If you’ve ever sat on a critical decision longer than you should have, delayed a strategic move for your organization because the risk felt too high, or failed to intervene when someone on your team was being sidelined or mistreated, you know how moments of leadership hesitation can haunt you. You might replay them, kicking yourself. Or you may start telling yourself a damaging story: You don’t have what it takes for bold leadership.
The truth is, fears and inaction strike in all our lives, especially in times of extraordinary change. But they don’t have to define how we respond. Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati spent 12 years researching and writing his latest book, How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage, and says a simple equation explains why our courage is so frequently stymied. “I like to think of it as the ‘fear equation’: uncertainty + loss of control = fear,” he writes. “That fear in turn can prevent us from acting, even if we’re normally quite brave.”