Courage and Perceived Risks

During a recent Toastmasters cohort, we discussed courage as it relates to public speaking and other risks we choose to take, or to avoid. Here are some of my observations from that day.

 

Professional Hockey

My friend Jordan Owens is a member of our Rising Tide Toastmasters cohort. Jordan played professional hockey for 12 years, six in the American Hockey League and six in European Leagues.

When he spoke about summoning courage he shared a story about joining a new team (Grand Rapids Griffins), and feeling a need to make an impression in his first game with the team.

 In the rough and tough world of pro hockey, Jordan decided to spark his team by starting a fight with the biggest guy on the other team. Fans will recognize the name Ryan Reaves, and that’s with whom Jordan picked a fight in order to make an impact.

 Jordan has a YouTube channel (A Tribe Called Owens) and he shares the speech and some reflections at the link below. You’ll enjoy his content. I particularly liked how he speaks about developing his speaking skills through time and conscious effort, and reflects on protecting the physical and metaphysical.

 Jordan’s post on his speech, and his actual speech, are available here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_yInbSsGk

  

A New Audience 

Later that same day I was scheduled to train some young women who are delivering talks in the community on mental health, so I invited Jordan to attend with me and offer to that audience a longer version of his impromptu speech, and his experience getting acquainted with Ryan Reeves. I saw the speech as relevant to these young women who are embracing public speaking and risk when they speak about a subject important for so many people.  

When we veer from the familiar and easy path it will often be perceived as courage by others. Jordan didn’t need to try to spark his new team by starting a fight, but he showed physical and metaphysical courage to initiate that confrontation. His motivation to risk, and exhibit courage, was driven by a need to make an impression and a contribution to his new team.

  

Skeleton Racing

The discussion on courage caused me to speak and publicly reflect on some reactions to my skeleton sled race in March 2025 at Whistler, British Columbia. I’m still delighted with the experience and now YouTube often presents me with opportunities to view past skeleton races. With two runs under my belt, I now feel unjustly qualified to assess and critique the paths that racers choose, and their start and steering techniques.

I wrote about my experience here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2025/04/92-kilometershour-head-first-skeleton.html

I have been surprised by people who have said I was “brave” to race down the skeleton track. I enjoyed the experience, but I was only driven by curiosity and simply paid a fee to take an unnecessary risk to understand the experience and sensations.

I don’t view my participation as “brave” or courageous. I reflect that once on the track, on a sled with no brakes guided only by my body weight and gravity to propel the sled down the track, I simply followed the basic instructions to get through the experience safely. While I don’t view it as courageous, some interpret it as such. My motivation was curiosity and my actions once in motion were for self-preservation.

I suppose merely taking action in some situations can be viewed as courageous by others. I suppose in some situations appropriate inaction can be courageous.

 

Public Speaking and Courage  

A simple definition of courage is to take a worthwhile risk. Some materials indicate there are six types of courage: physical, social, moral, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. These are some compelling categories in 2025.

As our cohort discussed courage, many participants spoke about public speaking. Public speaking is a skill.  Developing a new skill is a risk and undoubtedly requires courage.

Once the skill is developed, using the skill requires some courage.

Speaking about a difficult message absolutely requires courage and skill.

 

 

Free Book Promo June 6-June 9, 2025

From June 6, 2025 until June 9, 2025, I am offering a free book promo on the subject of Lead Better Meetings, Get Better Results.

I run these promos usually to support a presentation I’m delivering, as the book content delves deeper into the concepts and principles I discuss in the presentation, and this promo has value for those in attendance. I am delivering such a presentation later today.

I’ve written four books and this is the single title that is only in e-book format.  I decided to publish this as an e-book as the content is brief, although the content is very good.

In my experience, a very slim physical book doesn’t look appealing. I did, and do, believe this content was and is worth sharing, thus the e-book only format.

Feel free to enjoy this short term offer available here http://tiny.cc/BetterMeetings

Reviews and comments are appreciated and helpful. 

