For those of you who were able to join our Courage Hosts Dina Pozzo and Vanessa O’Hanlon, and our guests Nikki Clarkson, Paul Kennedy and Alicia Stephenson for #courage2021, we hope you were inspired and empowered by the experience.
We kicked off #courage2021 with Nikki Clarkson's stories of courage and accountability. Nikki shared a number of tips to build own courage and help other's in building their courage. These included:
- Seek to understand; be curious and generous
- Healthy risks pave new ground and create new ideas
- It's ok to make a mistake
- Lean on relationships to help you be courageous
- Reach for courage on a day-to-day basis, and ...
- "Just smile," which had every participant on the zoom meeting smiling from ear to ear! I’m smiling as I write this now.
Day 2 of #courage2021 continued with Paul Kennedy sharing stories from his memoir, Funkytown, and his learning about authenticity and vulnerability which included:
- The importance of dropping the mask of bravado
- Surrounding yourself with magnificent influencers
- The fear of failure and yet still having the courage to act
- The importance of being authentic and respectful
We know that:
- To be truly seen and heard, to be authentic, we do need to drop the mask of bravado, we need to drop our armour
- We don't have to be courageous alone; be sure to surround yourself with those who support you, who have your back and will be honest with you
- We can hold fear and courage at the same time; it is not fear that gets in the way of being courageous, it is our armour (~ Brené Brown)
- Authenticity and vulnerability have boundaries
Our Day 3 guest was Alicia Stephenson who shared stories of courageous conversations. Key messages shared by Alicia included:
Courage is a skill that can be developed and is invaluable when having conversations with more senior colleagues
- The importance of practising “what if?” scenarios
- Should someone erupt at you, the importance of:
- Being curious in order to understand what has led to the eruption
- Allowing the person to stuff up multiple times when responding to your curiosity
- Taking a break if necessary … and of course, circling back
The #courage2021 journey concluded with my facilitating a “Courageous Conversations” workshop in which we explored 3 key tools developed by insium:
- #worthwhile #risky #willingness
- The 3Cs of Workplace Conversations
- Courageous Conversations Checklist
As you can see, the 3 key foci of #courage2021 were:
- Accountability
- Authentic Self
- Courageous Conversations
These are 3 key areas of focus in insium’s Workplace Courage Questionnaire (wCQ); you can find the full results of the wCQ for each of these foci here.
Additionally, keep an eye out for the recordings of the #courage2021 sessions as they will be made available soon.
Thank you to each of our guests for sharing their stories and learning; for being vulnerable and courageous. Thank you again Vanessa O'Hanlon for hosting inspiring conversations.
Thank you to Jack & Geoff, our courageous behind-the-scenes team, this could not have taken place without them.
Thank you all who joined us; time is a valuable non-renewable resource; thank you for sharing your time with us.
Cheers,
Dina (aka @CourageChick)
Proudly supported by insium and the c word, #Courage2021 brought together Australia’s courage community for the third year in a row.
If you have any questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.