Courage in practice shows up as conviction in the face of uncertainty. It requires challenging long-held assumptions, making decisions before conditions are fully defined, and bringing others along through transparency and trust. Unlike situational confidence, courage is cumulative. Leaders build it through repeated decisions, often in moments when waiting or stepping back would have been more comfortable.

Against that backdrop, DHR Global spoke with seven senior executives who’ve led organizations through a range of opportunities and challenges, including sustained growth, transformation, and operational complexity. Their experience spans global brands and demanding operating environments.

Where Courage Shows Up

DHR Partners observe these behaviors consistently across leadership contexts:

The following leaders illustrate how these behaviors take shape in practice:

Shin Hwee Chua, Regional CEO, APAC, Ralph Lauren

At L’Oréal, she expanded Kérastase beyond salons into direct-to-consumer channels through department store counters. The move required aligning partners and gaining support for a locally driven idea. It proved successful and later scaled globally. At Ralph Lauren, Chua has taken a similar approach. During COVID, she led the development of a localized data hub in China that now supports clienteling and the development of social commerce.

What gives you confidence to move forward despite resistance?

Courageous leadership comes down to doing the right thing, being innovative, and staying resilient. You respond to challenges and find a way forward, but the guiding principle stays the same. Once the direction is clear, resistance becomes something to work through rather than a reason to stop. I anchor decisions against the brand promise, consumer preferences, and the ability to drive sustainable growth. That focus helps me inspire teams to align around the vision and create shared commitment.

What role does curiosity play in strategy development?

You have to stay close to your people and stay curious. A conversation with our global head of sourcing revealed a mismatch between the wholesale supply model and the DTC Asia-Pacific business operations. That insight led to a new approach. Today, a meaningful percentage of our core products are supplied regionally at a shorter lead time and contribute to a significant share of our growth. Those insights come from relationships – not formal processes alone.

What skills will leaders need most in the near future?

Innovation, a willingness to test and learn, and the ability to prioritize when everything feels urgent. Energy management is also important. Leaders need to focus their time and attention deliberately. I also believe they need to get serious about AI. Leaders who are actively testing AI tools to understand how they create efficiencies – and more importantly, drive growth – will be the ones ready to integrate them effectively. The window to explore is open.

Mary Ellen Coyne, CEO & President, J.Jill

How do you support risk-taking or bold actions when outcomes are uncertain?

When you want people to take risks, you have to be fully behind them, whether it works or not. People need to know you’ll support them and stand with them through the outcome. Clarity also matters. A clear vision, defined goals, and metrics give teams a structure for how to act. That allows people to move quickly, make decisions, and adjust when something doesn’t work. You reinforce that through how you lead. If you expect people to act boldly, you have to create a culture that supports it, including learning from what doesn’t work and continuing to move forward.

How do you navigate different and sometimes opposing perspectives at the leadership level?

I trust my instincts and have learned to rely on them more over time, while also knowing when to pick my battles. I rely on trusted voices – board members and peers who challenge my thinking. These connections are so important, and without that honest feedback, it’s easy to lose perspective. The best decisions come from preparation, clear perspective on the desired outcome, and a willingness to be challenged.

What advice would you give leaders who want to build teams that act with courage?

Challenge yourself every day and surround yourself with people who bring strengths you don’t have, while modeling the behavior you expect and providing consistent support. Do your homework and be prepared so you feel confident. What drives results is being able to bring people along through influence and shared conviction. Change happens when people see their voices reflected in outcomes.

Michael Marth, COO International, URBN

How do you define courageous leadership?

Courageous leadership isn’t about being loud or bold, but about showing direction and making decisions despite never having 100% certainty. Today, with AI providing overwhelming data, leaders must be transparent about decisions and build a culture where teams are also empowered to make decisions. The focus should be on creating a growth culture, rather than a blame culture, emphasizing solutions over reasoning when mistakes happen. What matters is how quickly you adjust and move on.

How do you remove obstacles so teams can perform?

You eliminate the clutter. Internal politics and administrative roadblocks slow progress. Implementing a customs warehouse in our supply chain was one of the boldest decisions. With Brexit and 30-40% of business in Europe but main stock in the UK, this was essential despite significant costs and internal resistance. It required changing vendor management, supply chain processes, and systems. It created a lot of extra work and costs, but staying the course was crucial. The outcome has been extremely positive, saving millions versus not having it.

How do you challenge yourself and remain an innovative leader?

You need to stay up-to-date with developments in all aspects of the business – fashion, retail, DTC, e-commerce, and supply chain. Listen to your teams as subject matter experts and read extensively to know what’s happening in the market. Then evaluate if new approaches can work in your environment and with other departments. Leaders need to see the big picture while subject matter experts provide insights on what’s possible and how to make their jobs easier.

Philip Mountford, former CEO, Hunkemöller

Why does pulling back require more courage than expansion?

Expansion is easier when momentum and investor pressure are behind you. Fast decisions often get rewarded. The harder call is knowing when to pull back and acting on it quickly. That decision has financial and personal weight, especially when you’re invested in making it succeed.

What does it take to unlock ideas across an organization?

You have to listen at every level. For example, an intern’s idea was instrumental in improving our loyalty program. Leadership isn’t about telling people what to do; it’s about guiding them to reach conclusions themselves so they take ownership. That only happens in an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up.

How do leaders adapt when past approaches no longer apply?