GYCZ – We Focus On Our Flaws, Not Strengths

  

Sharing this post because it’s such a thought provoking read. I have had the experience described in the excerpt below.

“When a leader gets a 360 feedback report from his or her direct reports, peers, manager, and others, his or her natural instinct is to skim past positive ratings and comments and look at “where I need to improve.” Zenger Folkman research shows unless there’s a fatal flaw needing immediate attention, this is off track. The best that MIGHT happen is the leader raises a few of his or her competencies from poor to average.”

The article recommends focusing on competencies that truly drive results in various disciplines, and emphasizing these.

I find the content from the Clemmer Group and their associates at Zenger Folkman to be consistently high quality.

 

Link to the article here

https://www.clemmergroup.com/articles/leadership-competency-models-many-failing-make-flourish/

 

92 Kilometers/Hour Head First Skeleton Run

In February, 2025, I attended the 53^rd FIL Luge World Championships in Whistler, British Columbia. Highlights of the event are available here

(https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8B0YVf_mLDybUfVRnBrlO5zxU9AuI1YW&si=AABMUv2q0GdSj25r)

How could you not have curiosity about this sport and the athletes who reach speeds in excess of 150 kilometers an hour on a track of pure ice. The chance to see the championships in Canada was too good for me to pass on.

 

Like most Canadian kids I grew up sliding during winter on our crazy carpets and toboggans, but I’m sure I never reached speeds of 150 kilometers an hour, although we didn’t have devices to measure back in the day.

 

Personal Rush: March 23, 2025 at Whistler Sliding Center

Watching these racers in February, many of them Olympians, was fun and inspiring.  So inspiring that I decided to give the track a run myself in March.  For $249 you can experience the Olympic track at the Whistler Sliding Center during winter– but not during the world championships.

Here is the beginning of my first run (Notice how quickly I hit the wall, and lose speed and direction)

https://youtube.com/shorts/bex7MmUH3yk?feature=share

 

For the price of entry, you can experience two runs with a bobsledder, or solo on a luge, or solo on a skeleton. I decided to go full bore, head first, on the skeleton.  It’s the same icy sliding track, but the risk varies.  Skeleton I was told is the safest. I suspect that’s because a bobsled is quite wide for the narrow sections and does require some steering skill, and the skeleton is slimmer in design. Therefore, if you trust gravity, you will do fine.

On the skeleton sled, so named because of the body hugging snug fit, it easy to look up, and peek at the track, even though we were advised to keep our heads down and look at the ice. When your big, heavy head is down you have less wind resistance and more weight forward, which helps manage the path. If we wanted to peek, we were advised to only crane our necks slightly.

The advice I heard three times that day was “act like a sack of potatoes.” Sounds easy. But unlike a sack of potatoes, I peeked and then skidded around on the icy track quite a bit at 92 kilometers an hour.   

Lessons

1.   Women Follow Instructions – Men Should Too

In our briefing we were told women are usually fastest because they follow instructions, and it was true. Eleven of us enjoyed the experience that day. Lorene was fastest at 97.1 km/hour.  I was slowest at 92.0 km/hour.  Lorene finished the track in 33.57 seconds, and I finished in 35.28 seconds.

(Lorene told me she was from Alaska and often runs a toboggan on 10-minute runs on snowmobile trails, so she had some relevant experience).

 

2.   Do Less to Achieve More

The advice at the Whistler Sliding Center was to “act like a sack of potatoes,” to trust gravity and the sled. But I had to peek from time to time at the frequent fast and scary turns.  Peeking slowed me down and caused me to drift off course. Lifting the head causes slight wind resistance and a subtle shift in weight distribution over the sled.

 

Sometimes it’s best to do less, and to trust the plan and the process. The pros have enough experience to know how to touch a toe or lift a shoulder to affect a turn. I didn’t. I should have stared down at the ice during my two 38 second runs.

 

3.   Act and Avoid Regret

I’ll offer more comments in the conclusion.

