HBR On Leadership

Since 2023, HBR On Leadership has been bringing you hand-curated insights and inspiration from across the HBR archive to unlock the best in those around you. But the time has come for HBR On Leadership to hit pause on new episodes. While this feed is going on hiatus, you can hear new, weekly conversations spanning leadership, strategy, innovation and much more on our flagship show, the HBR IdeaCast. And the best way to stay on top of everything you need to lead is to subscribe to HBR, for access to our full archive, exclusive subscriber content, events, new audio offerings, and tools to put the best management ideas to work for you.

When it comes to solving complex, layered problems, the default for many organizational leaders is to take their time to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, that often leads to problems that linger with no clear resolution. Instead, Anne Morriss offers a different problem-solving framework based on speed, momentum, and trust. Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and founder of the Leadership Consortium. With Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei, she authored the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.

There are many productivity tools and tactics that promise to help you make the most of your workday. But there is one simple practice that’s consistently been shown to be effective: timeboxing. Timeboxing is about merging your to-do list with your calendar, reserving time each day for each task you want to get done, and then truly focusing on that one thing at a time. The return on merging your to-do list with your calendar is higher productivity, better collaboration, and less distraction, explains entrepreneur and author Marc Zao-Sanders. He shares how to try the method yourself and how your team and organization can also benefit from it. Zao-Sanders is the author of the book Timeboxing: The Power of Doing One Thing at a Time.

We all know the stereotypes of leaders who use charisma, manipulation, domineering behavior, or their status in the hierarchy to exert control. But there is another type of leader whose power isn’t necessarily related to their position on the org chart. Chris Lipp has spent years studying people who’ve developed this “personal power” that is rooted in their internal values. Lipp is a professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, an executive coach, and the author of the book The Science of Personal Power. He’s investigated where this second type of power comes from and how to tap into it using some simple strategies and tools.

Shake Shack started in 2001 as a hot dog cart in New York City’s Madison Square Park. It’s now a global fast-casual restaurant chain renowned for both quality and hospitality. In 2024, following a rapid rollout of digital tools like kiosks and mobile ordering, Chief Growth Officer Steph So found herself asking, had Shake Shack built a model that could truly scale, or one that still needed work? Harvard Business School professor Chris Stanton joins So and host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “Shake Shack’s Playbook for the Digital Era.” Together, they explore what it means to scale hospitality in a tech-driven industry and how Shake Shack is balancing brand values, digital adoption, and the evolving role of its frontline team.

Leaders are often called upon to pitch ideas to senior management about how to change the way their company does business. Perhaps you have proposed an improvement to an existing process, a new product, a technological tool, or a way to break into a different market entirely—with mixed results. In this conversation, Sue Ashford, professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and Ellen Bailey, former vice president of business and culture transformation at Harvard Business Publishing, give suggestions for framing those ideas so that executives buy into them, including the research findings they keep in mind, questions they ask themselves and others when vetting an idea, and what they learned from the times they fell short.

What is the real definition of efficiency in a world powered by AI? What if it was quality, not quantity? Neuroscientist Mithu Storoni has researched how and when our brains are the most creative and truly productive at knowledge work. In this conversation, she shares how we can train our brains to be more effective at doing work that really matters. She explains how our brains tackle different kinds of work, how we can better schedule our days to align with those states of mind, and what this all means for leaders and organizations. Storoni is the author of the book "Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work".

Communicating clearly sets you up to have the leadership impact and influence you need to drive change. But what if you’re running on empty? Expressing your ideas and giving direction when you’re sleep-deprived, burned out, or simply overwhelmed can feel nearly impossible. So, what helps? Leadership development coach Muriel Wilkins, author of Leadership Unblocked and host of the podcast Coaching Real Leaders, talks us through communication techniques that meet you where you’re at mentally and emotionally so that you can rise to the moment (even when you’re worried you can’t).

Difficult change is inevitable, but few of us have the skills to it navigate well. Dr. Maya Shankar, cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, shares ideas that can leaders understand, react, reframe, and better adapt to change in life or work. She offers evidence-based strategies for how leaders can build resilience in the face of personal, organizational, and technological upheaval while also finding paths to growth and learning. Shankar is author of the book The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.

Once you’ve committed to a leadership role—whether formally or informally—getting everyone else at work to buy in requires relationship management. The steps to transition from individual contributor to leader can seem daunting, especially when so many aspects of work and the world are in a constant state of flux. How do you successfully shift the role you’re playing on your team? What sorts of conversations help clear the way? Is this transformation harder to make if you work remotely? To address these questions and more, we revisit a 2019 Women at Work interview with leadership development experts Amy Jen Su and Muriel M. Wilkins.

Johnson Security Bureau is one of the oldest Black-owned security firms in the United States, providing services to New York-area banks, public works, hospitals, transportation facilities, and other industries. In order to grow the business, CEO Jessica Johnson-Cope considered partnering with security firms in other states, something that threatened to put some of the company’s founding priorities on the back burner. In this conversation with host Brian Kenny, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Henry McGee and CEO Jessica Johnson-Cope discuss the leadership dilemmas the heart of the case “Johnson Security Bureau: Building Multigenerational Success.”