Leadership has evolved significantly over the past five to 10 years. New entrants are scaling quickly, and that pace demands a different approach. You need a clearly defined vision and the ability to make decisions faster, often with less data than you’d like. Some decisions are straightforward, while others require you to move forward without full certainty. In Sweden, we entered a market where the initial signals were unclear. We moved ahead, adjusted the offer, and subsequently built the business. That experience reinforced that you can’t wait for perfect information.

Nicole Otto, CEO, Ruggable

How did you develop your leadership voice?

Early in my career, a mentor taught me to become a student of leadership style. I paid attention to what made leaders effective and then practiced those behaviors myself. At Nike, that meant experimenting in a fast-paced environment where you couldn’t rely on positional authority to get things done. When I’m practicing something, I will tell my colleagues what I am working on and what I am trying to do differently. That creates accountability and opens the door for feedback. Finding your voice takes practice.

How do you balance conviction with openness?

I have to show that I’m willing to change my point of view when new information comes forward. I love when my team challenges me. If they see value in something I don’t, I respect when they say so. That dynamic keeps decisions grounded in merit and helps eliminate unnecessary work.

What does courageous leadership look like today?

Leaders have to cut through the noise and focus their teams on what deserves attention through the lens of the customer’s needs. That requires making clear choices about where to spend time and energy, especially as responsibilities move away from day-to-day execution. The further you move from day-to-day execution, the more important it becomes to keep teams energized and aligned around work that matters. From there, leadership comes down to modeling authenticity and flexibility, staying open to new ideas, and giving people the space to lead.

Allison Peterson, Chief Retail & Digital Officer, Carter’s

When Peterson joined Carter’s after a 19-year career at Best Buy, she took time to observe before acting. In order to shift context and fully understand the consumer she was serving, she documented what she saw, tested her assumptions, and invited others to challenge her thinking. That approach helped her build credibility while gaining a deep understanding of the business.

How do you stay ahead of consumer trends?

It starts with staying deeply connected to employees and consumers, creating feedback loops that not only listen to but anticipate their evolving needs. Understanding how your consumer needs will change over time requires empathy to the context of which they are operating within. Being a student of the consumer, paying attention to signals in their behaviors, and having teams that reflect those we serve makes our ability to anticipate their needs that much more effective.

How have other leaders or mentors influenced your leadership approach?

The kind of leader someone becomes often reflects the leaders they’ve worked for. By experiencing multiple leadership styles, I’ve learned who I do and don’t want to emulate. Some leaders closed off input entirely, while others actively sought different perspectives and pushed back constructively. Leaders who invite dialogue and challenge constructively build confidence in their teams. I try to create that same environment by being transparent, vulnerable, humble about what I don’t know, inviting feedback, and questioning my own assumptions. I have found this ultimately builds trust and enhances outcomes.

How do diverse teams improve decision-making?

It ties directly to understanding the consumer. If we want to stay relevant, our teams need to understand the people we serve in experience and perspective. No single point of view leads to the right answer. Diversity of thought is what closes the gap between assumptions and what customers need. When teams reflect their consumers, they make stronger decisions and stay connected to what matters.

Hillary Super, CEO, Victoria’s Secret

What does it mean to lead through change?

The only constant in this industry is change, but leading through it isn’t about reacting to everything. It’s about being clear on where you’re going and helping your team understand why it matters.

There’s always the temptation to chase every opportunity and optimize everything, but that’s where you can lose focus. The real discipline is staying anchored to a few, key priorities that will truly move the brand forward and being very intentional about what you’re not going to do. When you’re clear on that, and your team understands the “why,” change becomes something you can lead through with confidence.

How do you create a culture where teams can take bold action?

It starts with trust, and that comes from how you show up. For me, that means being real, honest, and not over-scripted. When people see that, they feel it, and it gives them the confidence to step in and take ownership.

I also believe you have to reframe how teams think about risk. Breakthrough results don’t come from playing it safe. They come from trying things, learning quickly, and building on what works. Mistakes are part of that process. What matters is how quickly you learn, how you respond, and how you apply those learnings to make better decisions going forward.

How do you make sound decisions when the stakes are high?

Decisions made from fear are rarely the right ones. When the stakes are high, I step back and ground myself in a few simple things: what does the customer need from us, what does the business need, and what does the team need to move forward. I try to stay focused on the quality of the decision, making sure it’s grounded in our strategy and where we’re going, rather than getting overly attached to a specific outcome. You won’t get every decision right, but most things are fixable. When you let go of that pressure, you create the space to lead with clarity and conviction.

Courage in Practice

These leaders describe courage as a practice, one built through decisions, reinforced over time, and expressed differently depending on the moment.

Their experiences point to a consistent set of behaviors. They act before they have complete information, revisit assumptions others no longer question, and hold themselves accountable for the risks they ask others to take. They also recognize when stepping back or stopping what no longer works requires as much discipline as pushing ahead.

These behaviors become clear in defining moments, including when leaders eliminate initiatives that no longer deliver value, identify opportunities that others overlook, or reset priorities to restore focus and momentum. In each case, courage is practical, timely, and grounded in judgment rather than being performative.

In that environment, those who stand out build organizations where courage becomes part of how work gets done. Teams challenge ideas and take ownership of outcomes because they trust the direction and the intent behind them. When modeled consistently, courage creates permission for others to lead.

Courageous leaders build believers, and believers move organizations forward.