 

Conclusion

People have asked if I’d do this again, and I would. I likely won’t be back there, but I would gladly give it another run. I felt compelled to have this experience, and now I’ve done it.  I know what it feels like, and I’m a satisfied customer.

I recommend this experience if you’d enjoy a roller coaster-like experience on an 80-pound metal sled where you’re held in place by your hands and your body weight, you are comfortable knowing there are no brakes, and knowing if you fall off the sled it will continue forward without you for a while, until gravity pulls it back down the slope towards you at a high speed. For example, see https://youtu.be/i9eGpz5-MmI?si=IGWJS1iEamFn-hZg

I would have regretted not completing this experience this year. I had to shift some commitments around to enable this to happen in 2025. I’m glad I did. I would have had regrets if I had missed this opportunity. 

GYCZ Reviewing Basics with New Leaders

If you were coaching someone in a new role, what basics would you review with her as she began?

A colleague I’ve worked with previously had taken a leadership role in a volunteer organization with which I’m familiar, and he requested some guidance in his relatively new role. He had been in his new role for 10 months. In my experience with my colleague, I know he digs in and has been successful at any assignment I’ve seen him perform.

“What Results Panel?”

He told me he was struggling with getting his small team of volunteers focused and aligned and wanted to talk about approaches to do so. Our call was on Zoom so I asked him to share his results panel, which is available to his and all similar teams, so we could review their results and progress. He responded with “what results panel?”

I was really taken aback as the organization had invested in a tool to indicate progress towards team goals, and somehow this skilled new leader, in his new role in the volunteer organization, was not made aware of the tool, of this investment by the organization.

Simple Awareness

As soon as he was aware of this tracking tool, he was energized and saw how he could use it to communicate with his small team, to acknowledge progress and helpful behavior, and to get them focused and engaged to accomplish results.

A Glaring Oversight

I was curious about this onboarding oversight so I asked about his support structure in the volunteer organization. I know from my experience with them that there is an extensive support model in place.

He said there were some vacancies in the support roles available to him and those available had performed only rudimentary onboarding. I suspect they thought he already knew about the tools available to him, but he didn’t. If this was an assumption by support leaders, as it appears to be, it was a bad one. If there are significant vacancies, perhaps those available are feeling burnt out.

Situational Leadership

The situational leadership model from Hersey-Blanchard makes clear that we need to focus on the specific task maturity of the individual when coaching. It’s very easy to assess overall maturity and past success and then offer only rudimentary onboarding when someone appears accomplished and confident. I have made this mistake, and I’m sure most leaders have made this mistake. It’s an art to assess development, progress, and readiness.  

There are many great summaries of the situational leadership approach available.  Here is one;

https://com-peds-pulmonary.sites.medinfo.ufl.edu/files/2014/01/Hanke-Situational-Leadership.pdf

 

Conclusion

The Hersey-Blanchard situational model is brilliant because it clearly describes how the leader’s actions must adapt based on the specific task maturity of the follower. In the example I’ve shared, the follower is exceptionally skilled and accomplished, but not yet so in his new role. He needed to be grounded in basics.  Now that he and I have discussed basics, he and his team appear to be doing very well.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Hersey-Blanchard situational model, it is worth some time. It’s also worth time to ensure any team member understands basics when they begin a new role.

If you enjoyed this post, this one may be valuable to you as well https://gycz.blogspot.com/2023/08/how-to-focus-your-distracted-team.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

GYCZ Too Old To Acquire New Skills?

Earlier this month, I delivered a 50-minute Zoom presentation on Building A Healthy Team to a group of Toastmasters in Mexico.  After the session, we had a brief question and answer session.

Usually during a Q&A I get at least one question that surprises me, and once again I received a question that put me momentarily off-balance. Some of the questions that were offered were voiced by participants, and other questions were typed into the chat function. This question was typed in the chat function.

Too Old?