Most organizations struggle to kill initiatives, even those that no longer support their strategy. Rose Hollister and Michael Watkins, consultants at Genesis Advisers, explore the problem of initiative overload and how it can trickle down to employeeds who are already dealing with more projects than they can handle or do well. They offer practical tips on how to truly prioritize your company’s most important initiatives—or risk losing top talent. Hollister and Watkins are the authors of the 2018 HBR article “Too Many Projects.”

There’s nothing easy about being a manager today. But for team leaders who are feeling burnt out or overwhelmed with their job, workplace strategist Daisy Auger-Domínguez has advice on how to regain some of your joy at work. She recommends various techniques to incorporate optimism and well-being into your role. They include remembering your purpose, embracing a beginner’s mindset, keeping a folder of positive feedback as inspiration, and celebrating the contributions of team members. Auger-Domínguez is a workplace strategist, global people leader, and the author of the HBR article “Finding Joy as a Manager—Even on Bad Days.”

After leading Yum! Brands, which includes chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, David Novak wanted to help others become better leaders. He believes the key is to put learning at the center of everything you do, whether you’re an entry-level worker or a C-suite executive. Novak outlines three main areas for learning and offers ideas on how the most effective leaders turn their learnings into action, something that takes insight and practice. Novak wrote the book How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World’s Most Successful People.

If a company starts to veer off track, whether amid technological change, marketplace conditions, or otherwise, it is daunting to get back on a path to growth. But big turnarounds are possible, provided you have the right team and mindset. When he was president and CEO of Marvel, Peter Cuneo oversaw the resurgence and sale of the media company, but even before that he had a long track record for turning around many types of consumer-facing businesses at brands from Clairol to Black & Decker. He shares the strategies that work best for shaking up organizations and teams and boosting their performance.

Phil Knight, co-founder, former CEO, and Chairman Emeritus of Nike, tells the story of starting the sports apparel and equipment giant after taking an entrepreneurship class at Stanford and teaming up with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman. Together, they changed how running shoes are designed and made. In this conversation from 2017, Knight reflects on the company’s enduring culture of innovation, as well as the company’s succession process for the CEO role.

Jay Barney, a professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, studied leaders who successfully led culture change and found one thing in common: they created and spread authentic and memorable stories. The new stories then emanated throughout the workforce and rewrote the old narrative. Barney explains the six rules leaders need to follow to drive cultural change with storytelling.

Around the world, we’ve become increasingly cynical about other people, public institutions, and corporations. Back in 2022, Edelman’s Trust Barometer found that nearly 60% of respondents across 27 countries reported that their default is to distrust. And that’s bad for business, says Stanford University associate professor of psychology Jamil Zaki. He says that cynics damage trust, and in workplaces they breed toxicity and lead to poor outcomes. He explains how to identify and change this kind of behavior at your organization. Zaki wrote the HBR article, “Don’t Let Cynicism Undermine Your Workplace.”

Companies of every size in every industry and part of the world are basing more of their work around projects. And yet research shows that nearly two-thirds of those efforts fail. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, who has studied projects and project management for decades, explains how we can do better. He offers advice on the right way to frame projects, how to structure organizations around them, and pitfalls to avoid. Nieto-Rodriguez is the author of the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook and author of the article “The Project Economy Has Arrived.”

Wayne Baker, professor emeritus at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, has spent much of his career researching the best way to effectively ask for help at work. Whether you’re soliciting support on a tricky assignment or more resources for your team, it can feel uncomfortable to approach bosses and colleagues with hat in hand. But we rarely get what we need or want without asking for it. Baker highlights some of the most effective strategies for defining your goal, figuring out who to ask, and crafting your message so it will be positively received. He is also the author of the book All You Have to Do Is Ask: How to Master the Most Important Skill for Success.

Eugene Soltes, professor at Harvard Business School, studies white-collar crime and has even interviewed convicts behind bars. While most people think of high-profile scandals like Enron, he says every sizable organization has lapses in integrity. He shares practical tools for managers to identify pockets of ethical violations to prevent them from ballooning into serious reputational and financial damage. Soltes is the author of the HBR article “Where Is Your Company Most Prone to Lapses in Integrity?”

Leading a team that spans countries and time zones brings communication challenges that go far beyond working remotely. Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, explains why global teams are especially vulnerable to misunderstandings and why leaders often don’t realize there’s a problem until collaboration starts to suffer. Neeley shares advice on how leaders can reduce those misunderstandings by being intentional about how people communicate and connect.

We all know that leaders need to captivate audiences and effectively convey their ideas. But not every speaking opportunity can be prepared and practiced. That’s why it’s so important to learn the skill of speaking off-the-cuff, and Matt Abrahams, lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and host of the podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart, has advice to help. He explains how to stay calm in these situations, craft a compelling message, and ensure you’ve made a good impression. Abrahams is author of the book “Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot,” as well as the HBR article “How to Shine When You’re Put on the Spot.”

If you’re feeling distracted, mentally fogged, and unable to pay attention to the task at hand, you’re not alone. The human brain is highly susceptible to often unproductive mind-wandering, and modern technology has only made the problem worse. But we all know that the best work comes when you're able to really zero in on an idea or problem for a sustained period of time. So, we need better strategies for blocking out the external and internal noise. Dr. Amishi Jha, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Miami and the author of “Peak Mind,” offers recommendations based on studies of people in some of the most high-pressure jobs in the world.

