Greetings from AC 142 enroute to Toronto! The adventures continue for me, and I hope for you as well.  Leadership Notes returns after about a month due to my travel and limited internet access in the South Pacific. It was a great trip filled with learning and adventure.

Two words figured prominently for me by the end of the trip; courage and hope. I think that these two words are vital aspects of leadership. These two words, courage and hope, offer an antidote to a political and economic environment that I see as increasingly filled with fear, apprehension and scarcity.  I saw firsthand  how powerful these two words are, in Solomon Islands a few weeks ago.  In the late 1990’s and into the first couple of years of the 2000’s the Solomon Islands were embroiled in a near civil war. A religious order, the Melanesian Brothers, gained so much respect from all sides that they could walk Into the midst of pitched battles in the streets of the capital, Honiara, and the shooting would stop. And then one day, a single novice was kidnapped by a warlord. Six of his brothers went in search of him. All seven were murdered by the warlord.

The country was so shocked, so appalled by the murders that the fighting stopped. Peace began to work it’s way into the fabric of the society again. And today, a decade or so later, while there still exists some jealousies and frustrations amongst different factions in the country, they are at peace. And the people there will tell you it was because of the courage of the Melanesian Brothers, and the hope for a different way, that brought peace back.

Now most of us aren’t faced with civil war in our organizations; although it may feel like that sometimes! And as a good friend of mine has said, “hope is not a strategy!” I do believe though that the courage to move forward, the courage to try new ways, the courage to be innovative sits most comfortably with hope. There are better ways for us to work and be together with each other. Even strained and challenged relationships can be mended and strengthened. What it takes though is the courage to take the first step (and the second, third and fourth steps), and the hope that this work, this team, this relationship, could be better, if I had the courage to behave differently.

May this week be a week of courage and hope for each and every one of us.