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HBR On Leadership

Harvard Business Review

Leadership isn’t just a personality trait, it’s a set of skills that you can build. Whether you’re managing up or motivating a team, HBR On Leadership is your destination for insights and inspiration from the world’s top leadership practitioners and experts. Every Wednesday, the editors at the Harvard Business Review hand-picked case studies and conversations with global business leaders, management experts, academics, from across HBR to help you unlock the best in those around you.

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#167
June 24 · 30 min
How Leaders Create the Conditions for Innovative Thinking
Today’s leaders need to be able to innovate over and over again despite fast-changing market conditions and a multitude of other uncertainities. Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill has spent years researching the true drivers of innovation, taking lessons from the world’s most successful leaders and companies. She explains why leading innovation requires a different set of leadership skills including the need to shift from a focus on decision-making and producing to creating the conditions for collaboration, experimentation, and smart decision-making across teams, silos, and wider ecosystems. She shares examples from Mastercard, Pixar, and more and outlines some newly defined ways of looking at leadership roles: as Architects, Bridgers, and Catalysts. Hill’s new book is Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, decision making, innovation, strategic thinking, organizational culture Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
June 24 · 1 min
An Announcement from HBR On Leadership
Since 2023, HBR On Leadership has brought you insights and inspiration from across the HBR archive, curated 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, there are many other ways to keep up with the best leadership insights from HBR. To start, you can hear new, weekly conversations spanning leadership, strategy, innovation and much more on our flagship show, the HBR IdeaCast. Or, you can sign up for one of our newsletters to get new and curated content in your inbox. 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. Thank you for joining us each week. Until next time. Listen to HBR On Leadership Listen to HBR IdeaCast Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#166
June 17 · 28 min
Why Speed and Trust Are Critical to Solving Hard Problems
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. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, Decision making, problem solving, organizational culture • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Solve Tough Problems Better and Faster • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#165
June 11 · 25 min
How to Actually Finish What You Need to Get Done
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. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, time management, stress management, personal productivity • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Stop Multitasking and Try Timeboxing • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#164
June 3 · 25 min
How to Cultivate Your “Personal Power” as a Leader
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 simple strategies and tools. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, power and influence, personal growth and transformation • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Enhance Your Leadership with ‘Personal Power’ • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#163
May 27 · 29 min
How Shake Shack Balanced Digitalization with Its Hospitality Ethos
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? Would automation undermine the guest experience or change what it meant to work at Shake Shack? Could personalization and operational efficiency coexist with the company’s hospitality ethos? 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. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, customer experience, customer service, digital transformation, retail and consumer goods Listen to the original Cold Call episode Shake Shack’s Digital Playbook: More Tech, Same Hospitality? Find more episodes of Cold Call and HBRIdeaCast Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#162
May 20 · 29 min
Getting Buy-In for Your Next Big Idea
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. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, power and influence, change management, personal growth and transformation • Listen to the original Women at Work episode: How to Manage: Selling Your Ideas to Leadership • Find more episodes of Women at Work and HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#161
May 13 · 29 min
Redefining What Efficiency Means in the Age of AI
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. Key episode topics include: leadership and managing people, entrepreneurs and founders, innovation, organizational culture, corporate strategy, succession planning ● Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Training Your Brain to Work More Effectively ● Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#160
May 7 · 34 min
Communicating with Confidence When You’re Under Pressure
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). Key episode topics include: leadership, managing yourself, business communication, personal resilience, leading teams ● Listen to the original Women at Work episode: Communicating Effectively When You’re Running on Empty ● Find more episodes of Women at Work ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#159
April 29 · 25 min
Build Your Resilience in the Face of Tough Change
Your company changes. Your role gets eliminated. A dream project gets assigned to someone else. These are examples of the kinds of difficult change that are inevitable in life, but few of us have the skills to navigate well. But there are lessons from psychology that can help us be more resilient. Dr. Maya Shankar, cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, shares ideas that can help you 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. Key episode topics include: leadership, managing yourself, change management, psychology, personal resilience, career transitions, personal growth and transformation ● Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: The Cognitive Science Behind Sudden Change ● Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#158