The question entered by the gentleman was can you be too old to begin developing communication and leadership skills. I was taken aback, but after a moment the question was easy to answer. I was in front of a group that had voluntarily decided to attend my session on team building, which had been promoted to a prospective audience. 

This gentleman had chosen to attend, which indicated he does have interest to develop these skills. If someone has interest, he or she should pursue it. Age is irrelevant unless there are significant barriers to success.  (I’ll note that shortly after this presentation I travelled to Whistler, British Columbia to attend the World Luge Championships (https://www.fil-luge.org/en/news/preview-53rd-fil-luge-world-championships-2025-in-whistler-canada), and while  I may have interest in being an Olympian, I believe my window has closed).

When To Stop Pursuing New Skills?

So, in general, at what age should someone stop pursuing new interests and developing new skills? I suppose it’s up to each individual. However, I’ve seen many news items in the past of seniors simply getting on with it, with actioning a bucket list.  Here is one from Malaysia

 https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/family/2025/01/17/starsilver-this-senior-has-a-bucket-list-that-will-inspire-you-to-get-off-your-seat

 

Conclusion

I remain curious what prompted the gentleman to ask his question about developing skills at an advanced age.  I applaud him for voicing, or entering into the chat function, his concern. Too many objections and concerns are withheld. I did notice that the group was comprised largely of younger leaders.

My opinion is if you want to make an impact on an issue, then simply start, and/or get on with acquiring, developing, and practicing the skills that will enable you to make that impact.

Overcoming Speaking Jitters; Fear of Greater Knowledge

Last week I spent 90 minutes with the current cohort of MBA students at the University of New Brunswick – Saint John (https://www.unb.ca/saintjohn/business/mba/). The program is a fast paced one-year version. I completed these same studies in 2013. 

I spoke with the students about public speaking fundamentals and offered some tips and shortcuts, including some that should help with their group presentations. I also encouraged them to be opportunistic and to mine their experience for personal stories they can use to enhance their presentations. 

Life Experience

Great speakers draw upon their life experience and especially customer service experiences for relevant content. Sometimes these experiences can seem trivial at first glance but can be funny, useful and illustrative for presentations. Any story you recount to a friend or colleague with some degree of passion could become a reusable speaking asset. 

Managing Jitters 

During the question-and-answer section, a young woman asked how she can overcome pre-presentation jitters. After the formal session we talked some more and she indicated she has speaking experience, and has confidence in her skills, but she still feels strong jitters before taking a stage. Further, she said she is usually quite nervous that someone in the audience will ask her a question that stumps her, or someone will make a point to showcase his knowledge, perhaps perceived as superior knowledge.

 

Tips for Managing Jitters 

Here are some tips if you feel jitters before a presentation;

1. Jitters are normal

Many people will avoid situations when they must stand before an audience and present. Speakers will feel anxiety because they want to do well. It’s normal to have performance anxiety. Prior to a big game, professional athletes will often be physically ill, but once the game starts, their skills engage and they simply play the game. Be confident in your skills and preparation.   

2. Know precisely what you’ll talk about

Make your plan. Know your key points. I advise that you do not memorize any element of your speech, expect perhaps the structure. It’s fine to take a page of key points on stage that you wish to address. Don’t worry about the precise words you’ll use, or precise sentences.  Be confident in the key points you wish to speak about, and your ability to speak to each.

 

3. Give yourself a pep talk before you hit the stage 

Be confident that you’re prepared, you trust your plan, that you can speak to your key points, and then proceed. You know your content.

4. Questions outside your experience 

If someone asks a question outside your experience, frame your answer around your observations, and indicate the question is outside your familiarity. This could sound like “thank you for the question.  My experience/research focused on the three areas I’ve discussed, and while interesting, your question/scenario is outside my experience/research.” 

If you expect the questioner may persist, you should likely end your response with “I see we have another question over here.” 

Conclusion 

It’s normal to have jitters before speaking to an audience.  You want to perform well and deliver value. These few points should help you manage your jitters.