand the idea that wed be so willing to give up our agency, authenticity, and moral calling for whatever it is we get in return.

We all have fairly regular opportunities to act in courageous ways, to undertake actions that we or others perceive to be worthy or noble