April 22 · 38 min
Making the Shift from Individual Contributor to Leader
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. They co-wrote the book Own the Room, and Wilkins is the author of the new book Leadership Unblocked. Key episode topics include: leadership, managing yourself, leadership development, personal growth and transformation, business communication ● Listen to the original Women at Work episode: Becoming a Leader When Everything Is Shifting ● Find more episodes of Women at Work ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#157
April 15 · 31 min
Scaling a Business Beyond the Family Playbook
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. The company had been handed down across three generations and its status as a woman-owned, minority-owned firm had been part its competitive strategy since CEO Jessica Johnson-Cope took over the firm from her father. In order to grow the business, however, 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. She also considered expanding the business into cybersecurity. In this conversation with host Brian Kenny, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Henry McGee and CEO Jessica Johnson-Cope discuss the leadership dilemmas at the heart of the case “Johnson Security Bureau: Building Multigenerational Success.” Key episode topics include: leadership, family businesses, entrepreneurs and founders, strategic thinking, growth strategy, scaling entrepreneurial ventures ● Listen to the original Cold Call episode: Scaling a Family Business While Maintaining Founding Values ● Find more episodes of Cold Call ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#156
April 8 · 23 min
Is Your Company Suffering from Initiative Overload?
Most organizations struggle to kill initiatives, even those that no longer support their strategy. Leadership consultants Rose Hollister and Michael Watkins explore the problem of initiative overload and how it can trickle down to employees 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.” Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, project management, time management, product management. • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Stop Initiative Overload • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#155
April 1 · 23 min
When You’re Worn Down—and Your Team Is Too
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.” Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, motivation, managing yourself, stress management, personal resilience • Listen to the original HBRIdeaCast episode: Here’s How Managers Can Rediscover Their Joy at Work • Find more episodes of HBRIdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at hbr.org
#154
March 25 · 27 min
The Most Successful Leaders Never Stop Learning
After running Yum! Brands, which includes well-known 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. Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, leadership development, strategic thinking, organizational learning • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Yum! Brands’ Former CEO on Why You Should Never Stop Learning • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#153
March 18 · 29 min
What It Takes to Execute a Successful Company Turnaround
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. Key episode topics include: leadership, transformation, leading teams, strategy, change management, organizational restructuring Listen to the original HBRIdeaCast episode: Lessons From a Turnaround Expert Find more episodes of HBRIdeaCast Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at hbr.org
#152
March 11 · 19 min
Looking Back on Nike’s Evolution from Startup to Global Enterprise
Every company has an origin story, which goes on to inform its culture. Phil Knight, co-founder, former CEO, and Chairman Emeritus of Nike, recounts 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. Key episode topics include: leadership and managing people, entrepreneurs and founders, innovation, organizational culture, corporate strategy, succession planning ● Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Nike’s Co-founder on Innovation, Culture, and Succession ● Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
#151
March 4 · 31 min
Why Storytelling Matters When Changing Company Culture
Stories and storytelling are at the core of many aspects of the corporate world. Consider a great brand campaign or the ability to sell yourself in a job interview. It’s also an extremely important skill for managers who want to win support for new strategies and initiatives—or change their company’s culture. 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. He’s a coauthor, with Manoel Amorim and Carlos Júlio, of The Secret of Culture Change: How to Build Authentic Stories That Transform Your Organization and the 2023 HBR article “Create Stories That Change Your Company’s Culture.” Key episode topics include: leadership and managing people, leading teams, change management, business communication, organizational culture, corporate strategy ● Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: If You Want Culture Change, Create New Stories ● Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast ● Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org
#150
February 25 · 29 min
Combatting Cynicism in Your Organization
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.” Key episode topics include: leadership, managing yourself, leading teams, emotional intelligence <ul • Listen to the original HBRIdeaCast episode: Is Cynicism Ruining Your Organization? • Find more episodes of HBRIdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at hbr.org
#149
February 18 · 25 min
Why Most Projects Fail—and How to Achieve Better Outcomes
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.” Key episode topics include: project management, operations strategy, organizational change • Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: The Future of Work Is Projects—So You’ve Got to Get Them Right • Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast • Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

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