Stop Playing Safe by Margie Warrell – A Sample Chapter

a lack of knowledge that prevents most people from doing more and being more—it’s a lack of clarity about what they truly want, and the courage to go and get it.

While this book is written for the individual, the principles, concepts and strategies it contains can benefit any team, group or organisation. After all, while organisations are living entities in their own right, they comprise individuals.An organisation cannot become more competitive, focused or innovative unless the people who work in it are. Indeed, the greatest competitive advantage available to any organisation is its people. But it’s not just their experience, expertise or skills that can give the competitive edge. It’s their commitment to the organisation’s mission, how openly and effectively they communicate with each other, customers and suppliers, and most of all, their willingness to ‘push the envelope’ of possibility. All of this entails a degree of risk and demands a measure of courage. If everyone in your organisation practised the principles in this book, it would propel your organisation forward in every way — from customer service to product innovation, from sales to project execution—building bottom-line outcomes as never before.

This book comprises eight chapters, the first seven of which form The Courage Key model,which you can view in the appendix. The chapters of Part I: Core Courage, form the core foundation of The Courage Key. Part II: Working Courage provides you with concepts and practical strategies to be both more courageous and effective in handling the many challenges and seizing the opportunities in your work and life.The theme of each chapter in Part II — Confront, Adapt, Leverage and Lead — create the CALL acronym and are your ‘call to action’ to stop playing safe. Part III: Take Courage is where the rubber hits the road as you step out of your comfort zone and into action in making the changes and taking the chances needed to experience the success and fulfilment that prompted you to pick up this book in the first place. Part III is focused on helping you set yourself up for success over the longer term, creating an environment that supports you in getting and staying in purposeful and courageous action, no matter what.

Interspersed through all eight chapters are case studies of numerous people—from CEOs of global organisations to trail blazing entrepreneurs—whom I’ve interviewed while writing this book for their insights and experiences of acting with courage. Finally, I have also included