[MUSIC] Hello, this lesson focuses on courage, one of the six signature traits of highly inclusive leaders. Let's explore what courage means to highly inclusive leaders and how they demonstrate it. A dictionary definition of courage is, the quality shown by someone who decides to do something difficult or dangerous, even though they may be afraid. Highly inclusive leaders demonstrate courage by confronting difficulties in fulfilling their commitment to inclusion. Examples are acknowledging personal weaknesses, sharing power, standing up for their values, and fostering accountability. Addressing these and other challenges requires individuals who do not personify the traditional image of a leader as all knowing. Rather inclusive leaders exhibit humility, and other words they have a modest sense of themselves. As the researchers who identified six traits of highly inclusive leaders explained, inclusive leaders have the courage to speak out about themselves and to reveal in a very personal way, their own limitations. Instead of shying away from the challenge of imperfection, highly inclusive leaders adopt an attitude of humility. Based on extensive worldwide research, Russell Reynolds associates generated four key competencies of inclusive leaders. One of them is, quote courageous accountability end quote, which leaders exhibit by challenging others in tolerance and resistance to change. And contrast to other leaders, they do not look the other way when diversity and inclusion challenges arise. Instead, they face them head on, and they hold themselves and others accountable for non inclusive behaviors. Here's an inspiring story of humility and courageous accountability. Tim Ryan is the US CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers a top performing global form known as PwC. PwC provides various professional services including audit and assurance, tax and consulting. During the week of July 2016, Ryan's first week as CEO, several police shootings made the headlines in the United States. The news reported accusations that the shootings were due to racial bias against African Americans. Ryan, a white male later recalled his thoughts, you're leaving 50,000 people and you now realize you're the one who has to decide, what do I do? Do you do something? Do you do nothing? Things happen in the news every day, and the question is, when do you react? And when do you say that's not a place for the firm to step in? Ryan decided to send an email checking in on his almost 50,000 PwC partners and employees. He was stunned by the responses, basically no one was talking about the shootings at work. Black employees expressed their dismay and a sense that the topic was taboo. Ryan believed that his black colleagues felt as welcome and included at work as he did. Wow, he remembered thinking, how arrogant were we? That was a wake up call, based on that experience, Ryan decided to make race relations his top priority as the new leader of PwC. He had misgivings, I worried people might criticize us and people will say focus on running the business. Despite that he launched a series of formal and informal conversation for employees to share and understand each other's perspectives on race. He and members of his leadership team learned a lot from those discussions. A black parent described wanting a girl instead of a boy, due to her fear of the unique dangers a black son might face. Another colleague explained that if a police officer pulled them over, they handed the officer their PwC business card with their driver's license. That person helped to dispel the police officers potential belief that they were driving a stolen car, Ryan learned that these were not isolated concerns and examples. Ryan has since become a highly reputed champion for diversity and inclusion. In 2017, he helped to create and launch CEO action for diversity and inclusion. This initiative invite CEOs to prioritize diversity and inclusion initiatives at their companies. As of May 2020, membership includes over 900 CEOs and Presidents representing 85 industries, and over 50 academic institutions and associations. The project has published more than 450 diversity best practices articles. Ryan's attitudes and actions and simplify some ways that inclusive leaders exhibit courage. They make diversity and inclusion is top priority, they create cultures where people can be more comfortable having dialogues about difficult subjects such as race. These leaders support and modeled an expectation of listening and learning from other points of view and experience, including controversial topics that may not be explicitly related to work. Inclusive leaders show courage by being modest about their capabilities, they reveal their own limitations and fears. Tim Ryan has stated that he did not grow up talking about race, and he confessed, I sure as hell wasn't comfortable with it, I'm scared to death to have that conversation. Inclusive leaders understand that their experiences related to being members of dominate groups, may differ from those in non dominate groups. After hearing about commonplace experiences and attitudes of black colleagues, Tim Ryan told a reporter that he was a bit embarrassed that he didn't know about those experiences. He sought to learn more about race related topics and he continues to do so. In addition, he seeks to understand perspectives of other non dominant groups, including women, LGBTQ individuals and persons with disabilities. Inclusively to show courage by holding others accountable for learning about issues related to inclusion, and they create and maintain cultures of accountability. In 2018, Botham Jean a black 26 year old Senior Associate at PwC was shot to death by an off duty police officer while watching football in his apartment. Ryan wrote in an email to all employees, it is important that we all take time to understand the experiences of our underrepresented minorities. And especially in this situation, our black colleagues experience in everyday life, so that we can all be better co workers, friends, and allies. Under Tim Ryan's leadership PwC has maintained its performance and productivity record. In addition, the company has earned multiple awards for its commitment to diversity and inclusion. To conclude, courage is one of the six signature traits of highly inclusive leaders. Those leaders work humbly and wholeheartedly to value and respect every one. Like all of the other traits courage can be developed, in future lessons, I will provide practical guidance for how to cultivate courage to become a highly inclusive leader. Next I will describe another signature trait, cognizance of bias.