Well of course it isn't: when you're the biggest, baddest and toothiest thing in the jungle then what do you need courage for? Being a wildebeast, thirsty and thinking about going to the water hole when you're not quite sure whether there is a tufty tail waving in that patch of high grass over there: that requires courage (or gross and short lived stupidity perhaps).



But then this motivating phrase from the business books isn't meant to be taken quite so literally. It's extraordinarily rare now in legitimate business for anyone to require actual physical courage. What is demanded though is a form of moral courage. Again, not in the sense that you need to stand up for your moral views but rather because of the way in which a successful business is these days the expression of the collective wisdom of everyone in it.

That in turn means that when opinions are called for they are given, without holding back. Some of the greatest disasters of our times (sticking strictly with business again) would have been avoided if only those, when asked their opinion, actually given it. Those meetings where the booster of some new idea had been pushing their wares, if only all of those who had doubts had actually expressed them, could have saved so much pain and grief later.

Why this sort of courage isn't just for the lions of the business jungle these days is that matters have changed enormously. No longer is it true (to the extent that it ever was) that senior managers know everything about how the company works. Things can only work now via the process of delegation: there is no point in the Managing Director specifying the computer system, he won't know anything about even the underlying technology. But that does mean that when asked the IT bod (who, if we're talking about the web and blogging for example, might be frighteningly young) needs to have the courage to offer the proper information and express his views, even at the risk of clearing out some of the MD's misconceptions about the subject. That's the sort of courage being invoked, the idea that you shouldn't be overawed in your area of expertise, that you do need to speak out.

There is another meaning of course: when working with your consultant at Talisman, whether when looking to be recruited or to recruit, it's always worth having that little extra bit of courage to reach a little further than you think you ought: searching for that better quality job or candidate.