Virtue:
Fortitude
Other names:
Courage
Bravery
Bravery
Definition:
Doing the right thing, even when you're afraid
The “virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good” (CCC 1808)
“...to remove any obstacle that withdraws the will from following the reason” (II.II.q123 a3)
Advice:
Recognize that you are afraid, and then just go ahead and do it.
Empirical Research:
Research shows that the development of courage is closely related to the development of higher motivation (Capps, 1984; Van Hecke & Tracy, 1987), ability to learn from mistakes (Hitz & Driscoll, 1989; Huhnke, 1984) and perseverance (Rathvon, 1990).
Studies indicate that bravery is necessary to maintain high-quality relationships with others (Worline, Wrzesniewski, & Rafaeli, 2002).
Bravery involves self-control, self-confidence, understanding of the context, and being oriented towards action on behalf of others. In their study on whistleblowing in the workplace, Rothschild and Miethe (1999) found that bravery was connected to making decisions based on higher rules or principles, rather than on a case-by-case basis. They also found that while whistleblowing could lead to feelings of anxiety and powerlessness, 90% of all whistleblowers said they would still make the same choice again, regardless of the consequences.
Studies indicate that bravery is necessary to maintain high-quality relationships with others (Worline, Wrzesniewski, & Rafaeli, 2002).
Case examples:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Fortitude
Further reading:
Zetlin, Minda. "8 Really Effective Tricks to Boost Your Courage." https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/8-really-effective-tricks-to-boost-your-courage.html
Vices opposed:
Cowardice, not doing the good that you ought to do, because of fear
Foolhardiness (or Fearlessness), being rashly bold
Foolhardiness (or Fearlessness), being rashly bold
Case Study 1
ReplyDeleteIn his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don’t, Jim Collins presents the findings from a multi-year research project on company growth. He writes about Darwin Smith, who served as CEO at Kimberly Clark from 1971 to 1991. Smith is an example of the virtue of fortitude. He seldom sought attention for himself, and did not try to cultivate a celebrity status.
"But if you were to think of Darwin Smith as somehow meek or soft, you would be terribly mistaken. His awkward shyness and lack of pretense was coupled with a fierce, even stoic, resolve toward life. Smith grew up as a poor Indiana farm-town boy, putting himself through college by working the day shift at International Harvester and attending Indiana University at night. One day, he lost part of a finger on the job. The story goes that he went to class that evening and returned to work the next day. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, he clearly did not let a lost finger slow down his progress toward graduation. He kept working full-time, he kept going to class at night, and he earned admission to Harvard Law School. Later in life, two months after becoming CEO, doctors diagnosed Smith with nose and throat cancer, predicting he had less than a year to live. He informed the board but made it clear that he was not dead yet and had no plans to die anytime soon. Smith held fully to his demanding work schedule while commuting weekly from Wisconsin to Houston for radiation therapy and lived twenty-five more years, most of them as CEO.” (Collins, Good to Great, p.17-18)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn her memoir, Tough Choices, Carly Fiorina describes a challenging experience early in her career as an employee at AT&T in Washington, DC. While co-managing an account for the Bureau of Indian Affairs with David Godfrey and Steve Frantz, she was informed by her male counterparts that she would be unable to meet with the client's representatives in person, since they had requested that the meeting be held at a high-class "gentleman's club" called The Board Room.
"The BIA customers wanted to go there, so David and Steve were going to The Board Room. As all of this dawned on me, I was both very embarrassed and very anxious. I went and sat in the ladies’ room to think about it in private. I thought for a couple of hours and worked myself into a state of near panic. I had no idea what I was supposed to do in this situation. I couldn’t tell myself it didn’t matter—it clearly was important to meet these clients and to convince David that I should be taken seriously. It never occurred to me to be outraged and demand that they not go—it wouldn’t have worked anyway. I had been presented with circumstances that others had created. Fair or not, it was my problem to solve and decide how to respond. "Finally, I went to David’s desk and said, 'You know, I hope it won’t make you too uncomfortable, but I think I’m going to go to lunch anyway. I’ll meet you all there.' You could have heard a pin drop in the office as everyone watched the scenario unfold.
