Leadership

Hitting the hiring bull’s-eye is one of an executive’s most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can get in the way, but a pointed and systematic approach can virtually guarantee success.

Brewer says inclusion and equity are about making employees feel seen and heard.

The best change agents almost never realize when it’s time to stop. That’s what makes them so good.

As projects get more complicated, managers stop learning from their experience. It is important to understand how that happens and how to change it.

Apparently, my post on the “lunch lesson” rubbed some people the wrong way. When I opined that I found that leadership = responsibility = not always getting to eat lunch, this was, for some, the most heinous concept short of universal healthcare for illegal aliens. The comments that disagreed with me fell into a few […]

You don’t have to go to every keynote.

Joe Ryan turned a small-town cosmetics company into a national powerhouse, making employees happy and shareholders rich in the process. Does it really matter that he cheats on his wife?

Most entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money and to run the show. New research shows that it’s tough to do both. If you don’t figure out which matters more to you, you could end up being neither rich nor king.

A recent study found that people were 67% more likely to agree to in-person requests than those made over audio or video call.

We all know why leap years exist, right? Our calendars get out of synch with the solar system so we must periodically get our human calendars back on track with the celestial ones. In other words, February 29th is all about correcting drift. Without those corrections, things become more and more out of synch. Not […]

Too many organizations descend into underperformance because they can't confront the painful gap between their strategy and the reality of their capabilities,...

Lou Gerstner's was a hard act to follow. As CEO in what were arguably IBM's darkest hours, Gerstner brought the company back from the brink. After nearly...

“That was dreadful. Not only was I bored, everyone else was bored too. Disengaged. I’m terrible at facilitating these kinds of meetings. But they’re so important. I’ve got to get better at it. I need to find a better way.” I wrote that in a journal entry about seven years ago. I still remember the […]

A close study of the real thing — seafarers’ insurrections during the Age of Discovery — might help you decide.

The conventional wisdom on leadership and management is clear: the first matters more than the second. Warren Bennis‘s classic On Becoming a Leader is typical. In a lengthy comparison between leaders and managers, he describes leaders as luminaries and managers as mere mortals. For example: • “The manager administers; the leader innovates.” • “The manager […]

A recent study of boys and girls aged 8-17, conducted by the Girl Scouts of America, found that “being a leader” was not a priority. Leadership ranked behind other aspirations such as “fitting in, “making a lot of money,” and “helping animals or the environment.” Is this study a cause for alarm? Far from it. […]

The story of how one organization envisioned a future transformed.

And make sure you have something interesting to say.

Traditional thinking pits work and the rest of our lives against each other. But taking smart steps to integrate work, home, community, and self will make you a more productive leader and a more fulfilled person.

February is Presidents’ month, and in this frame, it’s a fine time to spend a few hours with Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s life and leadership offer rich lessons for managers and indeed all leaders in our own turbulent moment. Paul Angle’s The Lincoln Reader is a classic in the huge field of writing on the 16th […]

Supplements the (A) case.

This case series describes the startup of Farm to School of Park County, an emerging nonprofit organization in the US state of Montana. Case (A) describes...

Case traces the design and development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Emphasis is on executive leadership and firm strategy in coordinating across a global...

Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation faces a serious threat to survival from the deep pockets of media mogul Ted Turner and Time-Warner, Inc. McMahon...

In early 2019, transportation was set to undergo a major transformation with the advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs), also referred to as driverless cars,...

On March 7, 2013, ThyssenKrupp Group CEO Heinrich Hiesinger was shocked to receive a resignation letter from Gerhard Cromme, chairman of the company's...

Describes the outcome of Erik Peterson's one-day meeting with his superior and the events of the subsequent day's meeting with the president and vice...

A radical approach to growing high-quality talent--fast. You know that winning in today's marketplace requires top-quality talent. You also know what...

It can also be read on its own to gain a greater understanding of how organizational change unfolds over time. This note can also be used as a companion...

The Maple Leaf Foods (MLF): Changing the System case explores how a major food processor pivoted its vision and operations in an attempt to become the...

Sitara was a village in India whose local governing body had 15 members headed by the gram-pradhan. In 2011, the gram-pradhan had approved a project for...

This is a multi-issue one-on-one internal negotiation between a recently promoted boss, Joanna, and an older-than-her employee, Rupert, who is disgruntled...

Explores many of the issues that face rapidly growing venture-backed companies in high technology industries. Provides an opportunity for students to...

In October 2010, the beating of a 30-year-old bonded laborer-his punishment for staying home sick from work-in India's northwestern state of Rajasthan...

On September 5, 1997, the American Medical Association(AMA) withdrew from a contract with Sunbeam Corporation, the maker of samll home appliances. Sunbeam...

The Leadership Transitions and Team Building Collection includes two important books: "The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded," by Michael D. Watkins,...

"Being a Change Agent"is a three-part case series set in a rural district of Assam in India. It describes the efforts made by Kuladhar Saikia, Deputy...

In Differences at Work: Will (A), HBS Case No. 9-408-013 is set in London. Will, a gay man, must decide how to react to a senior colleague's question...

Hitting the hiring bull’s-eye is one of an executive’s most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can get in the way, but a pointed and systematic approach can virtually guarantee success.

Brewer says inclusion and equity are about making employees feel seen and heard.

The best change agents almost never realize when it’s time to stop. That’s what makes them so good.

As projects get more complicated, managers stop learning from their experience. It is important to understand how that happens and how to change it.

Apparently, my post on the “lunch lesson” rubbed some people the wrong way. When I opined that I found that leadership = responsibility = not always getting to eat lunch, this was, for some, the most heinous concept short of universal healthcare for illegal aliens. The comments that disagreed with me fell into a few […]

You don’t have to go to every keynote.

Joe Ryan turned a small-town cosmetics company into a national powerhouse, making employees happy and shareholders rich in the process. Does it really matter that he cheats on his wife?

Most entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money and to run the show. New research shows that it’s tough to do both. If you don’t figure out which matters more to you, you could end up being neither rich nor king.

A recent study found that people were 67% more likely to agree to in-person requests than those made over audio or video call.