Breaking Bold
Just a little over a week ago, the world collectively sighed as the clock struck twelve and we all ran into the open embrace of 2021 and celebrated a new year. We could not run fast enough.
2020 will be a year to remember, and for far too many, as one of sadness and despair. Over 1.8 million people lost their lives to a global pandemic. Tens of millions lost their jobs and livelihoods, some permanently. Billions lost their wits as families and neighborhoods and the global community adjusted to an alternate normal that was defined by volatility and non-stop surprise.
Along with the pandemic, the world grappled with a host of sobering events – from race protests in the USA to police brutality in Nigeria, from forest fires in Australia to similar devastation in California, from assaults on democracy in Belarus to targeting of political opponents in Russia, from attacks on truth, the press and free speech to the disquieting intrusion of global cyber terrorism and manipulation – and so much more.
May all the souls who passed, rest in peace, and may their families and loved ones find solace and strength in their memories. May the millions who are hurting in different ways, find healing in 2021.
There has not been a more urgent need for effective leadership in the world than now – being as it were that so many of today’s news headlines are the result of appalling failures in vision, decision, and action, some decades in the making. Sometimes crises are natural and unavoidable, and the expectation of good leadership is to inspire us and manage through them. Sometimes crises are man-made, and the expectation of good leadership is no different; it is still to inspire us and manage through them.
In 2020, we did witness many dramatic examples of strong leadership. I speak not of title and officeholders in business and politics who came up way too short in this critical period of need. I speak of the millions of ordinary people - nameless and faceless - around the world, who stood up and did extraordinary things and, moreover, gave us hope - medical staff who braved the wrath of an unseen and destructive microbe, activists who did not give up despite ridicule and persecution, allies who touched shoulders with the victimized and together with them stared down institutional injustice, teachers who tapped into their own limited personal means to help pupils in greater need, essential workers who walked the gauntlet so that the rest of us could find normalcy in our own lives, neighbors who stayed true to their human instincts and made a difference for others in numerous selfless acts of courage.
Courage. Courage in leadership. Courage in many forms... this was the difference maker in 2020 – the acts of selfless service to moral principle or to others, performed freely and responsively at the time and in the moment of their need, even if at inconvenience or personal cost or risk.
Good things did happen in 2020 when courage stepped forward out of the fog of distress. True courage did not hide behind the smoke of equivocation and intellectual obfuscation, or lie low until it was convenient and profitable to be outraged or to practice manufactured statesmanship. True courage did not excuse, enable or support said equivocation and obfuscation. True courage did not avoid recuse. In this period of critical need for the world, courage was a necessary antidote for the tragic missteps of those entrusted with power. 2020 laid bare what it truly takes to be a leader.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”
These are the words of the late Maya Angelou, and she cannot be more profound. We must heed her voice.
Remarkably, and luckily, courage is an accessible and achievable trait. The everyday heroes of 2020 proved that.
As we start 2021, let us be clear-eyed. That the will of the courageous many can mitigate the shortcomings of the powerful few. That each of us is capable of breaking bold if we allow ourselves to. That courage, practiced diligently, empowers all of us to transform our own lives and the world around us in more meaningful ways. And that, as we continue into 2021 and beyond, we can all work harder to find our courageous selves and wait less for others to present theirs.
2020 was no throw-away – it was a powerful reminder of the potential that lies within each of us and within our reach, and an equally powerful affirmation that to be a consequential leader or live a life of impact, courage matters above all.