On being brave
Hi everyone,
Surprise! It’s me (Jade) again, back for a second week in a row to expand on our Blue Oceans Strategy theme. If you’re coming in fresh and wondering what Blue Oceans is, Rachel explains it in our opener to this theme.
When I first learned about this business strategy, a few things stuck out to me. One of them was the delicate dance between creatively engineering higher perspectives around what it is we want to put out into the world and actually executing all that bright thinking. Now, depending on your role or niche, you may not actually be the executor of your own ideas, but you certainly are the executor of sharing them, so that it can move in whatever direction it needs to.
So, what I’d love to dive into today is the nuance of speaking up. What it looks like to be brave even in the face of people we don’t know very well or people we’re still learning to trust and how we can build confidence around being the “first” to suggest a new approach or be kindly vocal if something’s just not working, because the success of the Blue Oceans Concept doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
P.s. This is my final solo edition of Nice Work. I’m doing a brave thing of my own, moving to a new country and making A LOT of space to hone in on my most aligned, capital W - Work, and while I’m not entirely sure what that Work will manifest as, it feels right to close down what I can to make space to find out. And how full circle to end on the sentiment of my first-ever edition of Nice Work, where I made the case that doing less is actually doing more. You can read that one here. The Nice Work Newsletter, however, will continue, offering valuable insight from Rachel and perhaps a few guest writers! Stay tuned.
Back to bravery. And courage. And confidence. Though all three are pretty similar, they each have a distinction of their own, and reading up on their definitions brought light to the path we often take in honing our skills to share our ideas. Here’s the breakdown after my internet sleuth.
Bravery: The quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty, according to Merriam-Webster. Though, further research led to ideas of spontaneity around being brave and save-the-day energy. Urgency and a setting aside of fear, because something must be done.
Courage: Though Merriam-Webster offers the exact definition of this as the one for ‘bravery’, I appreciated another perspective offered by this article, where courage is described as weighing the risks, holding the fear associated with the action, and making the conscious decision to act anyway. Courage takes mindfulness.
Confidence: This one is different, and I’ve ordered it to come last on purpose. Here’s the Merriam-Webster: a feeling or consciousness of one's powers AND/OR the belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way AND/OR the quality or state of being certain. This one is last because confidence is wielded through activating bravery and courage. True confidence comes from experience.
I love the subtle shades of difference in these, and I want to apply them each to situations you’ll likely encounter if you’re at all interested in leveling up your skills in idea-sharing. So here goes:
On being brave
No matter what career or life path you’re exploring, you’ll likely meet circumstances where big decisions need to be made fast. This is your time for bravery. You might be on the brink of launching a new product or platform, mediating an interview, or witnessing malice within your workplace. Your quick wit can help you pivot on the plan or stand up against an inappropriate action or comment. In these cases, it’s your gut or an inner knowing that should be nurtured as your finest ideas. Bravery requires you to think fast and act faster if something isn’t lining up.
On being courageous
I believe that this is likely where a lot of us creatives get stuck when it comes to sharing a new way of doing something or even speaking up in a low-stakes brainstorm. We often get halted by fear of judgment or are so used to a hierarchy that might not encourage everyone to share their thoughts on projects and processes openly. I’m reminded of a story that the president once shared at a makeup company I used to work for.
Before my time at the brand, the team was preparing for a huge launch of a new product. They had a generous marketing budget and planned for this to be the biggest launch in their fiscal year. In the product development process, two formulas were neck and neck for approval to be the one, and the executive team eventually decided to go with the cheaper formula so that their cost of goods would have a more profitable margin.
The decision was shared with the team and after a few days, a marketing assistant (an entry-level position at this company), meekly knocked on the door to the president’s office. She shared that while she was terrified to bring this up and wasn’t sure if it was even her place to do so, she thought the company was making a mistake by going with the cheaper formula because the more expensive one was way better and more innovative in terms of efficacy and consistency.
She ended up making a pretty good case, because the president signed off on a change of formula, moving forward with the more expensive one in the end, hopeful that it wouldn’t financially bite them in the butt. The product was launched and everyone held their breath. To this day, it’s the most profitable product in the history of the brand.
The point of sharing this is to remind you that your instinct and unique point of view can be really valuable, especially within a team setting, and though speaking up about something you believe in doing may be scary, it has the potential to open up an expansive future for your project or team.
On being confident
I mentioned earlier that real confidence comes from a place of learning. We don’t necessarily have to be confident to activate bravery or courage, but by doing those two things we start to understand the outcome of them. And here’s the thing. In some cases, you might step up in courage, and be met with a closed door. More often though, you’ll be met with appreciation, respect, and hopefully, consideration. No matter the outcome though, confidence still gets nurtured, because it’s less about how your ideas are met by others. You’ll never be able to control the responses of other people. It’s more about doing things and realizing that whatever the result, you’re still standing. You can be brave, and life still goes on. With time, you’ll even begin to build resilience around the understanding that even if your idea isn’t the right one in a particular situation, it’s still a good idea.
The throughline in all these honed actions is the trust in yourself that you’re coming from the highest good. In the best-case scenario, bravery, courage, and sustainable confidence all operate from a place of morality. Getting to know our own personal values takes a bit of time too, but I guarantee that if you give yourself space to reflect on them, they’ll solidify faster than you think. Getting clear on these becomes the wind beneath your courageous wings and a foundation in which you can confidently act, even when fear arises, and it will.
Don’t be a hero,
Jade
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