Jonah Berger, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that most of us aren’t approaching persuasion the right way. Pushing people to behave how you’d like them to or believe the same things you do just doesn’t work, no matter how much data you give or how many emotional appeals you make. Studying both psychology and business, he’s found better tactics for bringing people over to your side. One of the keys? Asking questions so people feel like they’re making the decision to change. Berger is the author of the book “The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind.”

Nathan Furr, professor of strategy at INSEAD, researches what makes great innovative leaders, and he reveals how they develop and spend “innovation capital.” Like social or political capital, it’s a power to motivate employees, win the buy-in of stakeholders, and sell breakthrough products. Furr argues that innovation capital is something everyone can develop and grow by using something he calls impression amplifiers. Furr is the coauthor of the book “Innovation Capital: How to Compete—and Win—Like the World's Most Innovative Leaders.”

Anne Curzan, English professor at the University of Michigan, studies the evolution of language. While many of us roll our eyes at bizspeak—from synergy to value-add to operationalize—Curzan defends business jargon. She says the words we say around the office speak volumes about our organizations and our working relationships. She shares how to use jargon more deliberately, explains the origin of some annoying or amusing buzzwords, and discusses how English became the global business language and how that could change.

In this Coaching Real Leaders session, a leader who has worked in the higher education sector for decades seeks guidance on how to set direction and maintain momentum for her team when so much of their long-term work depends on shifting priorities and partners outside her control. As she steps into her first role managing managers, she’s unsure how fast to push, how to divide her time, and how to judge progress when the path ahead isn’t fully defined. Host Muriel Wilkins helps her sort through those questions, identify what she can move forward now, and build confidence in her ability to lead with clarity even when the future is still taking shape.

Corey Phelps, the dean of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, says great problem solvers are hard to find. Even seasoned professionals at the highest levels of organizations regularly fail to identify the real problem and instead jump to exploring solutions. Phelps identifies the common traps and outlines a research-proven method to solve problems effectively. He’s the coauthor of the book “Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants.”

Leadership development coach Muriel Wilkins talks us through communication techniques that meet you where you’re at mentally and emotionally so that you can rise to the moment (even when you’re worried you can’t).

Stanford professor Bob Sutton, coauthor of Scaling Up Excellence, explains how leaders can expand what’s working in their organizations without letting growth dilute their success. He also shares the patterns that separate those who scale successfully from those whose early wins never catch on.

Many of us have internal beliefs—I need it done now, I know I’m right, I need to be involved—that feel like truth but actually hold us back as leaders. Executive coach Muriel Wilkins calls these counterproductive beliefs “hidden blockers,” and she talks Women at Work hosts Amy Gallo and Amy Bernstein through the process of identifying theirs and then reframing them. They also look at how blockers show up in team and organizational behavior, like when lack of trust results in too many meetings, and discuss how leaders can shift culture by first examining and adjusting their own assumptions.

Nicholas Pearce, clinical associate professor at Kellogg School of Management, says too many companies—and individuals—lack a clear sense of purpose. He argues “the best companies are ones that not only have a purpose for themselves but also attract and hire people whose individual senses of purpose align with the company’s purpose.” This means companies that are not simply profit-driven tend to be more likely to succeed. And individuals who align their daily job with their authentic life’s work will be happier and more productive. Pearce is also a pastor, an executive coach, and the author of the book The Purpose Path: A Guide to Pursuing Your Authentic Life’s Work.

For business leaders, the struggle between efficiency and innovation is constant. How do businesses meet their customers’ needs while also developing new and improved products and services? In the article “Why Design Thinking Works” from the September-October 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review, author Jeanne Liedtka of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business writes “the structure of design thinking creates a natural flow from research to rollout.” She explains how this clear process helps teams break free of a variety of human tendencies that get in the way of innovation. In this episode, we bring you the narrated version of Liedtka’s article.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at Harvard Business School, believes the world demands a new kind of business leader. She says so-called “advanced leaders” work inside and outside their companies to tackle big issues such as climate change, public health, and social inequality. She gives real-life examples and explains how business leaders can harness their experience, networks, innovative approaches, and the power of their organizations to solve challenging problems.

Even the most carefully worded and meticiously reviewed contracts can fall apart once they hit the reality of modern business dynamics. Oliver Hart, Nobel-winning Harvard economist, and Kate Vitasek, faculty at the University of Tennessee, argue that, when it comes to contracts, one side often ends up feeling like they’re getting a bad deal, and it can spiral into a tit for tat battle. Hart and Vitasek say that companies should instead consider so-called relational contracts. Their research shows that creating a general playbook built around principles like fairness and reciprocity offers greater benefits to both businesses.

It's tough to keep a team motivated when the strategy from the top keeps shifting. That's the challenge facing a leader in a large global organization. He’s been getting positive feedback on his work, but he’s having trouble leading his team amid conflicting priorities and without direction from his senior leaders. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches him through how he can help his team have organizational impact, with or without more clarity from above.

Harvard Business School’s Stefan Thomke says running experiments can give companies tremendous value, but too often business leaders still make decisions based on intuition. With the right approach, even small firms can get a competitive advantage from the right kinds of tests.

