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This week’s Five Quick Reads comes to you from Washington, D.C., where later today I’ll be celebrating the courage of men and women in the Civil Air Patrol honored today with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

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Recently, Mendick told the story of 93-year-old Phyllis Latour Doyle, who at age 23 parachuted into occupied Normandy in May 1944 to gather intelligence on Nazi positions in preparation for D-Day.

As an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), Doyle secretly relayed 135 coded messages to the British military before France’s liberation in August. For seventy years, her contributions to the war effort have been largely unheralded but, last week, the 93-year-old was finally given her due when she was awarded France’s highest honor, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

DoyleRead more about Doyle’s incredible story in Wartime spy finally accepts she is a French heroine via The Telegraph.

In Fast Company‘s 6 Ways To Be A More Courageous Leader the message is clear… “If you desire to be a leader who changes the world, you have no choice but to exhibit courage on a constant basis.” The good news, the article says, is that courage can be learned. Read more.

“Demonstrating leadership courage,” this Forbes article describes, is not easy and “can be scary.” However, the author suggests, courageous behavior “fosters trust and sets a crucial example for others to follow…” Read more in 10 Traits of Courageous Leaders.

Courage in leadership: From the battlefield to the boardroom from the Ivey Business Journal states “courage is a necessary trait of effective leadership,” and provides examples of courage in the c-suite and from the battlefield. Check out the courageous actions described in the article.

Bobelle Harrell  earned her pilot’s license August 20, 1945, and served in the Civil Air Patrol. She will be honored tomorrow for her service with a Congressional Gold Medal. In Lady pilot to receive congressional medal for wartime efforts, the author calls her a “pioneer.”

She wanted to graduate early from school, and she did,” Ward said. “She wanted to be a pharmacist, and she did. She wanted to learn to fly and she did. She wanted to own her own pharmacy one day. And she did.

HarrellHarrell’s flight instructor would sing, “My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time,” and her life personified the song’s title. She was the first woman to be accepted into Auburn University’s pharmacy program and graduated with the highest honors… She instilled the importance of education in her five daughters, all college graduates and all finding success personally and professionally. She modeled—courageously—Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way.” A courageous leader and hero; I call her “unmatched.”

Quick Reads offers us an opportunity to share some of what we’re reading and experiencing each week. Today we celebrate the courage and heroism of leaders and extraordinary people. They are what’s right.

Studer Education

 

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Let us know how you connect with the articles and share with us and WRIE readers what you’re reading.

Our mission at Studer Education is to help education systems achieve measurable results that produce positive outcomes in student achievement, employee engagement, support services, and financial efficiencies and productivity. Our goal is to help school systems provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. Follow us on Twitter at @StuderEducation and visit us online at http://studereducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, ranked for the seventh straight year on the Best Small and Medium Workplaces by Great Place to Work® and a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Filed under: How to Lead… Tagged: #Hero, courage, Five Quick Reads, Medal of Honor, Studer Education

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