September 2025
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Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.
-- C.S. Lewis
What do you do when faced with unex- pected leadership challenges?
It’s easy to get stuck like a deer in the headlights, frozen by fear.
But as a leader, you can’t stay there. And you sure can’t quit. So, the only choice left between fight, flight, and freeze, is to fight. There are people counting on you to rally them around a vision, sort through the challenges, and help galvanize them in the way forward.
Often leaders abdicate their responsibilities due to fear. At best, this creates ambiguity and exacerbates the problem. At worst, it creates a leadership vacuum, which allows people to either make assumptions or step in and assume control.
Courageous leadership requires remem- bering:
Leadership is a responsibility
The way out is the way through
Being a leader is about leading people
You don’t have to do it alone
Food for Thought
Being a leader takes grit. At the end of the day, accepting that challenges will come—and with them fear—is part of the job. Every leader has been afraid at some point. Those who haven’t are probably lying or crazy.
How we respond in the face of fear is what separates courageous leaders from the rest. WPM
March 2026