Jennifer Riel, an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, describes a problem-solving method that helps leaders move beyond either-or decisions to make stronger choices.

Leslie K. John and Alison Wood Brooks, professors at Harvard Business School, say people in business can be more successful by asking more and better questions. They talk through what makes for a great question, whether you’re looking to get information or get someone to like you. They’re the coauthors of the article, “The Surprising Power of Questions,” in the May–June 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Eight women who’ve been on boards share how they landed a seat, gained confidence in the role, and found unexpected personal and professional benefits in the work. We hope their perspectives and advice will encourage you to consider trying it yourself some day. Ellen Zane, who runs a Harvard workshop for women interested in board work, gives further insight based on her deep experience as a director for nonprofits and private and public companies.

Do you need a career makeover? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Dorie Clark, the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. They talk through how to change your coworkers’ perception of you, transition to a role outside your area of expertise, or be seen as a leader.

Mark Mortensen, a professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, discusses the research on “multiteaming”—when employees work not only across multiple projects, but multiple teams. It has significant benefits at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Among them: multiteaming saves money. The cost—stretched employees—is hard to see. And that is where the tension, and the risk, lies. Mortensen is the co-author, with Heidi K. Gardner, of “The Overcommitted Organization” in the September–October 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.

When you realize the line of work you’ve been in for years doesn’t interest you anymore or is in decline or won’t ever pay well enough, what’s your next move? Amy Bernstein speaks with executive coach Nina Bowman about the process of making a bold mid-career leap: how to identify a new path, build connections to land interviews, and tell the story of how you’ll succeed in a completely different role. Then, two listeners who made bold leaps themselves—one from academia to tech, the other from government to consulting—share their experiences and insights.

If you need senior talent but can’t afford full-time hires, consider fractional leadership, where part-time executives work with multiple organizations. Common in startups, the practice is spreading to other sectors, yet many leaders don’t know how to make it work. Researcher Tomoko Yokoi and executive Amy Bonsall explain when and how fractional leadership benefits both organizations and leaders. They coauthored the HBR article “How Part-Time Senior Leaders Can Help Your Business.”

Is mid-level management a stone you’re ready to step off of? Making that move is difficult but doable, and Amy B and her three guests will direct, inspire, and reassure you. An executive coach validates the challenges of scoring a position that’s scarce. Then, two COOs whose careers stagnated in mid-level management before accelerating again, recount the conversations, decisions, and networking that jump-started them.

CEOs get a ton of credit or blame for a company’s performance. But the entire leadership team is vital to success, and any dysfunction is often overlooked. Sometimes the CEOs leading them don’t even see that they’re not working. Thomas Keil, management professor at the University of Zurich, and Marianna Zangrillo, a partner at The Next Advisors, have interviewed more than 100 CEOs and senior executives. Their research identifies three main types of failing leadership teams: shark tanks, petting zoos, and mediocracies. And they identify the pitfalls of each pattern and how to turn those teams around. Keil and Zangrillo wrote the HBR article “Why Leadership Teams Fail.”

Does your organization lack quality leadership? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Peter Bregman, the CEO of Bregman Partners and author of the book Leading with Emotional Courage. They talk through what to do when your leaders are indecisive, unprofessional, or value the wrong things.

Lots of people’s career timelines go something like this: graduate, get a job, get promoted, and keep climbing until you reach the top. Somewhere along the way, they go on autopilot—accepting each new role as it comes, without much thought. And before they know it, they’re positioned for the c-suite. This is exactly what happened to Sarah, a woman who’s on the cusp of a C-level role. But like many leaders, she’s reached a point where the logical next step no longer aligns with what really motivates her. If you can relate, you’ll get a lot from this conversation on Coaching Real Leaders—where executive coach Muriel Wilkins helps Sarah figure out if the next step is truly right for her, or if it’s just the one she feels like she’s supposed to take.

Disruption and transformation are the new normal in nearly every industry. So how do you stay ahead of the curve? Over the past four decades, Bonnie Hammer successfully adapted to massive changes in the media industry, rising from production assistant to leadership roles in broadcast, cable, and streaming. As the former vice chair of NBCUniversal, she has advice on how to get noticed, acquire the right skillsets, make smart decisions, and adjust to shifting corporate and market dynamics. She’s the author of the book 15 Lies Women Are Told at Work: …and the Truth We Need to Succeed.

When news breaks of a CEO succession, much of the attention is given to the new leader and how they will change the company. But new research shows that the leave-taking process of the outgoing chief executive is often mishandled, with negative impacts on succession and the organization. Rebecca Slan Jerusalim, an executive director at Russell Reynolds Associates, and Navio Kwok, a leadership advisor at RRA, say that boards are often surprised when a CEO gives notice, and they often make that person feel excluded during the handoff process. The researchers share stories from the front lines about CEO psychology, best practices for outgoing leaders and their boards, and broader lessons for effective transitions. Jerusalim and Kwok wrote the HBR article “The Vital Role of the Outgoing CEO.”

This month, we're highlighting some of the best conversations from the 2025 HBR Leadership Summit held in April. In today’s episode, Anish Shah, CEO of Mahindra Group, one of India's largest and most prominent conglomerates, discusses the importance of purpose in driving profit. Shah provides examples of Mahindra's positive impact on communities. And he shares his thoughts on navigating the current political and business environment and maintaining Mahindra's mission-driven culture. He also explains how Mahindra is making a positive impact on communities, from educating children to empowering women to driving productivity in farming.