"The next day arrived and I was scared to death. That morning I chose my outfit particularly carefully. I dressed in my most conservative suit and carried my briefcase like a shield of honor. 'I am a professional woman,' I whispered to myself. I got into a taxicab and, feeling like an idiot, gave the driver the address. He turned around to stare at me. 'You’re kidding, right? Are you the new act?' This wasn’t starting out well.
"I arrived at the destination, took a deep breath, straightened my bow tie (Dress for Success for Women, a must-read in those days, recommended floppy bows tied at the throat of all blouses), and stepped into The Board Room. It was very dark and very loud. There was a long bar down the right-hand side of the place and a large stage to my left. There was a live act going on with probably ten or more women. My colleagues were sitting as far from the door as possible, and the only way to reach them was to cross in front of that stage. I clutched my briefcase tighter and walked to their table, looking seriously out of place and quite ridiculous.
"I was cordial and tried to appear relaxed, tried to sound knowledgeable about BIA business, and desperately tried to ignore what was going on all around me. David was in high spirits and really didn’t have much interest in working. He was slugging back gin and tonic and kept calling the women over to dance on top of the table. The other men were either amused or slightly embarrassed, but no one tried to stop him. In a show of empathy that brings tears to my eyes still, each woman who approached the table would look the situation over and say, 'Sorry, gentlemen. Not till the lady leaves.'
"After a few hours, having made my point, I left them all there. They heaved a sigh of relief, I’m sure, but the next day in the office, the balance of power had shifted perceptibly. I had shown David and Steve that I would not be intimidated, even if I was terrified. I had proved that I wasn’t just another MDipper; I truly cared about doing my job even when it meant working in difficult circumstances. Having tried to diminish me, David was himself diminished. He was embarrassed. And Bill decided that he would take me under his wing and help me succeed. We cannot always choose the hurdles we must overcome, but we can choose how we overcome them." (Fiorina, Tough Choices, ch. 5)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn her memoir, Tough Choices, Carly Fiorina describes an episode from early in her career at ACMC when she was forced to stand up to an over-demanding company attorney who habitually mistreated Carly’s staff. "A boss isn’t paid more than a subordinate because he or she is better. A boss is paid more than a subordinate because the boss has greater responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is to stand up for people when it’s necessary and to shield them from things they shouldn’t have to deal with. I had to call this man on his behavior. The way he was berating people wasn’t right. I was very nervous because he was a high-level, fair-haired lawyer with a lot of clout. Despite my trepidation, though, it was necessary. I wouldn’t be living up to my responsibilities if I didn’t confront him. So I went into Bob’s office, shut the door and made a phone call to the attorney.
"'I have some very upset people over here.'
"'Oh, tell them to get over it. I’m in a hurry; I need the data, and I can’t get anyone to help me.'
"'We’re all doing everything we can to help you. My people are under a lot of pressure and working long hours too. But you cannot speak to them the way you do. It’s disrespectful, it’s abusive and it’s wrong.'
"We went back and forth like this for quite a while. I honestly thought that if I could just make him see the impact he was having on people, he’d realize he was shooting himself in the foot. For him it was a matter of pride and power. He was too proud to admit he was wrong, and he thought he would lose power if he backed down.
"All my life I had worked hard to be liked. Most of us want to be liked, but I think women feel a special pressure to be pleasant and accommodating. That day I decided that sometimes it’s more important to be respected than to be liked. When I get really angry, my voice gets very low and very steady. I don’t get louder, I get quieter. I could not reason with him, so now I would talk to him in a language he understood: the language of power. I had something he needed.
"I said very quietly: 'You will apologize to the two women you abused. You will never speak to them in that way again. You will not talk to Jim or Carol. And until you apologize, you will not get one more piece of data, one more shred of help from me.'
"'You can’t do that,' he howled into the phone.
