Brave leadership isn’t about being right - it’s about risking being wrong for the right reasons
Bravery in leadership isn’t performative. It’s principled, high-stakes decision-making in the face of uncertainty - and a willingness to let others see the process.
Would you risk 800,000 customers to stand by your values?
We say we want innovation. We preach resilience. But too often, we punish the leaders who take risks and fail publicly. This piece is about brave leadership - what it really looks like, what it costs, and what it demands of us.
Because brave leadership isn’t about being right. It’s about being prepared to get it wrong for the right reasons.
If we are honest, many of us are afraid of making the wrong call - especially if it costs us customers, revenue, sales. Of being the person held accountable for the decision which saw a decline.
"We will always put our values above our bottom line. End of story."
That’s what Whitney Wolfe Herd said after banning gun imagery on Bumble. Her decision risked user loss and public backlash. She made it anyway.
In most organisations, we measure success by the numbers: retention, upsell, repeat purchase, followers, subscribers, customer tenure.
And yet, not all value is measurable. Not all risk is reckless. And not all leadership is safe.
The ambition is often to find more efficient ways to scale, optimise processes, and deepen customer loyalty.
But what if your best idea means losing customers - at least in the short term? What if you can’t guarantee the test or initiative will succeed?
This is where brave leaders separate themselves. Because implicit in "test and learn" is the reality that things might go wrong. Yet not all cultures make it feel safe to fail.
The best way to ensure we can take smart, collective risks- with the right preparation and the right people - is to work with leaders who model courage. Who create the conditions for it.
And ultimately, to become that kind of leader yourself.
I’ve worked with many of these leaders - often through the Be Braver programme. They’ve done the inner work. They know how to create cultures and behaviours that support courage, not just competence.
I’ve also been searching for examples of this kind of leadership in the public eye. Not just those who lead with conviction behind closed doors, but leaders who display commendable courage - making tough decisions visible when they knew there could be consequences- and visible bravery, showing others what principled action looks like in practice.
Learning Out Loud
One that has stood out is Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix. Long before Netflix, during his time leading Pure Software, Hastings reportedly asked his board to replace him - an extraordinary act of self-awareness. The board refused, seeing something in his leadership that even he couldn’t.
Leadership, after all, is a journey - not a destination. We will fall, fail, rise, and fall again.
Hastings has built his leadership philosophy around this reality. In No Rules Rules, co-authored with Erin Meyer, he shares:
"Whisper wins and shout mistakes."
He turns on its head what most of us were taught: celebrate success loudly, hide failures quietly.
But Hastings insists that failures - especially those born of calculated risk - should be shared, studied, and embraced. It’s the hallmark of a learning culture.
He urges leaders to “learn out loud” something I also explore in these Thinking Out Loud pieces. Make your decisions, experiments, and learnings visible. Let others in. Create safety through transparency.
Apply These Insights to Practice:
Start your next team meeting by sharing a recent decision that didn’t deliver the outcome you hoped.
How did you prepare?
Was it reversible?
What did you learn?
Do you regret it?
Ask: “What have we learned this week that we didn’t expect?”
Make retrospectives more about learning than blame.
The Qwikster Debacle
Just imagine being the person whose decision triggered the loss of 800,000 customers and a tanking stock price. That was Reed Hastings.
But instead of deflecting, he took full responsibility citing overconfidence, poor communication, and failure to heed customer signals.
This wasn’t just visible bravery. It was commendable courage.
Apply These Insights to Practice:
Before a bold move, engage those it may impact: colleagues, customers, partners.
Ask: Have we tested this?
Who might this affect in ways we haven’t thought about?
Be willing to publicly course-correct. Your honesty will build more trust than your perfection ever could.
Values Before Revenue
After the Parkland shootings, Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble, banned gun images from user profiles.
This was not a branding move. It was a values decision. She received threats. Her team faced real security risks. But she held the line:
“We will always put our values above our bottom line.”
Apply These Insights to Practice:
Define your non-negotiables. Make decisions that align with them even when it costs.
Ask: What does it cost us to compromise? What do we gain by staying true?
Make values visible through action, not just statements.
Whitney Wolfe Herd didn’t just found a company she founded a movement. Bumble was built on a simple shift: women make the first move. It was a rebuke of toxic cultures she’d experienced firsthand.
Purpose wasn’t the marketing. It was the product.
Brave Leadership Is the Long Game
Leadership like this isn’t always celebrated in the moment. It’s often questioned. Sometimes punished. But over time, it lays the foundations for trust, culture, and growth.
So What? Why Does This Matter?
Too many organisations reward only outcomes, not the courage it takes to act without guarantees. But real leadership is principled, transparent action in the face of uncertainty.
Reed Hastings and Whitney Wolfe Herd show us what that looks like.
This is your reminder that brave leadership isn’t loud or perfect. It’s honest. It’s grounded. And it’s needed now more than ever.
So ask yourself:
Where are you being called to be braver?
And what will you do next that others can see - and learn from?