Consequences of Lack of Courage in Management

"I only tell my boss the risks when I’m 100% sure, otherwise I’d rather keep quiet” - a manager recently told me during a workshop: Other managers started nodding - highly relatable. This is what psychology calls the MUM effect - Minimizing Unpleasant Messages coined by Rosen & Tesser (1970). It’s the deeply human tendency to avoid delivering bad news or to soften it until the truth is barely visible. - We do it to protect ourselves from blame. - We do it to protect others from discomfort. - And in the moment, silence feels safer than honesty. But here’s the cost: - Leaders make decisions without critical information. - Teams repeat the same mistakes. - Opportunities get lost. But here’s the paradox: what feels safe for the individual is unsafe for the team. Neuroscience explains why: when we prepare to share uncomfortable truths, the amygdala - the brain’s threat detection system - activates. It interprets honesty as danger: the risk of rejection, conflict, or loss of status. So silence feels like self-protection. How can leaders mitigate this effect? 👉 1. Redefine what “good” means in your team Say explicitly: “Being good here means raising risks early, even if you’re not 100% sure.” 👉 2. Reward the messenger, not just the message Thank people for speaking up, regardless of whether the risk turns out real. This rewires the brain to see honesty as safe. 👉 3. Ask better questions Replace “Any questions?” with “What’s the toughest risk we might be overlooking?” or “What would you challenge if you were in my seat?” ✨ This is exactly what I work on with leadership teams in my Safe Challenger program and workshops, helping leaders unlearn compliance-based leadership and build cultures of courage. Because the biggest risk in teams isn’t mistakes. It’s silence. P.S.: What’s do you think is harder: speaking up with uncomfortable truths or hearing them?

A few years ago, I coached a senior manager who constantly micromanaged his team. Not because he didn’t trust their capability — but because he didn’t trust himself. Early in his career, he'd been sidelined and humiliated by a leader who questioned his every move. So, when he finally became a manager, control felt like safety. But that safety came at a cost. His best people began leaving. Innovation slowed. And the culture grew quieter… and colder. What I’ve learned since is this: Not all toxic behavior comes from a place of ego. Sometimes, it’s a symptom of insecurity—unprocessed, unspoken, and deeply human. Fear of being outshone. Fear of being exposed Fear of losing control Fear of failure or irrelevance These fears don’t shout. They whisper. And they show up as: Micromanagement disguised as “standards” Reluctance to delegate in the name of “quality” Building teams of loyalists over challengers Sidelining confident, competent team members Killing initiative with a smile The tragedy? In trying to avoid loss or criticism, fear-driven managers create it. Fear, left unchecked, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But here’s the thing—this isn’t about blame. It’s about awareness. Because real leadership begins with the courage to look within. Ask yourself: Am I inspired by strong voices—or intimidated? Do I nurture confidence—or control it? Am I surrounding myself with comfort—or capability? Am I leading from self-belief—or defending from fear? Because the environment you create is a reflection of the space you’re leading from. Have you ever seen fear show up in leadership? Maybe in yourself? A peer? A past experience? Let’s have a conversation that matters. #SanjeevaniEffect #LeadershipReflections #PeopleFirst #FearInLeadership #HRTales #AuthenticLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #SelfAwareLeadership EclipticHRS

Corporate Soul Stories 225: #Weak Leadership Creates the Strongest Regrets In my years of observing leaders, organizations, and societies, one truth has stood out clearly: most failures are not born of malice. They are born of weakness. Weak leaders stay silent when they should have spoken. They chase comfort when courage is required. They embrace excuses when discipline is needed most. It is rarely the ill intent of a few that derails institutions. More often, it is the quiet complacency of many who look away. Silence, left unchecked, becomes a breeding ground for decay. I have seen organizations lose their finest talent because leaders avoided difficult conversations. I have seen vibrant cultures turn toxic because uncomfortable truths were never addressed. I have seen institutions collapse—not because their mission failed, but because those entrusted to protect it bowed to fear, surrendered to pressure, or traded principles for short-term gains. Weakness is not harmless. It corrodes trust. It weakens culture. And its scars are not temporary—they multiply into long-term regret. Strong leaders make mistakes too. But here lies the difference: strong leaders own them, learn from them, and rebuild. Weak leaders deny, deflect, and eventually drown in their mistakes. Time has an unforgiving way of separating the two. Where strength builds resilience, weakness leaves behind wasted potential and broken legacies. A weak leader cannot shield their people. A weak leader cannot preserve culture. A weak leader cannot carry forward a vision. And when the reckoning arrives—when cracks widen into chasms—the heaviest burden is not failure itself. It is the awareness that they had the power to act and chose not to. That is the loudest regret of all. So what does strength mean for leadership today? It is not bravado. It is discipline in decision-making. It is the willingness to speak when silence feels safer. It is the conviction to uphold values when compromise appears profitable. It is the responsibility to safeguard not just quarterly numbers, but the humanity of people and the integrity of culture. Weakness is a habit. The longer organizations tolerate it, the faster decline sets in. Strength, on the other hand, is a duty. Leaders who embrace it do more than steer companies—they protect the future. They create foundations that generations can stand on. Weak leadership creates the strongest regrets. Strong leadership, though difficult, leaves behind legacies that endure. The choice rests with us: to look away and hope for the best, or to rise with courage and act when it matters. Because in leadership, regret is not measured by what went wrong. It is measured by what could have been right—if only we had chosen strength. DC* To be continued...

