Angela Sebaly
THE COURAGEOUS LEADER
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Copyright © 2017 by Personify Leadership, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Sebaly, Angela, author.
Title: The courageous leader: how to face any challenge and lead your team to success / Angela Sebaly.
Description: Hoboken: Wiley, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016054685 (print) | LCCN 2016055857 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119331612 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119331803 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119331810 (ePub)
Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Success in business. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership.
Classification: LCC HD57.7 .S4287 2017 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/092–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054685
FOREWORD
I’ve known Angela Sebaly for nearly a decade, first as a client and now as my business partner at Personify Leadership. For as long as I have known her, she has always modeled courage. From coaching CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to taking a leap of faith starting a new business, Angela is not one to back down from a challenge. One trait that I admire in Angela is that she has the innate ability to sense a problem early and will address it without hesitation. She has the courage to say the tough stuff, often eliminating a problem before it becomes one. She demands excellence from others because she first requires it of herself – that in itself takes a lot of courage. Angela’s fervent commitment to addressing the tough stuff early makes her not only courageous but also a leader who is continuing to grow herself. She is thoughtful, strategic, and results driven.
What qualifies Angela Sebaly to write this book is that she lives as a courageous leader every day. She is one of the most talented coaches I know. She can challenge leaders to unpack what’s really going on and then help them make small behavioral changes in a thoughtful and effective way. Her ability to role model courage inspires me to have more courageous conversations. When I am mentally preparing for a courageous conversation, I will often ask myself, “How would Angela address this? What questions might Angela ask?” Even when those courageous conversations I must have are with Angela, I still find myself thinking about how she would be talking to me, if the situation were reversed.
Throughout the pages of this book, Angela shares lessons from leaders she has coached and worked with, as well as the lessons she has personally learned – and continues to learn – about courageous leadership. Drawing upon her varied life experiences, she flushes out vital principles and riveting firsthand stories. This is far more than another book on leadership lessons. You will walk away with true strategies and techniques to be a more courageous leader.
INTRODUCTION
Consider the role courageous leaders play in our society – from the firefighter who runs into a burning building to the feminist who challenges conventional thinking to the athlete who pushes physical boundaries. We are inspired by them, we learn from them, and we are protected by them. Now, imagine a world without them.
During the Revolutionary War, two sailors named Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven witnessed their leader, the commander of the Continental Navy, participating in the torture of captured British sailors. The sailors knew what they were up against with Commodore Esek Hopkins. He came from a powerful family and was in a position of power in a newly formed government. It was risky to say or do anything to stop Hopkins, but both Shaw and Marven believed that it was their duty to report their superior’s misconduct. In 1777, their worst fears were realized when they were arrested after Hopkins retaliated by filing a libel suit against them. However, later that same month, Congress enacted the first whistle-blower act and not only released the two men but also agreed to pay their attorneys’ fees.1
Imagine a world without Shaw and Marven.
Fast-forward to more than a century later when an outbreak of the Ebola virus in western Africa killed more than 11,000 people and became the most deadly and feared virus on the planet. The doctors, nurses, and caregivers working with the Ebola virus became our saviors. While many medical staff, understandably, resigned on the spot, others went into hospitals and makeshift treatment facilities armed with their medical training, and more important, their concern for human life and their indisputable courage.2
Just out of school, completing his medical internship, Dr. Jerry Brown was hardly prepared for leading the fight against Ebola, but he faced his patients anyway, looking them in the eye as he diagnosed them and cared for them. In Liberia, his hospital filled quickly with infected patients but with a limited number of staff willing to take their chances. Brown told a group of students at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, “The first thought that I had was, ‘If we do nothing, this disease is going to overrun us, and before you get to know it, there won’t be any country called Liberia.’” Brown said, “We had to do something. We couldn’t run away.”3
Imagine a world without Dr. Jerry Brown and the caretakers of Ebola patients.
Halfway