This month, we're highlighting some of the best conversations from the 2025 HBR Leadership Summit held in April. In this episode, Janti Soeripto, CEO of Save the Children US, shares how the organization navigates overlapping global crises—from pandemics to war—while staying focused on its core mission: ensuring children survive and thrive. With 24,000 staff members working across 115 countries, Save the Children provides health, education, protection, emergency response, and advocacy services. Soeripto offers hard-won lessons on leading with clarity, measuring impact in volatile environments, and remaining agile while never losing sight of mission—and why optimism and data must coexist.

This month, we're highlighting some of the best conversations from the 2025 HBR Leadership Summit held in April. In this episode, David Risher, CEO of Lyft, shares how he’s driving a turnaround at the rideshare company by anchoring everything in customer obsession. Since Risher took the wheel in 2023, Lyft reached record bookings and a 31% increase in annual revenue and its first full year of profitability. Risher shares how his own experience behind the wheel as a Lyft driver informs product innovation. And why listening deeply—whether to a single passenger or a room of drivers—can lead to breakthrough ideas. He also opens up about navigating layoffs, launching inclusive features, and preparing for an autonomous future while keeping human dignity front and center.

Over the next four weeks, we're highlighting some of the best conversations from the 2025 HBR Leadership Summit held in April. In this episode, Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, shares her leadership approach to scaling one of the world’s largest online travel companies. From pioneering the use of AI in customer experience and internal operations to reimagining hybrid work and gender diversity, she shares how she's steering a global company through rapid change and geopolitical uncertainty. She discusses her emphasis on hiring for integrity, competence, and curiosity, and outlines how AI is embedded throughout the business—from resume screening and customer personalization to employee training and product development.

Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, encourages leaders to approach their direct reports like teachers. As Finkelstein explains, being a teacher-leader means continually meeting face to face with employees to communicate lessons about professionalism, points of craft, and life. He says it’s easy to try and that teaching is one of the best ways to motivate people and improve their performance. Finkelstein is the author of “The Best Leaders Are Great Teachers” in the January–February 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review.

People management consists of a fair amount of mediation and diplomacy, and you can’t expect to get the hang of it right away. You’re in the middle of a lot now. Initiating difficult conversations, and then getting all the way through them, takes planning and practice (and sometimes even a breather). Holding tension takes restraint. Amy Bernstein and Kelsey Alpaio interview Amy Gallo about the types of conflict that new managers should expect to handle, as well as options for responding. They talk through real experiences and common scenarios. Like that time Kelsey needed to tell a direct report they were falling short of her expectations (but didn’t end up saying anything). Or that time Amy G started reporting to a friend. They also give guidance for intervening or not when team members are arguing and for discreetly clueing your group in about the office politics going on.

Few leaders have been trained to ask great questions. That might explain why they tend to be good at certain kinds of questions, and less effective at other kinds. Unfortunately, that hurts their ability to pursue strategic priorities. Arnaud Chevallier, strategy professor at IMD Business School, explains how leaders can break out of that rut and systematically ask five kinds of questions: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective. He shares real-life examples of how asking the right sort of question at a key time can unlock value and propel your organization. With his IMD colleagues Frédéric Dalsace and Jean-Louis Barsoux, Chevallier wrote the HBR article “The Art of Asking Smarter Questions.”

Is your teamwork not working? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. They talk through what to do when your team isn’t communicating, doesn’t respect its leader, or has one employee who’s causing problems.

Frances Frei, professor at Harvard Business School, says that trust, empathy—and even a bit of tough love—are all essential ingredients to strong leadership in today’s world. Successful managers focus on the effect they have on others, not themselves. They also define a strategy and create a culture that drives employee behavior in their absence. Frei is the coauthor, along with Anne Morriss, of the book Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You as well as the HBR article “Begin with Trust.”

Being too collaborative can actually hold you back at work, argues leadership coach Rebecca Shambaugh in this episode. Instead of showing how well you build consensus and work with others, it can look like indecision or failure to prioritize. She explains what to do if you over-collaborate, how to manage someone who does, and offers some advice for women—whose bosses are more likely to see them as overly consensus-driven. Shambaugh is the author of the books It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor and Make Room for Her.

In the past, executives were usually taught to practice command-and-control leadership. Today they’re often advised to be nimbler, more adaptive, and less controlling. The truth is that most executives need to be able to move back and forth between those two leadership styles. IMD leadership professor and social psychologist Jennifer Jordan offers tactics for navigating these tensions.

Do you have an employee working against you? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Adrian Gostick, an executive coach and the coauthor of Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results. They talk through what to do when your direct report is creating problems only to fix them, one team member is hoarding knowledge, or two employees have created a disruptive office clique.

Many people blame the shortage of low-wage workers on the enduring impact of the pandemic. But management professor Joseph Fuller and senior researcher Manjari Raman of Harvard Business School say that the real reason has been long in the making. Their studies show that companies view low-wage workers as people who will be in the job only for a short time. Instead, the researchers find that these employees are loyal and want development and a clear path to career advancement. The researchers share practical suggestions for how leaders and managers can do better in hiring, development, and mentoring. Fuller and Raman wrote the HBR article “The High Cost of Neglecting Low-Wage Workers.”

