On leadership. The culture of courage

We all want health care to be delivered in an atmosphere of utmost integrity. However, integrity only occurs where there is courage to do the right thing in very difficult situations. Leaders must be very courageous to be successful. They must foster and build courage among their staff to create cultures in which the staff feel safe and supported to always act with integrity. We are not born with courage. We learn courage by eventually mastering situations in which we can act with less and less fear. The leader's obligation is to assess the environment and build opportunities for staff to work courageously with less and less fear as they master more difficult situations in their everyday lives.