Courage Is…

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a number of writers share the etymology of the word courage. There are enough that I can’t share appropriate credit beyond saying I didn’t figure this out on my own. I was taught this. But it has resonated with me each time I read it and I want to share it with you.

The Oxford English Dictionary shows the word starting with Latin cor, working its way through a variety of Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Provençal) to Old French, and then Middle English. In English, it goes back as far as 1300 with a, now obsolete, meaning conveying the heart as “the seat of feeling, thought, etc.; spirit, mind, disposition, nature.” By the latter part of that century we had the meaning, “That quality of mind which shows itself in facing danger without fear or shrinking; bravery, boldness, valour.” By 1495 we had the idea remarked upon by the writers who taught me this, “to the courage of: so as to awaken or increase the courage of, to the encouragement of”.

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/courage_n?tab=meaning_and_use  – To get this far into the OED, you need to have an account. I can access it through my retiree access to the UT Austin libraries.

All of this to get to the point that when we use the word encourage, (think of it as en-courage) it has a meaning that we rarely think about, that of giving heart to another person. When we encourage another we help them have the heart to keep going, we are providing them with support that helps them access their own courage to do the hard, sometimes scary work that needs to be done. Team members can do a great deal to encourage their leaders to represent them honestly and well.

“There are many kinds of courage. Awesome kinds. And everyday kinds.”

On one campus that I worked, I shared with one of my peers the negative things I was hearing about the work of one of his staff members. Someone who heard I had done that said to me, “You aren’t afraid of anything.” Now, that of course isn’t true, but I would have wanted to know if a staff member of mine had a similar negative reputation. I saw it as being a good colleague, but of course, it could certainly have been taken poorly. I didn’t see that as an act of courage, but someone did.

There certainly have been times in my life and career when speaking up was an act of courage. And, like most of us I think, sometimes I did speak up and sometimes, I didn’t have the courage I needed.

“Still courage is courage – whatever kind.”

When we work in large organizations, there is always a risk to speaking up. Sadly, there is often a risk to telling the truth. There is certainly a risk to telling your own truth. But there is also a cost to not speaking up. It’s one of the reasons leadership is such challenging work. Part of the responsibility of a leader is to have the courage to do what’s right and to encourage others in that work.

When we need to have courage in our life and in our work, one of the best things we can do is find someone to encourage us. To help us have the heart to do what needs to be done. And the opposite is as important, we need to find ways to encourage others as they act bravely and speak truthfully and do the right thing. If you don’t have someone to encourage you, if you find you can’t encourage the others around you, perhaps you aren’t in the best community for you. The same idea applies if you don’t have someone you feel compelled to encourage and support.

The bold quotes above are from one of my favorite children’s books, Courage, by Bernard Waber. The text describes a wide variety of kinds of courage and they are all important, but he ends it with the most important idea of all.

“Courage is what we give to each other.” 

Today, this is my encouragement to you to be brave, strong, and courageous in all that you do! It matters more than you know.

Take care,
Gage