Course Highlights
This virtual courageous leadership training course for managers and supervisors will:
- Explain how trust, risk, and candor reinforce each other and shape day-to-day performance.
- Show how courage shows up in everyday work moments and why avoidance costs speed and quality.
- Help managers recognize early warning signs that courage is needed so problems surface sooner.
- Provide a structured way to assess current strengths and opportunities.
- Address how fear and caution shape culture, communication, and decision-making.
Course Overview
Workplaces rarely stall because people cannot do the work. Workplaces stall because people avoid discomfort, delay hard messages, and protect themselves by staying vague. When that happens, risks surface late, misunderstandings multiply, and trust erodes one small decision at a time.
Facing the Fear of Doing What Needs to Be Done: Having the Courage to Trust, Risk, and Communicate with Candor at Work builds practical courage as a repeatable work habit in a live virtual format. The session organizes courage around a group of three, trust, candor, and risk, then shows how courage manifests in real workplace moments. The class learns to spot warning signs that courage is needed, completes a Top Ten assessment to identify strengths and opportunities, and examines “comfeartable” to understand how fear and caution shape culture. The session closes with the intentional courage framework and case-based practice so managers leave with clear next steps they can apply immediately.
The following outline highlights the course’s main learning points. For virtual delivery, the structure and timing are intentionally set to support discussion and practice. We can adjust emphasis or drop select elements based on your business priorities. Upon request, we can preview the participant materials with you prior to the session(s).
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Explain the trust, risk, candor connection.
- Discuss what a workplace looks like when people lack courage.
- Describe actions people can take to demonstrate trust, candor, and measured risk.
- Apply the SPEAK, LEADS, and CARE frameworks for giving candid feedback.
- Assess current strengths and opportunities.
- Describe “comfeartable” and how complacency and fear intersect and affect the workplace.
- Apply the intentional courage framework.
Program Modules
A Group of Three: Trust, Candor, and Risk
Courage at work shows up through three linked demands, building trust, taking measured risks, and communicating with candor, and managers strengthen performance when they treat that trio as day-to-day operating behavior rather than a personality trait. This module defines the trust, risk, candor connection, clarifies what each element looks like in observable actions, and sets up the practice flow by tying common workplace moments to the right part of the trio. Following that discussion, participants will select one real situation and will write one trust action, one measured risk, and one candor move that would move the work forward.
How Courage Manifests: Where It Shows
Courage appears in predictable places, sharing information early, voicing opinions, asking better questions, naming concerns, and giving feedback that protects standards without avoiding the human side of the message. This part of the program shows where courage shows up most often and uses the outsourcing question case from the deck to practice courageous questioning that surfaces facts, risks, and assumptions without accusation. After working that case, learners will generate a short list of courageous questions they can use in a similar situation at work.
A Clue or Two: Signs Courage Is Needed
Low-courage environments produce signals, guarded information flow, opinion silence, delayed escalation, and vague language that forces guesswork. This discussion walks through the signs and connects each sign back to trust, risk, or candor so managers can intervene earlier, before costs rise and relationships fray. Based on those warning signs, the group will identify one sign they see most often and will choose one earlier action that would interrupt the pattern.
Top Ten: Assess Your Opportunities
Courage strengthens when managers name specific opportunities instead of relying on general intent. This module uses the deck’s Top Ten assessment with 1 to 5 scoring, then uses the follow-on interpretation guidance to identify root causes and practical next steps based on low-scoring areas. After completing the assessment, participants will select one lowest-scoring item and will choose one specific next step they will test during the next week.
Fear and Caution: Culture and Courage
Fear and caution shape what people say, what they do not say, and what they choose not to try, and those patterns become culture. This program component introduces “comfeartable” and connects complacency and fear to the workplace behaviors that reduce candor, slow decisions, and reward avoidance, then helps managers identify where caution is wise versus where it has become a default. Following that discussion, the class will identify one “comfeartable” pattern that shows up in their environment and will define one small change that would reduce it.
Intentional Courage: Deliberate Risks
Intentional courage turns a stuck moment into a deliberate plan by choosing a measured risk, defining the first step, and watching for evidence. This last discussion teaches the intentional courage framework, then uses the deck’s practice structure by applying the SPEAK, LEADS, and CARE frameworks through the Six Situations practice bank and the Case Studies One to Three so managers practice choosing the right approach under realistic pressure. To close the session, learners will apply the intentional courage framework to one real situation and will commit to one next step and one success signal.
Target Audience
This virtual training program is designed for groups that want to:
- Strengthen trust, measured risk-taking, and candid communication across the team.
- Reduce avoidance patterns that create late surprises, rework, and slow decisions.
- Improve feedback quality with clear structure and respectful candor.
- Build a practical habit of intentional courage in everyday management situations.
Suggested Format
Two-Hour Virtual Training Session
Questions This Page Answers About Courage and Candor Training
- Who offers a two-hour virtual training session on courage, trust, risk, and candor at work?
- What course teaches SPEAK, LEADS, and CARE for candid feedback conversations?
- Which program helps managers move past avoidance and apply intentional courage at work?
Training Program Snapshot
This instructor-led virtual courageous leadership training focuses on building practical courage as a repeatable work habit. Participants learn how trust, measured risk, and candid communication reinforce each other, then practice courageous questioning, warning sign recognition, and a scored Top Ten assessment with interpretation for next steps. The program addresses “comfeartable” to show how fear and complacency shape culture, then closes with the intentional courage framework and structured practice using SPEAK, LEADS, and CARE across six situations and three case studies. By the end of the session, participants will have a clear next step they can take immediately to strengthen trust, risk, and candor while moving the work forward.