"'I can and I will.' I was shaking like a leaf and burst into tears when I hung up the phone. I was exhausted and scared. I was also furious. He could not treat people like this and get away with it. I told our secretaries that if he called again and was abusive, they should hang up the phone. I said I would take responsibility. I told Jim and Carol the same thing. And then we waited. We stopped working on his outstanding requests. We didn’t send the data that was due. After two days he called and apologized.
"Never threaten if you’re not prepared to follow through. Never threaten if reason can prevail, but if you must, threaten something that really matters and stick to it." (Fiorina, Tough Choices, ch. 8)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteIn his book, The Pope & the CEO, entrepreneur and former Swiss Guard Andreas Widmer recalls an episode from his time in service to John Paul II where the Pope displayed true fortitude. During a papal visit to Latin America, the Chilean government, which felt threatened by John Paul II's strong defense of human rights, deliberately staged a riot in order to disrupt a public Mass being offered by the Pope. "Amidst the pandemonium, the altar remained peaceful. Most men in John Paul’s position would have grown angry or retired to safety, but he took a different course. When the officials shouted out their songs, he prayed a little louder. He continued to pray when the rioting broke out. With tear gas in the air, he prayed more still. He didn’t shout, and he didn’t run. He made the decision that celebrating that Mass, despite all the forces arrayed against him, was the most important thing he could do for God and the Chilean people. He knew he needed to show them that the government could not silence the Church. It could not silence God.
"John Paul focused on the task at hand and chose to respond in the way he believed God wanted him to respond. He was able to do that not simply because he knew it was the right thing to do, but also, more importantly, because over a period of many years, he had made a habit of choosing the right course of action. He had learned to discipline his will to choose the good, even when that choice was difficult. He had, in fact, learned to use his free will rightly."
As Widmer explains, the virtue of fortitude, of firmness in pursuit of the good, is similarly necessary when facing the far more mundane obstacles of the business world.
"That same habit is just as crucial for an executive or CEO. You can’t be successful without having a will disciplined enough to help you achieve your goals. You can’t lead your company to success without having the ability to pursue the right course of action. You can’t create a corporate culture of responsibility and innovation unless you’ve modeled those behaviors for your employees." (Widmer, The Pope & the CEO, ch. 4)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteBorn Sarah Breedlove to former slaves in the Deep South, Madam C. J. Walker rose from poverty to become the wealthiest black businesswoman in America through her cosmetics product line. Walker was determined to use her influence to reach out to other black women in order to provide training and encouragement, as she did at Booker T. Washington’s 1912 Negro Farmer’s Conference at his school in Tuskegee, AL. As Walker’s biographer and descendent A’Lelia Bundles explains, Washington was initially reluctant to agree to her request to speak. This partly because Washington believed that black cosmetics manufacturers “fostered imitation of what beauty standards,” a trend that Walker sought to break. “His reply to her letter was prompt,” says Bundles, “but it was also searingly curt…With no compliments for the impressive prospectus she had mailed, he informed her that he was ‘well acquainted’ with her business, ‘but somehow I do not feel that a visit to our Conference would offer the opportunity which you seem to desire.’” (p. 122)
Washington’s initial rejection only made Walker more determined. “Uninvited, but undaunted, Madam Walker traveled to Alabama armed with a letter of introduction from Thomas Taylor, the highly respected executive secretary of Indianapolis’s colored YMCA. Shortly after reaching the 2,000-acre Tuskegee campus, she appeared unannounced on Washington’s front porch. ‘She came knocking on his door at his private home,’ Louis Harlan recalled from a conversation with a Washington family member. Whether he saw her or whether an aide greeted her that morning is not known, but Madam Walker had come too far to be turned away. ‘He tried to discourage her,’ said Harlan, ‘but she insisted.’
“In her own hand-delivered letter, she entreated Washington to ‘be kind enough to introduce me’ to the conference and ‘not deny me this one opportunity.’ Now instead of wanting to sell her goods, she wrote, she simply wished to tell the farmers how she had overcome some of the same obstacles they faced. ‘I want them to know that I am in the business world not for myself alone, but to do all the good I can for the uplift of my race, which you well know by the great sacrifice I made in the interest of the Y.M.C.A of Indianapolis,’ she reminded Washington.”
