37: One Bold Thing: Why Daily Courage Leads to Sustainable Growth

How small, consistent acts of bravery can transform teams, shift culture, and fuel long-term impact.

“Growth and comfort do not coexist.”

— Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM

In the fast-paced design world, it’s easy to fall into the rhythm of incremental improvements—polishing pixels, refining flows, chasing short-term wins. These optimizations matter, but they rarely stretch us.

Personal and organizational growth doesn’t come from playing it safe. It comes from daily acts of courage that challenge assumptions, surface uncomfortable truths, and push us into ambiguity.

Design isn’t just about improving what is; it’s about imagining what could be. And that requires bravery—not in grand gestures, but in the quiet moments when we question, disrupt, or lead.

Now more than ever, we need leaders willing to be quietly brave daily.

Why Small Acts of Courage Matter

Courage isn’t about heroics; it’s about consistent, intentional choices that compound over time:

• Speaking up in a meeting when something feels off

• Proposing an unconventional idea instead of defaulting to the safe one

• Asking for feedback when you're unsure

• Sharing work before it’s perfect

• Questioning a legacy process that no longer serves its purpose

These actions may feel risky in the moment, but they create long-term momentum. One of my turning points came when I volunteered for a high-stakes, cross-functional project that intimidated me. I wasn’t the most experienced person in the room, but curiosity turned into clarity and impact. That was my bold thing.

The Compound Effect of Boldness

Team Influence

Whether they realize it or not, middle managers and senior ICs are culture shapers and often the cultural barometers of a team. When you model courage by questioning vague priorities, giving difficult feedback with care, or surfacing user pain that challenges leadership assumptions, you create space for others to do the same.

Courage is contagious and creates psychological safety. When risk-taking becomes normalized, your team evolves from execution to co-creation.

Imagine how different corporate cultures could be if more people paused to challenge the systems they were reinforcing—before launching a biased algorithm or shipping a feature that excluded entire communities. These aren’t abstract choices. Real people—families, workers, students—are on the other side.

Strategic Impact

Sustainable innovation isn’t born from a single moonshot—it results from many micro-decisions, such as advocating for long-term value over short-term optics, reframing problems others treat as fixed, and pushing for alignment with user needs even when it’s inconvenient.

These bold nudges accumulate. They shift outcomes and how an organization thinks, prioritizes, and defines success.

What if someone at early Facebook had said, “Let’s build this for connection, not addiction”? Or a financial product team had asked, “What if we prioritized transparency over conversion?” Strategy shaped by courage doesn’t just change businesses—it changes lives.

Personal Growth

Every bold act is a rep.
Saying, “I don’t know,” in a room full of experts.
Advocating for a user group no one’s considering.
Standing firm when your gut says no.

Each moment rewires your response to fear and builds resilience. Over time, you stop waiting for permission—you start creating momentum.

Imagine how much potential is wasted because someone waited for the “right moment.” The world doesn’t need more polish. It requires more people willing to be brave before they’re ready.

How to Make "One Bold Thing” a Habit

Building courage doesn’t require a complete reinvention. Start small, stay intentional:

• Start Small – Courage doesn’t need a spotlight. Mine began with asking more challenging questions in retros or voicing concerns others avoided in leadership rooms.

• Reframe Discomfort – I treat discomfort as data. If it scares me, it’s probably a sign of growth.

• Track Your Progress – Every Friday, I ask: What was my One Bold Thing this week? It might be a tough conversation I didn’t dodge, or an unconventional idea I championed.

• Encourage Others – I amplify moments when others take risks, especially the quiet ones. Culture changes when courage becomes visible.

• Stay Rooted in Impact – Behind every product decision is a human experience. When in doubt, I return to this truth: real people live with what we ship.

Final Thought

The most impactful leaders don’t wait for the perfect moment. They practice bravery in everyday life. They challenge, share, question, and reimagine—knowing that these micro-moves shape the systems around us.

So today, I’ll ask you what I ask myself:

What’s your One Bold Thing?

Then do it.

Ready to level up your influence and leadership? Explore these articles to start making a more significant impact today.

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