Leadership rarely arrives with perfect timing.
Sometimes the next opportunity appears before we feel fully prepared. We hesitate. We question whether we have enough experience, enough confidence or enough certainty to raise our hand.
But what if readiness does not mean feeling fearless?
What if courage is simply being willing to take the next step, even when uncertainty comes with us?
I’ve come to see courage not as a trait that some people possess and others lack. It is a leadership practice. Like a muscle, it grows when we use it.
Courage can look like speaking up when your perspective is different. It can mean making a difficult decision without having every answer, asking for help, admitting you do not know something or stepping into a role that stretches you.
And sometimes, courage is simply raising your hand.
Rethinking What Courage Looks Like
That feels especially relevant this September, when several TRUST opportunities invite us to think differently about what courage looks like in leadership and to practice it in meaningful ways.
One such opportunity comes on Sept. 22, when we’ll welcome Dr. Tonya Jackman Hampton for a conversation based on her bestselling book, The Myth of the Fearless Leader. Her work challenges the idea that strong leaders should always be confident, certain and unafraid. Instead, she helps us understand how fear influences leadership and how we can respond to it more intentionally.
Fear is not always a signal to stop. Sometimes it shows up because we are growing, changing or doing something that matters.
Put Courage Into Practice
This fall, TRUST is also creating opportunities to put that courage into practice.
Applications opened today for the TRUST Associate Board, giving members a chance to build leadership skills, contribute to our organization and gain practical nonprofit board experience.
Applications for our 2027 Mentorship Program also will open later this month. Being a mentee means having the courage to ask for guidance and invest in your own growth. Being a mentor means stepping forward to share what you have learned, listen deeply and help another woman health care leader navigate what comes next.
None of these opportunities requires you to feel completely ready.
They simply ask you to be willing: to learn, contribute, be vulnerable and grow.
One of the most important lessons leadership teaches us is that confidence does not always come before action. Sometimes confidence is built because we acted.
So as we move into a new season, consider where you may be waiting to feel completely ready.
Raise your hand. Take the next step. Practice courage.
You may discover you are more ready than you think.
Holly Scholl serves as the 2026 TRUST President and is the Director of Strategic Alliance Management for Omada Health, where she oversees strategic health plan partnerships to help their members reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases, improve outcomes and lower overall health-care spend. Throughout her 20+ year career, Holly has held a series of leadership and account management roles at prominent health care organizations, including serving as Senior Director for Population Health Sustainability at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, a Customer Success Executive at Zipnosis and a Strategic Account Director at Solera Health. In these roles, she partnered with health care organizations to develop strategies that improve health outcomes, drive sustainable health solutions and streamline access to care. Holly is a long-standing member of the TRUST, having served on the Sponsorship and Programming Committees as well as Chair for the Associate Board.