Courage Faces It. Boldness Launches Into It.

We often use the words courage and boldness as if they mean the same thing. I don't think they do, and the difference matters for anyone trying to reinvent their career or their organization.

Courage is facing something. A hard truth. A difficult conversation. A fear you have been avoiding. It is the strength to stand firm when the moment demands it.

Boldness goes a step further. It has an element of proactively launching into the unknown. You see something you want to do or change. You decide to act. That action comes with risk, and you feel the fear. You act anyway, and you do it before anyone asks you to.

Courage keeps you standing. Boldness moves you forward.

The Candidate Who Changed Seats

One of the boldest leaders I have interviewed is Zoimé Álvarez Rubio. She became the first person ever to serve as president of the Puerto Rico Bankers Association without having been president of a commercial bank. The association rewrote its bylaws for her.

She had never been a banker. Her path ran from trial lawyer to commercial management, to administrator of a public corporation with more than 4,000 employees, to building a successful healthcare division for Aon.

When the association began recruiting a new executive vice president, there was a five-month gap between her interviews. The recruiter advised her to use the time to study the banking industry.

She declined. "I told him no, I'm not going to learn anything. If I'm hired, that's when I'll learn everything I need to know."

At her second interview, she noticed that everyone around the table was sitting in exactly the same seats as five months earlier. "Oh my gosh, you're all in the same seats!" she said. "I'm not sitting in the same seat." She walked around the table and sat next to someone different.

As she was leaving, she picked up her water glass to take it with her. One of the bank presidents asked why. Pointing to the lipstick on the rim, she said, "I'm not interested in the next candidate knowing that I'm a woman."

When they made her the offer, they told her they knew her gaps in knowledge about financial institutions. "But we concluded we already have enough bankers."

She was the disruption they needed. And she got there by acting boldly at every step, rather than waiting until she felt fully qualified.

What Boldness Actually Looks Like

None of Zoimé's moves were reckless. They were deliberate. Each one signaled something the interviewers needed to see. She wasn't afraid to be unconventional. She wouldn't be bound by arbitrary standards. She could hold her own in a room full of very powerful people.

That is the nature of boldness. It is not the absence of fear. It is a lack of hesitation in the face of risk, a refusal to be held back by the judgment of others and a willingness to go beyond the usual limits of conventional thinking.

Many professionals are courageous. They endure hard situations, absorb setbacks and keep going. Far fewer are bold. They wait to be invited. They wait until they are fully qualified. They wait for certainty. As I've written before, playing it safe is the riskiest career move you can make now.

Boldness Can Be Built

Some people assume boldness is a personality trait you either have or you don't. I don't believe that.

Boldness grows through practice. Each time you act before you feel completely ready and survive the outcome, you gain evidence that you can do it again. Each time you choose a different seat at the table, literally or figuratively, the next move gets a little easier.

It also helps to know your value. Zoimé could be bold because she trusted her ability to learn whatever she needed when the time came. She was open about what she didn't know. That openness didn't weaken her position. It strengthened it. As I explore in Vulnerability Builds Trust Faster Than Expertise Does, admitting what you don't know can be one of the most confident things a leader does.

Where Reinvention Needs Both

Reinvention requires courage to face the truth about where you are. It requires boldness to move toward where you want to be before the path is clear.

Without courage, you avoid the hard truths that would show you why change is necessary. Without boldness, you understand exactly what needs to change and still wait for permission that may never come.

So ask yourself two questions this week. Where do I need the courage to face something I have been avoiding? And where do I need the boldness to launch into something before I feel ready?

Courage keeps you standing when the moment gets hard. Boldness moves you forward before the moment arrives.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.