Reviewers

Dr. Jay Akridge, Trustee Chair in Teaching and Learning Excellence and Professor, Purdue University

Article

Now is the Time for Courage: Five Strategies to Drive Bold Action Amid Uncertainty by Ranjay Gulati

Source

Gulati, R. (2025). Now is the time for courage: Five strategies to drive bold action amid uncertainty. Harvard Business Review, 103(5), 40–49.

Summary

Much has been written about the tremendous uncertainty currently facing organizational leaders –  conditions sometimes described as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). What kind of leadership will ensure an organization thrives when the future is anything but clear? That is the question taken up in the lead article in the September-October issue of Harvard Business Review, “Now is the Time for Courage: Five Strategies to Drive Bold Action Amid Uncertainty” by Ranjay Gulati.

Gulati defines courage as “a willingness to take a bold, risky action to serve a purpose that you perceive to be worthy, usually in the face of an abiding fear.”  He argues in VUCA times, our standard tools to support decision-making under risky conditions, while helpful, are not enough. When faced with a future where outcomes simply cannot be known with any reasonable degree of certainty, leaders can (understandably) feel a loss of control which leads to paralysis or retreat. Using the unknown as an excuse, leaders either avoid bold action to “wait out the chaos” or retrench, trying to protect their organization or their own careers.

While these may be natural (and seemingly reasonable) responses to highly uncertain times, Gulati offers this point: “research shows that the old adage is true: fortune favors the brave, not the cautious.”  His work suggests that the courageous leadership required to be bold can be learned and developed – one does not need to be born courageous – and he outlines five strategies for being more courageous as a leader.

    1. Create a Positive Narrative.

      Here the focus is doing all that is possible to identify and mitigate the risk you face, bolstering your confidence to make the right calls in the process. Beyond these steps, the positive narrative for some courageous leaders is centered on a moral purpose: taking bold action to live the deeply held values of the organization. For others, drawing on their faith is the way they find the courage to create a positive narrative and move ahead boldly.

    2. Cultivate Confidence.
      While it takes more than confidence to be courageous, confidence is a must for taking bold actions. Confidence comes from developing deep knowledge about your job through training and experience – knowledge and expertise you can draw on in challenging situations. It comes from having a broad set of mental models and tools you can deploy to make tough calls. Confidence also comes from taking action on the things you can control in an uncertain situation and focusing on executing processes at the highest levels, not outcomes which can’t be controlled.

    3. Take Small Steps.
      Thinking about what it means to be courageous likely generates mental images of swashbuckling decision-makers, taking huge, heroic leaps. Gulati says not so. His research shows that courageous leaders take “small steps in murky environments” in a process he calls sensemaking. Basically, you are trying to do all you can to better understand the future you face in a set of small, calculated moves “trusting the path will emerge as you proceed.”  Here you are creating a story about the future and continually revising that story as you learn, reducing the uncertainty as you go.

    4. Find Connection.
      Another myth about courage is the “lone hero.” The courageous leaders in Gulati’s work leaned heavily on their team, mentors and experts for insight and guidance. Importantly, they had allies that believed in them and their ability to lead the organization through the uncertainty. They also sought out feedback and criticism – aggressively looking for alternative perspectives to pressure test their own thinking.

    5. Stay Calm.
      A leader’s emotions can be friend or foe in challenging moments. Make sure you take care of yourself and are physically and mentally sharp. “You can’t think clearly if you are running on fumes.” Rituals can help – routines that you practice to bring some sense of order to the world around you. These calming rituals can help you recenter on the difficult task at hand. Finally, how you frame the situation can have a profound impact on your emotions. Spending all of your time on every negative possible outcome will trigger your sense of panic, when a more balanced view – of the downside and the upside – can help bring the calm you need to make the right call.

      Gulati is not advocating reckless decision-making. He is calling out behavior that tends to be the norm in highly uncertain times, delaying needed action in the guise of waiting things out. Finding courage in such moments to make the tough call, the right call, can make all the difference to an organization or career. As he concludes the article, “a bit more boldness will go a long way.”

What does this mean for food and agricultural business?

It is not hard to make the case that the current food and agricultural operating environment is VUCA!  The challenge is how a food and agribusiness leader chooses to act during such times. Conservative, prudent responses such as “keep our heads down,” “stay the course,” or “wait this out,” may sound logical and seem like the best course of (in)action. However, such approaches often fail to take advantage of opportunities that change presents and may even cause an organization to stall out, losing any positive momentum before the situation clears.

For some, focusing on building courage may seem unnecessary. After all, most food and agribusiness leaders are confident people, or they would not be where they are. But highly uncertain times challenge confidence in ways managers simply cannot anticipate. A decision that may make or break the future of an organization, or a person’s career, is not something one faces every day. Even confident leaders can pull back into “play it safe mode” in such times.

It is also important to note being bold does not mean being reckless – taking action on a proverbial “hope and prayer.” The right bold decision takes courage, but it also draws deeply on the manager’s experience, insight, due diligence and network. 

The strategies Gulati outlines provide a set of practices any food and agribusiness leader can embrace to prepare themselves for those moments when bold action is necessary. And it is in these highly uncertain times that such an investment pays off, with a courageous decision that leads to the bold action called for by the moment.