Courage in Leadership and Purpose

Welcome to episode #1012 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation).

Amid a moment when uncertainty defines every industry and leaders everywhere are confronting fear disguised as strategy, it is worth turning to someone who has spent his career decoding how individuals and organizations find the courage to act, which is why this week's guest, Ranjay Gulati, offers such rare authority. Ranjay is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor at Harvard Business School, a globally recognized organizational sociologist, bestselling author, and one of the world's most cited scholars on leadership, strategy, and culture. His research has shaped how companies think about growth, resilience, and high-performance environments, and his teaching in Harvard's executive and senior-leader programs has influenced thousands of CEOs navigating transformation and complexity. Before this latest work, he authored landmark books such as Deep Purpose and built a career studying how organizations thrive in adversity, drawing on field research with global enterprises, fast-growth ventures, and leaders operating in the highest-stakes environments. His new book, How To Be Bold - The Surprising Science Of Everyday Courage, anchors this conversation and reflects more than a decade of inquiry into how courage operates - not as myth or personality, but as a learnable, repeatable set of cognitive, emotional, and social processes. In our conversation, Ranjay explains the psychology of fear, the organizational traps created by success, the cultural shifts redefining leadership post-Covid, and why courageous action depends on purpose, identity, and the right forms of support. He illustrates these ideas through stories ranging from nuclear-plant operators to turnaround CEOs to everyday workplace dilemmas, showing how boldness emerges in moments both dramatic and ordinary. With his blend of academic rigor, global fieldwork, and practical insight from advising major companies, Ranjay reveals courage as a continuum that shapes teams, leaders, and cultures, and reminds us that most regret comes not from what we do, but what we avoid. Enjoy the conversation…

• Running time: 51:51.
• Hello from beautiful Montreal.
• Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.
• Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.
• Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn.
• Check out ThinkersOne.
• Here is my conversation with Ranjay Gulati.
• How To Be Bold - The Surprising Science Of Everyday Courage.
• Deep Purpose.
• Harvard Business School.
• Sign up for Ranjay's newsletter: Leadership Unlocked.
• Follow Ranjay on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Ranjay Gulati and His Work. (05:53) - Understanding Fear and Uncertainty. (11:37) - Courage as a Continuum: Physical vs. Moral. (17:26) - Collective Courage in Organizations. (22:51) - Navigating Boldness in a Cancel Culture. (27:38) - Understanding Courage in Leadership. (32:33) - The Success Trap: Risks of Complacency. (37:47) - The Six C's of Courage. (42:58) - Fostering Collective Courage in Hybrid Work. (47:54) - Courage as an Inner Journey.