1100: How to Be Bold in the Face of Uncertainty (According to Science) with Dr. Ranjay Gulati

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

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4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Ranjay Gulati discusses how to resource yourself for courageous action during times of uncertainty.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) The critical question to ask when you’re feeling fear

2) The six resources of courageous people

3) The simple mental shift that leads to braver actions

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— ABOUT RANJAY —

Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His pioneering work focuses on unlocking organizational and individual potential—embracing courage, nurturing purpose-driven leaders, driving growth, and transforming businesses. He is the recipient of the 2024 CK Prahalad Award for Scholarly Impact on Practice and was ranked as one of the top ten most cited scholars in Economics and Business over a decade by ISI-Incite.

The Economist, Financial Times, and the Economist Intelligence Unit have listed him as among the top handful of business school scholars whose work is most relevant to management practice. He is a Thinkers50 top management scholar, speaks regularly to executive audiences, and serves on the board of several entrepreneurial ventures.

He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a Master's degree from MIT. He is the author of Deep Purpose (2022) and How to be Bold (2025), both published by Harper Collins. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

• Book: How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage

• LinkedIn: Ranjay Gulati

• Website: RanjayGulati.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Book: The Power of Story: Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny in Business and in Life by Jim Loehr

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ultimately, we are all engaged in a mental process to outwit our fear.
0:14.5	And if we can, we can take courageous steps in our lives.
0:18.7	Understand how they resource themselves.
0:21.6	It wasn't just a James Bond, Jason-born move, where you're jumping off of a cliff,
0:26.9	with or without a parachute.
0:28.3	These people are very thoughtful.
0:42.5	That's Dr. Ranjay Gulati.
0:45.7	He's an award-winning professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.
0:50.0	He's also one of the most cited scholars in the field of business and management.
1:14.1	His pioneering work includes the book's deep purpose and how to be bold, surprising science of everyday courage. So you'll learn one, the critical question to ask when you're feeling fear. Two, the six resources of courageous people. And three, the simple mental shift that leads to braver actions. And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways, I recommend you sign up for the free Gold Nugget email newsletter, which you can find at awesome at your job.com. I'm Pete McItis.
1:17.1	This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job. And now, here's Ronjay.
1:26.3	Ronjay, welcome. Thank you. Pleasure to be here with you. Well, I'm excited to talk about boldness and everyday courage and
1:28.7	all the ways we can make that happen. Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you today. And I think, you know,
1:33.5	this has been a topic I've been studying for the last four years. So seeing it come to fruition is a
1:39.2	relief and a delight, both at the same time. Well, just before we pushed record, you started saying great stuff about why.
1:46.1	Right now, right now is when it's really important to tap in some extra courage and why.
1:50.5	So why don't we pick it up right there?
1:52.6	Why now?
1:53.5	Well, the one thing I don't need to tell you, if you already know this, is that we are right now in what Harvard Business Review calls an uncertainty crisis.
2:01.7	We have technological uncertainty.
2:04.2	Where is AI going?
2:05.3	And how is that going to affect my job?
	...

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