The Courage Playbook

A practical pathway to a meaningful life and courageous leadership In The Courage Playbook: Five Steps to Overcome Your Fears and Become Your Best Self, Gus Lee, bestselling author and leadership expert, delivers an astonishing reveal that with moral courage, we can overcome our fears. This is a practical guide to gaining your courage to live rightly, treat others without bias and lead inspirationally. Readers will acquire Five Steps to Courage, 3 NO’s, 3 GO’s and Courageous Communication Plays. These lend deeper meaning to life, strengthen our character, improve relationships and allow us to help others for the common good. They lead to contentment, love and even happiness. The Playbook is a practical, behavior-based “Other-Help” guide that equips us more effectively than the worried “self-help” approach. The Courage Playbook includes: Skills and strategies for healthfully and authentically deploying courage in your life Ways to actually solve tough moral problems and conflicts at their root cause, genuinely help others, model strength and close the “Courage Gap” Methods for courageous and inspirational communication and leadership for all manner of situations – professionally, personally, relationally and organizationally Designed for people in all circumstances, to include young professionals, executives and leaders, The Courage Playbook belongs on the desks and libraries of business organizations, government agencies, healthcare, education, non-profits, military units, public safety organizations and on the bedside table of all people who want a seriously effective pathway to deeply improve themselves.

Foreword xv Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part I The Courageous Self 13 Chapter 1 Step One: Where Am I? I Assess Myself 15 Chapter 2 Step Two: Who Am I, Really? I Admit and Quit the 3 NOs 39 Chapter 3 Step Three: Getting It Right—The 3 GOs 73 Part II Courage with Others 121 Chapter 4 Step Four: Playsets for Basic CourCom 123 Chapter 5 Step Five: Playsets for CourCom Conflicts 147 Part III You Decide: Choosing Your Core 189 Chapter 6 Your Identity: Naming, Claiming, and Aiming 193 Chapter 7 The Individual Courage Advancement Plan: ICAP 197 Chapter 8 Crossing the River 209 Epilogue 217 Appendix: Cut-out Memory Cards 219 Notes 223 Glossary of Acronyms 245 About the Author 247 Index 249