Over her career, Simmons University President Lynn Perry Wooten has studied crisis leadership and managing uncertainty. Her most recent book, The Prepared Leader, breaks down successful strategies for navigating crises—whether it’s a pandemic or a viral customer complaint. She taught leaders how to deal with these predicaments during a masterclass at HBR’s Future of Business Conference in 2023.

Getting taken seriously as a new manager is challenging for anyone. You can go from being friends with your peers to suddenly being their boss. It’s easy to make missteps, like playing the part too much—acting the way you think a manager is supposed to act. On the other hand, you may feel you have nothing to offer your direct reports, some of whom may have more experience than you. You may even fall back too much on what you already know well. These are common challenges in anyone’s first rodeo as a manager. But bias can make overcoming them especially difficult for women. In this 2023 episode of Women at Work, as part of the “How to Manage” series, McKinsey senior partner Lareina Yee discusses these challenges and how to overcome them.

In the early 20th century, Helena Rubinstein defied gender, class, and cultural expectations to become one of the first pioneers of the modern beauty industry. Today, her namesake luxury cosmetics brand is worth more than $1 billion. Harvard Business School professor Geoff Jones wrote a case study about the visionary leader. He explored her journey—and the lasting impact she made on global beauty standards—on Cold Call in 2019 with host Brian Kenny.

A CEO's involvement in B2B sales deals, while often well-intentioned, can sometimes backfire. INSEAD marketing professor Christoph Senn has spent years studying the role top leaders play in B2B relationships. In this episode, he shares the five archetypes of CEO behavior when it comes to sales, which ones are the most effective in closing a deal, and where they fall short. You’ll learn what to do if your CEO is either overly involved—or not involved enough—in deals, and why knowing your CEO’s archetype can be helpful.

The best leaders know that a person’s skillset and their willingness to learn are more important than the degree they have. Ginni Rometty, former Chair and CEO of IBM, understands this deeply. She spearheaded a company-wide shift to skills-based hiring and development during her tenure. In this episode, she shares how her mother’s commitment to education helped their family overcome adversity and inspired Rometty’s personal approach to talent management.

If you’re a leader or aspire to be one, you’ve probably thought about how you project confidence and competence. Your executive presence is as much a vibe you give off as it is a skill you develop. And it’s important to exhibit if you want to assure others you’re ready to lead. Megan Bock, the COO of an insurance technology company, has mastered executive presence. Laura Sicola is a cognitive linguist who coaches executives. In this episode, Bock and Sciola discuss the key elements of executive presence and offer advice to a listener who's trying to develop it while working remotely.

In December 2020, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and his leadership team were deciding whether or not to commit to recruiting, hiring, training, and advancing one million Black Americans into stable, well-paid jobs over the next decade, as part of the OneTen coalition. But if Delta joined, Bastian faced a key challenge: how could he make the airline truly inclusive and create systemically equal access to career opportunities? In this episode from 2023, Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill explains how Bastian shifted Delta’s talent architecture to prioritize skills over four-year degrees and how he created new apprenticeship programs to recruit entry-level employees. She also explains why Bastian prioritized front-line employees for internal promotions, instead of recruiting new talent externally.

How does critical feedback affect your team’s success? Researchers Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall argue that many managers invest too much energy in correcting weaknesses. Instead, they encourage leaders to focus on developing employees’ strengths. Buckingham and Goodall are the authors of the book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World and the HBR article “The Feedback Fallacy.” In this episode, they explain how to lead more effective conversations about performance by focusing on what your team members do best.

Many people believe that leaders instinctively make the best decisions based on past experience, almost like muscle memory. But Carol Kauffman, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Institute of Coaching, challenges this view. She explains why falling back on automatic behaviors can lead to poor decisions, especially when the stakes are high. In this episode, Kauffman outlines her framework for sound decision-making in high-pressure situations. She also shares real-life stories of leaders she has coached through difficult decisions and offers insights into how to navigate high-stakes challenges effectively.

When Jason Buechel became CEO of Whole Foods in 2022, he faced the challenge of succeeding cofounder John Mackey, who led the company for over 40 years. This leadership transition was not only a personal challenge for Buechel but also a significant shift for the entire organization. In this episode, Buechel shares how he addressed employees' concerns while preserving Whole Foods’ culture and core values. He also discusses his focus on internal leadership and strategies for supporting the company’s ongoing growth.

Are you struggling to manage people who are older than you? Lindsey Pollak explains that cross-generational dynamics in the workplace are becoming increasingly complex, driven by rapid technological advancements and longer career spans. As a workplace expert and author of The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, Pollak addresses listener questions about motivating older direct reports and engaging senior employees who may be skeptical about new technology. She also offers practical advice for navigating situations where you've been promoted ahead of more experienced colleagues.

How can you tell if you’re on your company’s leadership fast track? Jay Conger, a leadership professor at Claremont McKenna College, notes that many organizations quietly maintain and update lists of high-potential employees. In this episode, he offers advice for what to do if you suspect you’re on the list. In addition, Conger shares his research on the five critical “X factors” that distinguish high-potential employees. Discover what these traits are and how you can leverage them to enhance your career.

