Courage Before Confidence and Why the Most Impactful Women Stop Waiting to Feel Ready
Dr. Donya Ball is a renowned leadership expert, keynote speaker, author, executive coach, and professor specializing in organizational development. She captivates audiences and readers around the world with her thought leadership, including her TEDx Talk, "We are facing a leadership crisis. Here's the cure."
Male-dominated industries do not need more women waiting to feel confident. They need more women willing to move before confidence arrives. The biggest leadership lie that women have been sold is that confidence appears before opportunity.
For years, women have been encouraged to build confidence before the next step in their careers. The advice sounds logical: gain more experience, enhance your skills, build confidence, then try for the promotion, leadership role, or stretch opportunity. The problem is that confidence rarely works that way.
Many of the most impactful women in leadership did not step into opportunities because they felt completely confident. They stepped into opportunities because they were willing to act in the face of uncertainty. They took on projects before they knew all the answers. They spoke up before they knew whether their ideas would be heard. They took on leadership roles before they felt ready.
Confidence was not the prerequisite. It was the byproduct. This is particularly important in male dominated industries, where women are often underrepresented in leadership roles. Too many highly capable women are waiting for a feeling that may never fully arrive. They are waiting to feel completely ready, completely qualified, and completely certain before taking action. Meanwhile, opportunities continue moving forward.
The women who are making the greatest impact understand a different equation:
Courage > Confidence = Momentum
They know that confidence is not what creates momentum. Courage does.
The confidence myth
Confidence has become one of the most widely discussed leadership traits in the professional world. Books have been written about it. Workshops have been built around it. Career advice often focuses on finding it. Yet confidence is frequently misunderstood.
Most women view confidence as a condition for advancement, rather than an outcome of it. So they spend years accumulating credentials, learning more, studying more, training more, and seeking more validation before taking the next step. Preparation is important, but at some point preparation becomes procrastination.
The challenge is that readiness is rarely a fixed destination. There is always one more certification to earn, one more skill to learn, and one more reason to delay action. The finish line keeps moving. Meanwhile, opportunities are taken by people who may not be more qualified, but who are willing to raise their hand.
The irony is that confidence is often seen as the starting point for growth, when it is actually one of growth’s outcomes. The women who make the greatest impact are not necessarily those who feel the most confident. They are often the women who are willing to move before confidence arrives.
Courage creates confidence
Think about the most defining leadership moments in your career. The first major presentation. The first hard personnel decision. The first time you were asked to lead a team, a department, or a major initiative. Chances are you did not enter those experiences with strong confidence.
More likely, you felt uncertain. You questioned yourself. You wondered if you were ready. But you moved forward anyway.
That willingness to act even in uncertainty is what makes growth possible. Every time a woman speaks up despite fear, volunteers for a challenging task, or takes on something that stretches her, she gains something: evidence. Evidence that she is capable. Evidence that she can handle discomfort. Evidence that she can carry more than she was led to believe.
Those experiences begin to change how she sees herself. Confidence develops not because it is handed to her, but because it is earned through action.
The formula is simple. Courage creates experience. Experience creates evidence. Evidence creates confidence.
The women who build the most confidence are rarely the ones who started with it. They are the ones who choose action over hesitation and keep moving forward.
Why male-dominated industries need more courageous women
In many fields, talented women continue to underestimate their readiness while overpreparing for opportunities. They wait until they meet every qualification at every stage. They wait until they feel certain. They wait until they believe they have fully earned the right to move forward. Unfortunately, leadership opportunities do not wait.
Women need to bring their knowledge, perspective, and ideas to the table now. They need to be willing to challenge ideas, engage with problems, and lead even without absolute certainty about the outcome.
The problem is rarely talent. More often, it is a lack of trust in the talent that already exists. Male-dominated industries do not need more women waiting to feel confident. They need more women willing to contribute before confidence arrives. They need more women who understand that leadership is not about certainty, it is about willingness.
The willingness to speak. The willingness to lead. The willingness to move forward before all the answers are available.
The momentum effect
This is where leadership momentum begins.
Every time someone takes action, even when the outcome is uncertain, momentum is created. It starts with one courageous conversation, one application submitted, one idea shared in a meeting, or one leadership opportunity accepted. Each action creates movement. Each movement creates evidence. Each piece of evidence strengthens confidence.
What once felt intimidating becomes familiar. What once felt overwhelming becomes manageable. What once felt impossible becomes part of how you operate.
That is the power of momentum. Like confidence, momentum does not require certainty to begin. It requires action. Once movement starts, confidence can catch up.
The women who keep going are not necessarily more fearless. They have simply learned that momentum is created through action, not before it.
The leadership reality
The most impactful women are seldom the ones who waited until they felt completely ready.
They are the ones who realized that readiness is often an illusion. They understood that progress is built through uncertainty, and they trusted themselves enough to learn along the way. They spoke before they felt confident. They applied when they were not fully qualified. They accepted opportunities that stretched them.
What separates these women is not the absence of fear. It is their willingness to act despite it. They understand something many professionals spend years trying to learn, "Confidence is not what creates opportunity. Courage does."
The women who have the most impact today are not waiting for confidence to arrive. They are building it one brave step at a time.
Dr. Donya Ball, Leadership Expert, Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author
Dr. Donya Ball is a renowned keynote speaker, transformative superintendent, and passionate author. With over two decades of experience, she also serves as a professor and executive coach, mentoring and guiding aspiring and seasoned leaders. She has authored two impactful books, Adjusting the Sails (2022) and Against the Wind (2023), which address real-world leadership challenges. Her expertise has garnered national attention from media outlets like USA Today and MSN. Dr. Ball’s TEDxTalk, "We are facing a leadership crisis. Here’s the cure," further highlights her thought leadership.
