“The biggest challenge facing today’s leaders isn’t strategy or market dynamics – it’s fear. Fear of making the wrong call. Fear of showing vulnerability. Fear of leading authentically in an increasingly complex world.”
- Dame Dr Neslyn Watson-Druée CBE, November 18, 2024
VIM Executive Coaching has seen it for years – a lack of “bravery” if you will, among executive leaders.
As business coaches, we have long noted executive leadership is undergoing a major challenge when it comes to executives doing the right thing; they don’t, they seem to avoid it at all cost.
International management experts such as Dr. Neslyn Watson-Druée is not afraid to call-out the culprit for what it is: a lack of courage. She sees this sad state of affairs in an absence of genuine vulnerability, a loss of identity, uncertainty in decision making, a hesitancy to allow greater inclusivity and quite troubling, a generalized lack of resilience.
Her observations are hardly isolated. Alex Brueckmann, best-selling management author and business consultant, stated:
“Across industries, I see it unfold repeatedly. Leaders in the first and second row—boards of directors, CEOs and their closest lieutenants—are increasingly hesitant to confront the most pressing challenges of their organizations. They tiptoe around issues, avoid the uncomfortable conversations and, most worryingly, disguise their own uncertainty rather than admitting it.”
How Have We Gotten Here?
A millionaire character in a Hemingway novel was once asked how he lost his fortune. The response: “First, a little at a time, and then all at once.” So too, with authentic leadership. Courageous leaders disappeared a few at a time, then most were gone. Leaders began to believe they weren’t the type to lead, then they became convinced of it, and finally it became a way of organizational life to avoid making decisions.
Back in 2015, Forbes contributor and business consultant Glen Llopsis had already witnessed the death of courage in leadership and noted that executives feared “losing control,” afraid to challenge the status quo, becoming tired of all of the change management noise, and the big one – a decision to play it safe rather than to do what was right.
The experts somehow meet in the same, uncertain, middle ground. The problem with “playing it safe” or trying to blend in or tiptoeing around important issues and decisions, is that everyone loses. From the wisest athletic coaches to financial experts to engineers to even painters and writers know that lacking the courage to make authentic decisions leads – at best, to mediocrity and underperformance. A lack of courage also often leads to a perpetuation of unethical behaviors, a lack of diversity and inclusivity, a perpetuation of unacceptable organizational behaviors ranging from racism to bullying to fraud.
However, many organizations have gotten to this point of inaction because even in the digital, AI-driven world of 2025, doing nothing has become easier for most leaders than taking a stance and making important decisions. Behind all this bravado, is fear.
Behind the fear
Behind the fears, the feelings of loss of self, hesitancy in confronting decisions, thinking they are without courage, is a lack of mindfulness. As business coaches, we are fearful this lack of courage is getting worse because executive leaders don’t believe they are capable of making choices. It is a function of poor self-perception.
Quite the opposite is true. Mindfulness requires executives to be themselves, to embrace what makes them unique and effective. Mindfulness allows better decisions and ultimately it is transformative. We teach mindfulness, because we know it works. Perhaps, that is the best endorsement of all.