01 - - - - Q2 McKinsey Quarterly E S TA B L I S H E D 1 9 6 4 M C K I N S E Y. C O M Courage as Capability SCAN TO DOWNLOAD McKinsey Insights For a personalized reading experience “LEADERSHIP, AT ITS BEST, IS A MATTER OF THE HEART. COURAGE, which underpins every act of leadership, is also a matter of the heart.” So begins this issue’s cover story, by Kurt Strovink, Meagan Hill, and Mike Carson. “Courageous conversa tions: How to lead with heart” is an impassioned articulation of what it takes to ensure institutional strength in a moment like this. Uncertainty is the norm—from the global to the personal. Geopolitical differences seem to be hardening; organizations are navigating a generational technology shift; and fragile employees are short on trust. So don’t dismiss courage as some kind of time less “nice to have.” It’s now the must-have quality that defines leadership and gives companies the best chance to push through chaos to the next great opportunities. Courageous conversations are needed to address this range of disruptions. They are the way CEOs embed boldness into strategy, energize their organizations, and navigate uncertainty with both head and heart. And they are anything but easy. Pixar cofounder and former CEO Ed Catmull said, “Encouraging dissent is the best way to avoid being blindsided.” When leaders avoid courageous conversations, they stifle dissent: situations fester, misunder standings deepen, and relationships fray. This issue’s cover package is a call to courage for company leaders, for new CEOs working with a raft of stakeholders (as Citi CEO Jane Fraser says in her revealing interview with McKinsey’s Eric Kutcher, “That was the biggest surprise I had as CEO—how much stakeholder man agement your job involves”), and for any executive trying to thrive as new technologies such as agentic AI redefine the workplace. Managing technology is the one disruption that repeatedly, inexorably, demands courage. Take quantum. The promise is huge, but the technology isn’t far enough along for most companies to