By Francis Clark
VP Business Development
Profitect

I recently met the former aid to the Admiral who was in charge of Naval Operations at the Pentagon on September 11th and while he didn’t divulge this information his commanding officer said that in an instant, the aid had to grab the Admiral, whose office was adjacent to where the plane hit the building, and get him to safety. No time to think, he had to react on what was inside him and do the right thing. That’s courage ‘under fire’ to me and the story prompted me to think of the millions of people who go to work every day doing their level best ‘not to be noticed’.

Courage to me is shown by someone who knows what the right thing to do is and pursues that ‘right thing’ with cleverness and skill until it is accomplished. It may mean managing your boss or even your bosses boss or even finding a way to another executive in the organization that ‘gets it’. It may even mean sharing the ‘glory’ or even transferring it to someone else who can accomplish your goal with the clear understanding that it’s the right thing to do rather than it’s what will get me noticed.

If you’re in a company where you can’t get the ‘right thing’ accomplished and have hit the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ then it will take courage to find another opportunity OUTSIDE. Sadly, there are a number of companies where executive layers are in their ‘comfort zone’ and not willing to challenge anything. Many of those companies are ‘circling the bowl’ waiting for the final flush and you don’t want to be part of that.

Have the courage to go to work every day not caring if you get fired because you are always doing the right thing for your company; is real courage. The right kinds of people will notice and will get support from the strangest places...and you’ll enjoy your life and your work so much more if you live it with courage.