Being the most knowledgeable and experienced person on your team can seem advantageous. However, Sydney Finkelstein, an expert in leadership and talent development, warns that expertise can lead you astray in two significant ways: it may stifle your curiosity about new developments and foster overconfidence in your problem-solving abilities. In this episode, Finkelstein explores these pitfalls and proposes a crucial supplement to expertise: the importance of becoming more humble and open-minded. He also offers research-backed advice on how to cultivate these qualities as a leader. Finkelstein is a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and the author of the book Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent.

Oprah Winfrey isn’t just a public figure—she’s the wealthiest woman in the entertainment industry and the first African-American woman billionaire. But how did she rise from a daytime talk show host to a media mogul? What leadership skills did she develop along the way? In this episode, Harvard Business School executive fellow Bill George explores the challenges Oprah faced on her path to success and how she overcame them. He explains how she shifted away from people-pleasing, found her unique voice, and embraced vulnerability as a key leadership strength.

When you think of "office politics," you might picture someone hoarding information or taking credit for others' work. While negative stereotypes persist, learning to navigate office politics is crucial for leadership — and you can do it without sacrificing your principles or authenticity. In this episode, organizational psychologist Madeleine Wyatt, along with a guest from the management consulting field, discusses how to become more politically savvy at work by mastering three essential skills: apparent sincerity, networking, and interpersonal influence.

Robert Steven Kaplan says the best leaders are exceptionally good at asking tough questions so they can make the right decisions. Kaplan is the author of the book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential. He explains how to frame better questions to get the answers you need to make decisions. He also discusses how to use questions to clarify your key priorities and how to make sure you’re then spending your time in service of them.

Software executive Richard Sheridan argues that one key quality is missing from too many workplaces today: joy. As CEO of Menlo Innovations, an enterprise software company based in Michigan, Sheridan deliberately focuses on cultivating joy in his company. His 2018 book, Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear, offers guidance for how to create joy at work — and why it’s so important for innovation. He explains the difference between joy and happiness and how to harness joy in service of a larger project. He also discusses how, as a leader, you can model joy for your team and why joy and a culture of fear are incompatible.

Are you stuck in a negative rut with someone at work? HBR contributing editor and workplace conflict expert Amy Gallo says repairing a broken professional relationship will improve your work life — whether it’s your boss, a coworker, or even your employee. In this episode, she breaks down the different types of relationship conflicts that are common at work and the steps you can take to move forward — starting with more empathy and less ego.

Do you have an employee who just gets on your nerves? In this episode, Dear HBR cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer listener questions with the help of Art Markman, former professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and now the school’s Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. They talk through how to manage someone who is difficult, overly polite, or passive aggressive. Markman also offers advice for how to give your initial feedback and then follow up. He also has tips for coaching an employee who needs to improve their communication skills.

Amid the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many U.S. business leaders promised to make workplaces more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. But these efforts have now slowed, and many DEI teams have faced cuts, and calls for anti-racist leadership have all but disappeared. In this episode, James White, the former CEO of Jamba Juice, and his daughter and coauthor Krista White offer advice on how corporate leaders can promote lasting change in their organizations and society at large. They also discuss why it’s so important to engage middle managers in inclusion work—and how to do that. James and Krista White are coauthors of the book Anti-Racist Leadership: How to Transform Corporate Culture in a Race-Conscious World.

MIT Sloan School of Management researchers Deborah Ancona and Kate Isaacs argue that big organizations can be nimble if they have three types of leaders in the mix: “entrepreneurial,” “enabling,” and “architecting.” In this episode, they explain how some large organizations continually develop new talent by empowering employees to lead in their area of expertise and make choices about the projects to which they contribute. They also discuss the structures these companies have created to support leaders and their teams as they transition from hierarchical leadership to more autonomous ways of working.

What’s the best way to determine whether or not your business should engage on potentially controversial societal issues? In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Hubert Joly explains how to create a process for decision-making around these issues, in collaboration with your board. Joly wrote a case study based on his own time as chairman and CEO of electronics retailer Best Buy. When George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis in 2020, just a few miles from their global headquarters, Joly led the organization through weeks of unrest and protests in their community and within the firm. The episode also offers lessons from other organizations, like Nike, Disney, and Starbucks, whose leaders have spoken out on issues related to racism and LGBTQ rights.

Do you know how your best employees feel about their work? Are they actually engaged and motivated? Or are they already looking for a better opportunity? If so, what would it take to make them want to stay? In this episode, you’ll learn how to retain your best employees for the long term, including tactics you can use to help the people you manage feel valued and respected. You’ll also learn what to do when a valuable employee says they have another job offer.

Joel Peterson has spent a career leading teams, building businesses, and managing people at every level. Along the way, he’s learned valuable lessons about the best ways to bring on new talent, as well as when and how to let people go. Peterson is the former chairman of JetBlue Airways. He also teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He shares his approach to hiring for top leadership positions and why it’s so important to slow down and take plenty of time with interviews. He also explains how he coaches new hires who are struggling and how he knows when it’s time to let someone go.

