A Coaching Model Created by Leann Ferry
(Life Coach, UNITED STATES)
Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. – Maya Angelou
The Courageous Mindset is a coaching model created for women in transition. It highlights the crucial role of courage in the process of personal growth and change. The model illustrates the open cycle we go through in order to move into action on things that frighten us. It shows how clarity leads to more successful mindsets which leads to more courageous action, which leads to more clarity, and on and on.
©2015 The Courageous Mindset
Courage is an underrepresented component to success. You can be clear about who you are and what you want. You can have your highest values well-defined and a list of goals to go with them. You can have self-awareness, a great plan and tons of focus. You might even have lots of confidence and be totally prepared. But if your goal is to bust out of the same old cycle, thrive in the face of change, or take on a big personal or professional goal, you will be pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone to get there. And when we push beyond the comfort zone, there will be fear. Where there is fear, success requires courage.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook and author of Lean In says in her 2010 Ted Talk that women are not making it to the top in any profession worldwide and that since 2002 the numbers of women in high level jobs has been dropping. She believes women need to stay in the workforce and offers 3 things that need to happen to fix the problem. She says women need to come to the table, make their partners real partners (share responsibilities equitably in home life) and not leave before they leave (making career sacrifices before a partner or baby are even in the picture). In these three directives, Sandberg tells women leaders what they need to do, but she doesn’t tell them how to get there. She doesn’t address the hurdles many women face in pushing their comfort zone beyond the gender barriers they’ve grown up with. She doesn’t address the fear that women have about starting to act in a different way, starting to step up, be heard and “lean in.” I believe they can get there by practicing courage.
I created The Courageous Mindset coaching model because I believe courage is the missing link when it comes to women finally appearing in equal numbers in leadership roles in every level of personal and professional life – at home or work, locally or worldwide. There are opportunities for practicing leadership and courage every day of our lives and taking these opportunities makes a big difference in how we see ourselves, how others see us (including our children) and what we are capable of in the future. I created this model and my coaching practice to help women find within themselves what they need to “lean in” to their entire lives.