Q: If you had to choose Obama or McCain to endorse your book--whom would you choose and why?
A: Tough call. Both Senators McCain and Obama have displayed physical and moral courage in their personal and professional lives. Senator McCain, a former naval aviator and POW, coauthored Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life. His anthology of courageous individuals resembles President Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Senator Obama also needed to confront fears and prejudices in his pursuit of becoming the most powerful man on the planet. In the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, we find yet another reference to courage. Courage is perhaps the most valuable leadership trait and both these men realize its importance. I’d gladly invite both to endorse my book.
More about the book here:
http://www.yourfinesthour.com/readybegin.htm
Q: How can your book, Ready, Begin! Practical Strategies for Cultivating Courage, help a business that is striving to be eco-friendly?
A: My second Cornerstone of Courage is “Courage grows out of clarity of purpose.” The strength of a business’ convictions with respect to being eco-friendly will determine how much pain they are willing to experience while walking their talk. It takes courage to embrace innovative approaches especially when risk managers wield more power than change managers. Corporate leaders at all levels of an organization need to strengthen their courage muscles, attitudes, and reflexes. As Sir James Barrie, creator of Peter Pan observed, “Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.”
Q: Why does courage play such a big part in a leadership role?
A: Leadership involves a three-step approach of vision, courage, and determination. A leader first needs to have a compelling vision of the desired outcome. Then he or she needs the courage to take those first few critical steps. Finally, the leader needs to follow through with determination until the vision is achieved. Most people can craft a vision and if they can somehow just get started, they may be able to plod along until they achieve their goals. But overcoming fears and taking those first few critical steps often become a barrier to them. They need courage to move beyond their vision. My first Cornerstone of Courage is “Courage is taking action despite fear.” The important distinction thus becomes, fear is what you feel but courage is what you do. Winston Churchill, one of the most celebrated leaders of the 20th Century noted, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
Q:Another business book on courage. Why now?
A: Other than Senator McCain’s book, can you remember another recent book about courage? There are thousands of books about leadership on the shelves. There are perhaps twenty of so books about courage. Most of these books are stories about other courageous people. There are really no books that guide and coach a person to cultivate courage in his or her life. My book fills this void and provides over 250 strategies, insights, and tools to overcome fears and anxiety, conquer procrastination, get into action, and burn with more focus and purpose. Leaders fail, not from a lack of knowledge or imagination, but from a lack of courage or will. Never in the history of the human race has the need for courageous leaders been greater!
AUTHOR BIO:
Commander Lawrence (Larry) M. Kryske, U.S. Navy (Ret.), develops victorious leaders who have vision, courage, and determination. He has over thirty years of worldwide success leading men and women and building unstoppable teams.
He was a career naval officer, private school administrator, and strategic planner. Larry is President of Your Finest Hour Leadership Programs, a full-service leadership firm. He provides programs (keynotes, seminars, workshops, facilitations, and coaching) nationwide on leadership, teamwork, and innovation. He has worked with over 400 corporate, association, governmental, and education clients in over 50 different industries during the past 12 years.
Larry has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Astronomy from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Science Degree in Applied Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Larry’s newest book is, Ready, BEGIN! Practical Strategies for Cultivating Courage. He is also author of the leadership books, The Churchill Factors: Creating Your Finest Hour and The Greatest Board in the World. Larry is a respected authority on the life and leadership of Sir Winston Churchill with over 40 years of study and scholarship.
For more information, please see his website: www.YourFinestHour.com
