Sometimes, bold ideas stay hidden because no one wants to risk looking foolish - like a singer at karaoke afraid to miss a note. To ease this fear, celebrate small experiments: reward the attempt, not just the result. Encourage a “blameless postmortem” culture, where mistakes become lessons instead of reasons for blame. Share stories of leaders who took risks and grew from them. By valuing learning over perfection, you foster an environment where pitching a daring new concept feels like an opportunity, not a gamble.

Creating an environment where bold ideas flourish requires eliminating the fear of failure. I foster a culture that values creativity and innovation by celebrating all contributions, regardless of outcome. By encouraging open dialogue and providing constructive feedback, I help my team understand that failure is a stepping stone to success. I lead by example, sharing my previous experiences with setbacks and how they contributed to growth. This transparency builds trust and resilience within the team. My leadership, focused on empowerment and support, ensures that bold thinking becomes a key driver of our business success.

Lead by example: As a leader, share your own ideas—both successful and not so successful—to normalize the process of taking risks. Set up idea-sharing sessions: Create regular brainstorming sessions where all ideas are valued, regardless of their immediate feasibility. This shows that every idea counts. Provide autonomy: Give your team members the freedom to experiment and take ownership of projects. When they feel trusted, they’re more likely to share bold ideas. Showcase learning opportunities: Emphasize the lessons learned from failed ideas, illustrating that failure is an essential part of innovation.

Create an environment where team members feel safe to take risks. Encourage risk-taking and learning from failures. Demonstrate a willingness to take risks and share your own ideas.

My favorite example of this comes from Alan Mullaly. When he took over as CEO at Ford in 2006, he walked into a culture of fear & a struggling company. If you brought bad news to the exec table, you just weren't at the next meeting. Folks were conditioned to keep anything bad or bold to themselves. After weeks of this charade, Mulally proclaimed to his leaders, 'Either you're lying to me, your people are lying to you, or you're lying to yourselves. If we're going to turn this thing around, we need to embrace more truth telling.' One leader, Mark Fields, spoke up and shared a challenge he was having. Mulally literally gave him a standing ovation, asked who could help Mark and sat Mark next to him at the next meeting. New precedent set.