Borrowed Courage
-- by Jamey Lutz
Leadership is often associated with vision, strategy, and decision-making. Yet one of the most influential things a leader can offer costs nothing, takes only a few moments, and is remembered for a lifetime.
It's encouragement.
Leadership, at its best, is the daily practice of instilling courage in other people.
Most of us can point to a handful of people who changed the trajectory of our lives. Rarely did they do it through a promotion or a paycheck. More often, they did it through encouragement—a timely word of belief that gave us the confidence to become more than we thought possible.
The Power of One Encouraging Voice
Broadcaster Paul Harvey once shared a story about a young blind boy named Stevie Morris. One day, the class pet mouse escaped in Stevie's classroom. While the other children searched with their eyes, Stevie's teacher invited him to help. Trusting his extraordinary sense of hearing, Stevie quickly found the mouse.
His teacher celebrated the moment enthusiastically. But she gave Stevie something even more valuable than praise—she helped him see a gift in himself that few others had noticed. In that brief moment, she communicated a message every person longs to hear:
You have something special to offer.
According to Harvey's account, that simple act of encouragement became a defining moment in Stevie's young life. Rather than allowing blindness to define his future, he embraced the unique gift his teacher had affirmed. The young boy the world knew as Stevie Morris would later become Stevie Wonder, one of the most celebrated musicians of all time.
Stevie's story is extraordinary, but the science behind it isn't. Modern psychological research helps explain why encouragement can leave such a lasting imprint on another person's life.
What Encouragement Really Means
Before looking at the research, it's worth considering the words themselves.
The word encourage literally means to put courage into someone.
Conversely, discourage means to take courage out of someone.
That's exactly what leaders do every day.
Whether we realize it or not, every conversation, every coaching moment, every piece of feedback, and every response to adversity either deposits courage into another person—or quietly withdraws it.
Perhaps that's why leadership carries such profound responsibility. Outside of a spouse or a handful of deeply significant relationships, few people influence another person's daily confidence, outlook, and emotional well-being more than a leader. We don't simply shape performance—we shape the human experience of work. Over time, those countless interactions create cultures marked by either magic or misery.
What the Research Says
Far from simply making people feel better in the moment, encouragement strengthens the psychological resources people need to overcome adversity, pursue meaningful goals, and reach their potential.
Research suggests that encouragement consistently does three things exceptionally well.
1. It Builds Hope
Encouragement helps people believe tomorrow can be better than today. It reminds people that setbacks are temporary, growth is possible, and today's circumstances don't have to define tomorrow's future.
Hope gives people a reason to keep moving forward.
2. It Strengthens Self-Efficacy
Psychologist Albert Bandura spent decades studying what he called self-efficacy—our belief that we can successfully accomplish a task or overcome a challenge. His groundbreaking research demonstrated that this belief is one of the strongest predictors of future performance, resilience, and perseverance.
Encouragement is one of the most powerful ways leaders cultivate that belief.
Sometimes people don't need someone to solve their problems. They simply need someone they respect to say, "I believe you can do this."
3. It Increases Perseverance
Every worthwhile goal eventually encounters obstacles, disappointment, and self-doubt. Encouragement gives people the confidence to keep going when progress slows, setbacks occur, or quitting begins to feel like the easier option.
Hope fuels confidence, confidence fuels perseverance, and perseverance often determines whether people ultimately succeed.
The opposite is equally true.
Discouragement quietly erodes these same psychological resources.
It diminishes hope. "Why even bother?"
It weakens self-efficacy. "I don't think I can."
It reduces perseverance. "I'm ready to quit."
Why Encouragement Is Often Missing
Ironically, most leaders aren't intentionally withholding words or acts of encouragement.
More often, they're simply distracted or overwhelmed.
They're consumed by deadlines, budgets, meetings, customer issues, and solving problems. Over time, they become conditioned to notice what's broken more often than what's working. Coaching becomes correction. Feedback becomes focused on gaps. Encouragement gradually shifts from intentional to occasional.
Yet the leaders we remember most are rarely those with the highest IQs or the most impressive résumés.
They're the ones who consistently helped us believe we were capable of becoming more than we thought possible.
The Gift of Borrowed Courage
Perhaps the greatest gift a leader can offer isn't advice.
It isn't resources.
It isn't even opportunity.
It's borrowed courage.
There are seasons in every person's life when confidence runs low and self-doubt runs high. Before people experience enough success to fully believe in themselves, they often need someone else's belief to sustain them.
That's what encouragement does.
It lends people courage until they rediscover their own.
Every encouraging conversation is an opportunity to say, "Until you can see what's possible, I'll believe in you. Until your confidence catches up with your potential, I'll lend you some of mine."
That is borrowed courage.
And once people begin believing in themselves, they often accomplish things they never imagined possible.
A Leadership Challenge
Think about the people on your team.
Who is quietly questioning whether they're capable?
Who is carrying a burden no one else can see?
Who simply needs someone to notice their potential?
Whose courage is running low today?
And what might change if they borrowed a little of yours?
You'll probably never know how far your encouragement travels.
A conversation you barely remember may become one another person never forgets. I know that's been true in my journey.
A few sincere words spoken at the right moment may ignite hope, restore confidence, or inspire perseverance that changes the course of a career—or even a life.
That's the remarkable thing about borrowed courage.
The more we give it away, the more of it we seem to have.
And perhaps that's the highest calling of leadership:
To instill so much courage in other people that, one day, they no longer need to borrow yours.
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