BOLD: Boldness in Every Way, Every Day

 

When I say the word “BOLD”, I know you think of BIG things.

We’ve all been programmed to link BOLD with BIG steps. We’re BOLD when we start a new industry, step up to create Occupy Wall Street, discover a cure for cancer, turn our markets upside down. Being BOLD is well, BOLD.

But bold doesn’t have to be big.

Being Bold Every Day in Every Way

One definition of bold is “not afraid of dangerous or new situations.”  That definition empowers us to be bold in oh-so-many ways. We need to change the way we think about bold. What if bold became your new mode of thought and behavior, in everything you do?

But bold doesn’t have to be big. What if bold became your new mode of thought and behavior, in everything you do?

For example:

• As Leaders, we can be bold by ditching the legacy leadership beliefs that limit our modern success. We can boldly step into new ways of working with and leading people, based on how we humans really tick. For example, we can learn how to short circuit the herd instinct to fuel break-away thinking and innovation within our teams.

• As Humans in Business, we can be bold by changing the way we look at ourselves. We’re not a single person among hundreds, thousands or millions, with little power to influence our organization. We can be the spark that ignites the fires of innovation, simply by taking small but significant steps to think and act out of the box. We can shift from thinking of ourselves as a powerless cog in the wheel to become powerful influencers of everyone around us.

• As Humans Communicating with Other Humans,we can be bold by recognizing and leveraging the ways we humans really tick to communicate clearly and effectively. We can learn about the power of our human minds, then apply that knowledge to boldly change the way we look at and interact with those around us. Every single interaction then becomes a bold step toward a new way of communicating and influencing our world.

• In Sales,we can be bold by thinking more about our customers’ needs than we do about making our revenue numbers. We can understand how they individually like to communicate, how they make decisions, how they process information and what they really value. We can then boldly focus on serving them in every action – knowing that the business will follow.

We can be the spark that ignites the fires of innovation, simply by taking small but significant steps to think and act out of the box.

• In Marketing, we can be bold by stepping out of the way we’ve always done it.  We can ditch the chest thumping me, me, me claims that are part and parcel of yesterday’s world. We can boldly share our expertise and our lessons learned to guide buyer’s to make informed and empowered decisions, trusting that our value will deliver distinct competitive advantage on its own and without the noisy hype.

The Bottom Line

BOLD can be BIG.  But bold can also be small, and everything in between.

Boldness comes in stepping out of the way we’ve always done it. From moving into new ways of thinking and acting.

Sometimes that step is as big as Neil Armstrong’s. Sometimes it’s as simple as seeing a new way to create that report, taking a different path to customer success, sharing our experience quietly and powerfully. Sometimes being bold is as simple as asking “What if we did this differently?”

Great things often start with small, yet bold, beginnings.

 

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