In public administration, we talk endlessly about innovation, fresh ideas, and moving our cities forward, but too often the reality is different. Decisions are driven by fear…fear of political repercussions, fear of being wrong, fear of losing stability. Complacency creeps in because it feels safer to maintain the status quo, to keep our heads down, and to ‘manage’ instead of truly lead. Playing it safe can feel like a survival strategy, but in reality, it is a slow erosion of purpose, of impact, and of the trust our communities place in us. Public administration today requires more than quiet competence. It demands leaders with grit, determination, and the courage to take action, even when the path forward is uncertain. This is not about recklessness, it is about clarity and conviction. Recklessness is making decisions without thought for the consequences. Boldness is making decisions because the consequences of doing nothing are far worse. Some will argue that stability is the backbone of governance, that bureaucracy thrives on order, and that challenging the status quo is naive or short-sighted. But, there is nothing stable about ignoring the very real and complex challenges facing our cities. There is nothing prudent about protecting outdated systems while the people they were designed to serve are left struggling. Fear-based leadership is not leadership at all; it is self-preservation disguised as caution. Bold leadership in public administration means being willing to say, ‘This process doesn’t work, and we need to change it.’ It means challenging political pressures when they conflict with the best interests of the community. It means choosing impact over optics, even when it makes us unpopular. This isn’t about creating chaos; it is about creating solutions. The challenges we face today: infrastructure resilience, economic development, public safety, and a myriad of others, are too big, too urgent, and too important for leaders to hide behind caution. Leadership is about stepping into the discomfort of change, not retreating from it. It is about making decisions that prioritize people over politics and outcomes over tenure. Fear and complacency only delay the inevitable. If we continue to fly under the radar, hoping to avoid risk, we will not guarantee safety or tenure, we will guarantee irrelevance. Public administration must be more than a system of maintenance. It must be a force for meaningful progress, for trust, for innovation, and for hope. This is not advocating recklessness; it is advocating courage. Stop fearing the backlash and start focusing on the breakthroughs. Remember why we entered this profession: to leave our communities better than we found them. Fear can be comfortable, but boldness is transformative. The cities we serve deserve leaders who are willing to rise to the moment, not shrink from it. #Leadership #PublicService #CourageOverComplacency #BoldLeadership #Innovation

