Wanted: A CLO With Courage

Sandra Ford Walston - 12/23/06

Chief learning officers don't simply provide companies with learning programs. They are responsible for fostering change in the workplace. It's a position that requires not just leadership and organizational skills but also considerable courage.

Because few things foster positive change as effectively as education, a company's chief learning officer occupies a position with the unique potential to foster change in the workplace. Because courage empowers the kind of change that can make a real difference, this article is written in the format of a job posting. With any luck, you will be compelled to pluck out the courage skills profiled, decide whether you possess them and determine whether you apply them at your organization.

Top-performing company seeks chief learning officer with boatloads of courage. Successful candidate will develop our workforce to embrace the courage skills that we see as crucial to long-term success. Minimal required courage skills are listed below.

Hiring considerations:

Ability to define courage action skills in the workplace under specific scenarios.

Talent for identifying and eliminating double standards in the workplace.

Employee coaching skills to teach/persuade employees to embrace courage learning and leadership qualities.

Ability to quash stereotypes and instill courage action skills required to develop individual and team courage.

Proponent of courage and the power of its bottom-line effect.

Ability to design and develop a thriving courage leadership program.

Adept at applying courage action skills across genders and job descriptions.

Recognition of the courage paradoxes that pervade all environments.

If you easily recognize courage in your actions and can say, "I am a profile in courage," you easily could become our next CLO. A more complete courage description is provided below.

Our new CLO will be able to define courage action skills using specific scenarios. The CLO who joins our company claims courage as his or her birthright. How you identify and claim your individual courage is not important -- courage is about discovering your individuality and then being true to yourself. What matters is your receptivity. All employees possess their own innate courage, whether or not they realize it. When we allow courage to surface, we learn to cultivate and nurture it. Candidates who learned courage as a virtue during childhood will demonstrate a distinct advantage in competing for this position. Courage creates the level playing field. Courage is the gift that lifts the organization's spirit.

Article Keywords: mentoring