RG: Great leaders in the business world share certain qualities. One of them is courage.

Almeida: Courage is not an absence of fear, courage, it is not an adventure. Courage is the ability to do something that is really difficult.

Tynan: making the decision to start a startup venture, I just force myself to sort of put a box around the risk and I so I can take investor money, I can try this and if I fail, so be it.

Singh: Sometimes in life, doing the hard right thing is better than doing the easy wrong thing

Polman: courageous leaders make courageous companies in the end of the day.

RG: Hi. I’m Ranjay Gulati, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. On this season of my Deep Purpose podcast, I’m zeroing in on how the world’s top CEOs steer their companies through choppy economic weather. Ben Minicucci leads Alaska Airlines.

Minicucci: Your job ultimately in crisis is to look after your people in the company. And I knew that was my number one job is I got to look after my people, my employees, the company, and that they're looking at to me for direction, confidence, the truth.

RG: My guests are all business executives at the top of their game. They explain in vivid detail how they go about making big decisions. James Mwangi leads Equity Group Holdings in Kenya.

Mwangi: You have to do deep analysis, you have to have your data As you take these bold decisions. you mitigate the fear by having facts and knowledge. It's not that you don't fear… you mitigate fear.

Almeida: So when I think about risk, I look at two things, how much knowledge of hard facts you have, and how much intuition you have about the path you're taking.

RG: Joe Almeida heads the U.S. health care giant Baxter International. He says successful leaders must have the courage to act on their experience…not just the numbers.

Almeida: But people mistakenly do. They don't trust their instincts and they rely too much on the data. Your instincts have to be trusted by you. It’s your gut. You know when it's right, and you get the numbers. you said, “this can happen, I'm gonna go for it.”

RG: When John Chen stepped in to rescue the ailing smartphone company BlackBerry, he drew on what he learned when successfully turning around other big firms.

Chen: you have to tell yourself when the tough questions come, then these very tough answers is neither right or wrong. You just have to understand the consequences and live with and be ready to live with the consequences.

RG: Susan Tynan built the custom framing company FrameBridge from the ground up. She says a critical asset for courageous leaders is exceptional vision:

Tynan: I think it's the ability to look beyond the pain, the short-term pain, because you believe in what you're building // you certainly don't feel invincible, but you do feel like you have a toolkit to handle adversity.

I’m Ranjay Gulati. Join me for the new season of Deep Purpose to hear how the world’s top business executives lead with courage and commitment in turbulent times.