Your "open door policy" is costing you millions. Here's why. I recently analyzed exit data for a Fortune 500 client. The results were telling: ↳ 42% of departing employees cited "fear of speaking up" ↳ 65% reported avoiding sharing concerns with leadership ↳ 78% of burnout cases stemmed from unaddressed workplace stressors This wasn't a culture problem. It was a $4.2M annual turnover expense. What executives call "open door policy," employees call "career suicide." Google's Project Aristotle confirmed psychological safety was the #1 predictor of high-performing teams. Not talent. Not experience. Not even compensation. When employees don't feel safe speaking up: ↳ Innovation dies on whiteboards ↳ Problems fester in silence ↳ Burnout spreads like wildfire ↳ Top talent quietly updates their resume I've worked with hundreds of burnt-out executives. The pattern is clear. Organizations lacking psychological safety don't just lose people. They lose their best people first. The data is undeniable: ↳ Teams with high psychological safety show 76% higher engagement ↳ They experience 27% lower turnover ↳ They demonstrate 29% greater productivity ↳ They report 67% fewer safety incidents Yet 51% of C-suite leaders still view psychological safety as a "nice to have." Here's what actually works, based on my retention consulting with leadership teams: 1. Replace performative questions with structured processes   Don't ask "Any concerns?" at the end of meetings.   Create dedicated channels for feedback with real protection. 2. Reward the messenger   I helped one client implement "courage bonuses" for employees who identify critical issues.   Their burnout rates dropped 34% in six months. 3. Track psychological safety metrics   What gets measured gets managed.   Make psychological safety a KPI for every leader. 4. Model vulnerability at the top   When I work with executive teams, we start here.   Leaders who show their humanity create permission for others to be human. Psychological safety isn't about being nice. It's about building resilient organizations where people can bring their full capabilities. The most successful leaders understand that creating environments where people feel safe to speak truth to power isn't just good for people. It's good for business. What's one practice your organization could implement tomorrow to strengthen psychological safety? _______ 👋 I'm Sharon Grossman. I help organizations reduce turnover by 30-50%, saving millions annually. ♻️ Repost to support your network. 🔔 Follow me for leadership, burnout, and retention strategies

An executive's inherited dilemma made my stomach drop when he shared a problem in a coaching session. An employee had now interviewed for the same director role three times, eager for the promotion and chance to lead, and contribute more substantively/do more challenging work. The first two rejections came from *Mike's* predecessor, who never provided feedback or development guidance to the employee. As it stands the employee is solidly effective in many ways. But with some core growth needs that are imperative to become a capable department director and lead others, who are now their colleague. Colleagues who have felt the burn of this individual's misses. This employee keeps showing up, keeps trying, keeps believing they are close. But they've been operating with the same blind spots for years because no one had the courage to name them, or took the time to flag a development road map. My client is now facing the conversation a predecessor twice avoided, and must do it without demoralizing or alienating the employee. Has to deliver news that will likely devastate this person, and do it without making his former boss look negligent or incompetent (an imperative I laid bare). This is the reality of stepping into leadership roles: you don't only inherit teams and budgets. You inherit the consequences of every difficult conversation that was postponed. Each piece of feedback that was softened into meaninglessness, and all the missed development opportunities. What a huge opportunity to be perceived as the bad person and see relationships derailed! Here is a prime example of the dangers of avoidance. A new manager now needs to clean up years of accumulated discomfort in a single conversation. If you're a new leader, look around. What hard conversations are sitting un-addressed? What development conversations have been withheld? These inherited coaching discussions will define your leadership credibility more powerfully than any strategic initiative you launch. *********************** 🌱 hi, I'm Wendy, a culture and conflict advisor and coach. Your organization knows it needs leadership reinvention. The question is how to make it happen without blowing things up. I work with leaders to do this work deliberately, deeply, and in ways that actually stick. I'm built for the messy, uncomfortable leadership challenges that keep you up at night. Send me a DM to tackle what everyone knows but no one's talking about.

📝 As a leader standing up for your team is non-negotiable. ( read it again) Signs of a leader who's playing it too safe: 1/ The "Please Don't Fight" Manager: The one who'd rather hide in their office than deal with conflicts. They're like that friend who changes the subject whenever things get heated. Not exactly helpful when the team needs someone to go to bat for them. 2/ The "Sorry about everything" Boss: These managers apologize so much you'd think apologizing was their job description. They're saying sorry even when their team did everything right. Defense mode? Never heard of it. 3/ The "Let's wait and see" leader: So scared of making the wrong call that they barely make any calls at all. It's like trying to order at a restaurant but never actually picking anything – eventually, everyone just gets hungry and frustrated. When managers are too afraid to lead: - Innovation dies (because why take risks if no one's got your back?) - Team morale tanks faster than a lead balloon - The workplace becomes about as inspiring as watching paint dry Being a courageous leader isn't about becoming a superhero overnight. Here's what really matters: 1/ When you know something's right, stick to your guns. 2/ When things go wrong, skip the blame game 3/ Have those tough conversations – your team needs it 4/ Be the leader you wish you had Because leading means having the backbone to: - Shield your team from unfair heat - Take smart risks to protect your people - Own both the wins and the "learning opportunities" (aka mistakes) Remember: Courage isn't about not being scared – it's about doing the right thing anyway. Follow me Iraj Janali for more leadership, technology and HVAC insights. #managers #teams #leadingtherightway #courage