APX-V-0066
“I built a team where people actually feel protected enough to take risks.”
Fear makes people hide and play safe. You built the opposite — a place where people know they'll be backed, so they dare. That culture didn't appear; you made it, decision by decision, by taking the hits and sharing the wins. Protect it carefully. It's the rarest thing a leader can build.
Your Practice
- Name one decision that taught the team they'd be backed. Keep deciding like that.
- Back someone publicly this week when their risk doesn't pan out.
- Guard the culture from people who'd weaponize the safety. It needs defending.
- Reward intelligent risk so the protection keeps producing courage.
The Architects
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, 'The Strenuous Life,' address before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899