Knowing how to get people to listen to you is an important part of leadership. But HBR contributing editor and workplace conflict expert Amy Gallo says being heard isn't about how loud you say something. It's about saying the right thing at the right time—in other words, it’s about having a communication strategy. In this episode, Gallo offers research-based tips for how to lay the groundwork for your ideas. She also offers advice on how to manage your body language and what to watch out for in your counterpart’s body language as well.

Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge argues that every aspect of being an early-stage founder involves sales. But many founders lack an understanding of how to incorporates sales into their ventures. Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are best to invest in early on? How aggressively should an executive team align sales with customer success? In this episode, you’ll learn how to hire for early sales roles, design compensation, and lay a strong foundation for a growing sales team.

Are you ready to be a manager? In this episode, Ellen Van Oosten answers questions from listeners who are struggling to move into management. She offers advice for what to do when you’ve been tapped for a managerial role, but you don’t want the job. She also discusses how to respond if your supervisor is blocking you from earning a promotion into management, and how you can make the move to manager even if you only have informal management experience. Van Oosten is a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. She’s also a coauthor of the book, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth.

Former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker and his former chief of staff Steve Kadish faced many challenges during Baker’s time in office—perhaps most notably: the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking back, they argue that running a government is often much harder than leading a private-sector company. For one thing, Baker says, there’s rightly more public scrutiny of every decision you make as a government leader. And, Kadish adds, decision-making is far more dispersed. In this episode, they share their four-part framework for breaking down complicated problems with many stakeholders to get results. If you’re struggling with bureaucracy and politics in your organization, this episode is for you.

How do you guide a team working on innovative projects—when there is no existing playbook? Astro Teller says he uses a vetted approach to decision-making for the innovative projects that he and his teams undertake at X, Alphabet’s R&D engine. Teller is the Captain of Moonshots at X, which he helped launch at Google in 2010. Since then, they’ve worked on a pill that detects cancer, cars that drive themselves, and mega-kites that work as turbines to collect wind energy, to name just a few examples. In this episode, he offers key lessons for managing the process that delivers breakthrough innovations. You’ll learn how he decides to keep investing in a project, and how he knows when it’s time to pull the plug. You’ll also learn how he assembles teams and what qualities he looks for in potential new hires.

Chobani is a leader in the global yogurt market, with more than 20 percent share of the U.S. market alone. It all started with one man, an abandoned yogurt factory in upstate New York, and a mission to make quality yogurt accessible to more people. In this episode, Harvard Business Review editor in chief Adi Ignatius and Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya discuss mission-driven entrepreneurship. You’ll learn how Ulukaya kept Chobani true to its original values, even as it scaled and began competing in new sectors. You’ll also learn why he adapted Chobani’s mission to center his employees.

What distinguishes a leader? How do you know if you’re ready to lead? And how do you make the transition into a leadership role? In this episode, two leadership coaches, Amy Su and Muriel Wilkins of Paravis Partners, explain how to develop a leadership presence that’s both authentic to you and resonates with others. You’ll also learn some deeper questions to ask yourself during your transition into leadership.

In early 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed. This was not the first NASA mission to end in disaster, and it inspired Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson to write a business case about what went wrong. Edmondson studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Her most recent book is Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well. In this episode, she breaks down the organizational challenges within NASA that contributed to the Columbia tragedy, offering a window into the organization’s leadership. Edmondson also shares lessons for all leaders about the dangers of unyielding hierarchy and of failing to listen to dissenting voices.

In 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wrote a scathing letter to his top Union general, who had squandered an opportunity to end the American Civil War. Then Lincoln folded it up and tucked it away in his desk. The letter was never signed and sent—just one example of how Lincoln’s legendary emotional discipline enabled him to rise above mundane arguments and focus on a larger mission. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor and historian Nancy Koehn analyzes Lincoln’s leadership both before and during America’s greatest crisis. You'll learn how emotional self-control can impact your day-to-day leadership as well as your long-term legacy.

Growing up in the heart of the Confederacy, Maggie Lena Walker started work as a laundress at age nine. At the urging of her mother and mentors, she turned to education, and used it to propel her life forward — graduating high school at 16, working as a teacher, and learning accounting. Those experiences, coupled with her strong work ethic, culminated in Walker rising to lead the Independent Order of St. Luke and found several other businesses, all of which created jobs and opportunities for many women and Black people where there had been none before. In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Tony Mayo traces Walker’s approach to leadership on her journey to becoming the first female bank president in America. You’ll learn how she led the turnaround of the Order of St. Luke starting in 1899 by cutting costs, increasing membership, and launching new businesses that catered to unmet needs in Richmond's Black community. You’ll also learn how Walker relied on her personal networks and deep local roots to overcame challenges rooted in systemic racism throughout her career.

Most of us can point to a few key people who have made a real difference in our lives and careers—the coach who pushed you to outperform, the teacher whose passion for a subject inspired your own, or the boss who showed you what it is to be a leader at work. In this episode, NBA star Chris Paul shares how his own mentors guided him through the early years of his professional basketball career and helped him develop his leadership skills on and off the court. Paul is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time and led the National Basketball Players Association from 2013 to 2021. He shares what he’s learned about mentorship and leadership—and the important role communication skills play in enabling both. He also explains how to communicate with colleagues in a high-pressure situation and why it’s so important to listen to the people you lead.