Courage is Local
In every town in America there are mementos that connect the community to courageous heroes from the past. In one town it might be a sacred display honoring fallen veterans. In another it might be a plaque designating the spot where the local hero was born.
I’ve gotten to see a good number of these vestiges of courage while traveling on business. I’ve stood solemnly at the gravesite memorial of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, Georgia, right next to the Ebenezer Baptist church where he did most of his preaching. Off the coast of North Carolina, at Cape Fear, I’ve read a plaque that points to the spot where a ship perished. Closer to home, in my hometown of Asheville, I’ve read the plaque that honors Kiffin Rockwell, an ace fighter pilot from World War 1.
Last week I got to do something really special, and it definitely connects to the idea of courage. I attended an event at Pearl Harbor, on the USS Missouri, the battleship where the Empire of Japan surrendered at the end of World War II. Dubbed “Mighty Mo”, the ship fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, suffered a direct hit to her starboard side during a Kamikaze raid, and even served during Operation Desert Storm after being reactivated in 1991. This ship is practically a floating museum of courage.
The USS Missouri is only one courage remnant that locals on the Hawaiian island of Oahu can draw inspiration from. There are plenty of others, and not just at Pearl Harbor. As with most communities, big and small, there are artifacts that honor courageous people. While in Hawaii, I also saw a statue honoring Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, a five-time Olympic swimmer and the person most credited with populating the sport of surfing, and another paying homage to King Kamehameha, who conquered and unified the Hawaiian Islands and established the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Courage is easy to find if you make finding it your goal. I promise you that you won’t have to look very far. Just look for the plaques, gravesites, dedications, walls, and monuments in your own home town. When you realize how much courage surrounds you, it becomes easier to put your own courage to work.
Bill Treasurer is the originator of the new organizational development practice of courage-building. He is the author of Courageous Leadership: A Program for Using Courage to Transform the Workplace, an off-the-shelf training toolkit that organizations can use to build workplace courage. He is also the author of the internationally bestselling book, Courage Goes to Work. Bill has led courage-building workshops for, among others, NASA, Accenture, CNN, PNC Bank, SPANX, Hugo Boss, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Learn more at www.couragebuilding.com.
Courage Dispatch from Down Under
Australia is gigantic. Flying over the continent, as I did while traveling down from Singapore, one gets a sense of Australia’s vastness. For all its stunning beauty, you can fly hours and hours over Australia and view nothing but large barren spaces.
Australia was my last stop on the first phase of my Global Courage Tour. Before landing here, I had conducted Courageous Leadership workshops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Other…
Singapore Courage Dispatch
Singapore is a wonderful country. It’s clean, safe, proud, prosperous, and community-oriented. The country takes pride in managing development with beautiful buildings that enhance the skyline.It’s a striking place!
Yesterday I led a Courageous Leadership workshop for a financial services company that has had a rough time of it as of late. The impact of the recession on workforce moral, because of massive layoffs, was decimating. The need for courage, for…
Hong Kong Courage Dispatch
Greetings from Hong Kong:
So far, I’m learning that not all Asian countries are the same! Tokyo is neat, clean and efficient. Hong Kong is hot, crowded and loud. I like ‘em both, but for different reasons.
Like a lot of companies with whom Giant Leap works, the company I worked with today was hit hard by the recession. As a global financial services…
