What is workplace courage?
Workplace courage is intentional action toward a worthy purpose despite meaningful perceived risk, uncertainty, or fear. It is not fearlessness, recklessness, or performative confrontation.
Reflect on whether you take principled, informed action when something important is at risk and the personal cost is real.
Answer as you are today
Choose the answer that best describes your recent behaviour at work. No email required.
What does workplace courage mean?
Workplace courage is intentional action toward a worthy purpose despite meaningful perceived risk, uncertainty, or fear. It is not fearlessness, recklessness, or performative confrontation.
Why it matters at work
Teams need people who surface risks, protect values, and make difficult decisions. Courage becomes useful when the purpose is legitimate, the risk is understood, safer routes are considered, and action remains proportionate.
What this assessment measures
Purpose & judgment
Identifying what is important enough to justify action and separating principle from ego or impulse.
Risk & preparation
Recognising personal and organisational risk, gathering evidence, and using support or safer channels.
Voice & follow-through
Taking the difficult step respectfully and persisting or escalating when the issue remains material.
How to interpret your score
Your overall result is normalised to a 0–100 scale. Use it to choose a practice area, not to compare your worth with somebody else.
Build your workplace courage foundation
Your answers point to situations where one visible routine could make this capability more reliable.
A developing workplace courage pattern
You use this capability in some conditions. Strengthen the dimension that becomes least dependable under pressure.
A strong workplace courage pattern
Your answers suggest a reliable pattern. Keep testing it against harder situations and feedback from people affected.
Designed for reflection, not diagnosis
The ten behaviour-based statements cover 3 practical dimensions. Responses run from “Never” to “Almost always”; negatively worded items are reverse-scored. Overall and dimension results are converted to a 0–100 scale. The assessment is educational and has not been psychometrically validated.
Read the full assessment methodology and editorial standards.
Research that informed this page
James R. Detert and Evan A. Bruno (2017), “Workplace Courage: Review, Synthesis, and Future Agenda for a Complex Construct”, Academy of Management Annals.