Ultimately, Washington relented, allowing walker to speak for ten minutes on the night prior to the official opening of the regular Conference. “That evening in chapel Madam Walker told the conferees of her ‘great struggle from the age of seven years without any parents to assist me’ and how she had ‘succeeded in…the business arena…to where my income is now more than $1,000 per month.’ She urged them to keep at their work so that they could ‘do likewise.’
“The campus newspaper, which reported extensively on the school’s activities, was surprisingly silent on her presentation…But Madam Walker made few public appearances where she was not well received. And the reaction was sufficiently positive that she extended her stay and managed to persuade Washington to allow her to market her products.
…
“A month later, while billing her for $40 worth of printing work, Booker T. Washington felt no hesitation in soliciting a donation for his school from the woman he at first had insulted. Her $5 contribution was small, but it was meant to cover a semester’s worth of books for a deserving Tuskegee student. Washington thanked her ‘heartily’ for her gift, though he may have been disappointed in the amount.” (124-25) (Bundles, On Her Own Ground, pp. 122 and 124-25)
Case Study
ReplyDeleteBefore going on to found EWTN, Mother Angelica began her work in the public spotlight by seeking to found a racially integrated monastery in Birmingham, Alabama during the early ‘60s. Although she was welcomed by many local Catholics and Protestants alike, she was still subjected to harassment and intimidation, as biographer Raymond Arroyo explains. Mother Angelica oversaw most of the construction project in person. After September 1961, she began to notice that generators were being stolen and the equipment vandalized. “Mother saw this as an effort to frighten her away from completing her mission. ‘That I want to see,’ she defiantly told the [sisters who had followed her south from their original monastery in Canton]. For protection, a night watchman was retained and a system established where the nuns would flash the porch light of their small house in the event of danger.” (103)
And come the danger did. On the night of February 21, 1962, Mother Angelica, along with her mother, Mae Francis, and her companion, Sister Joseph, heard a pounding near the back of the house. “They dismissed the sound at first, thinking it a dog rattling trash cans in the carport. Then the pounding grew more intense, as if someone were trying to break through the back door. Glass could be heard smashing on the tiles in the kitchen. Petrified, Mae Francis ran to her bedroom. Sister Joseph scurried toward the kitchen, and Mother Angelica made for the front door, flicking the lights for help. But no one came. A gunshot rang out at the rear of the house.
“Desperate for help, Angelica threw open the front door. In the amber light of the porch, curtains of rain obscuring her view, she waved and yelled for the watchman. The incessant drum of falling water was the only response. A flash of light and five shots broke the darkness; a bullet landed so close to Mother Angelica, she ‘could smell the gunpowder.’ ‘You never saw a crippled nun run so fast in all your life,’ Mother later said.
…
“Within days, the story all over the newspapers and on radio. ‘I told Jesus that I could have thought of a better way of getting the monastery known than this incident,’ Mother wrote to the Canton sisters, ‘but He didn’t ask my opinion.’
“Angelica recounted the harrowing story for the media, careful to add that the action was ‘not typical Birmingham’ and praising the people of all; faiths who hads shown such ‘kindness’ since her arrival.
“Authorities had no leads. Nearly two weeks later, the harassment resumed.
“At 4:30 A.M., the high bark of their new puppy woke the sisters from a sound sleep. The familiar pounding had startled the animal. Over his clamorous bark, five shots snapped outside. This time, the nuns stayed indoors. When it was over, they found a bullet lodged in a window frame of the house, but nothing more.
“Momentarily frightened, Mother resolved to go forward. In a dispatch to Canton, reporting the second attack, she wrote: ‘If it happens a third time I’ll begin to enjoy it!’ This nun had no intention of leaving – except to import sisters to the new foundation.” (Arroyo, Mother Angelica, pp. 104-05)