7 Questions to Ask Your New Boss

The most important relationship to get right when starting a new job is the one with your boss. How do you build trust right from the beginning? And how do you get the feedback you need to succeed? The author offers seven questions to try. You will accelerate your career success if you can manage your boss better, which requires you to understand them better, … [ Read more ]

How to Find a New Job: An HBR Guide

Are you ready to look for a new job? This comprehensive article covers everything from how to update your resume and write a cover letter to how to ace your interview and follow up. The piece also includes sample language to try and links to resources in the HBR archive.

The 3 Phases of Making a Major Life Change

The lockdown that we’ve all just lived through created a period during which a lot of people had the opportunity to reflect on plans for a career change. But reflection alone doesn’t get people very far. Those who are mostly likely to act during this kind of period are those who actively engage in a three-part cycle of transition — one that consists of separation, liminality and reintegration. The author … [ Read more ]

Rosa Hamalainen

If a manager gives me a task, I like to say, “Here’s all the other priorities on my plate — where does this new task fall?”

Sam Altman

You should trade being short-term low-status for being long-term high-status, which most people seem unwilling to do. A common way this happens is by eventually being right about an important but deeply non-consensus bet. But there are lots of other ways–the key observation is that as long as you are right, being misunderstood by most people is a strength not a weakness. You and a … [ Read more ]

Jeffrey Pfeffer

If you have technical skills without influence skills, you’re not going to go anywhere cause you can’t get anything done. If you have influence skills without technical skills, you may go places but you’ll get the wrong things done. So you really need both.

The 10 commandments of salary negotiation

The reason we have to play the negotiation game is because, like it or not, everyone else is playing it. And you’re probably losing — on salary, equity, and promotions.

The good news is that because the other side is playing, they expect you to play along (especially at larger companies). So it rarely creates hard feelings when you negotiate. But you have to know how. … [ Read more ]

How Narcissists Climb the Career Ladder Quickly

People with a high degree of narcissism get promoted faster, new research shows. Why?

Persuading the Unpersuadable

We live in an age of polarization. Many of us may be asking ourselves how, when people disagree with or discount us, we can persuade them to rethink their positions. The author, an organizational psychologist, has spent time with a number of people who succeeded in motivating the notoriously self-confident Steve Jobs to change his mind and has analyzed the science behind their techniques. Some … [ Read more ]

Tony Robbins

The biggest illusion people share with me is “I started a business so I can have more free time.” That’s like saying you had a child so you could have more free time. That is dumb, right? It’s another reason people fail. My view is that if your business is your mission, if it’s truly something you love and live for, it’s an extension of you, it’s … [ Read more ]

Tera Allas, Bill Schaninger

Research shows that as people gain power, they lose the ability to judge a situation accurately, particularly with regard to how others will perceive their actions. They also lose some of their ability to empathize with people in positions of less relative power. Organizational leaders can tackle this tendency directly. While training courses for soft skills—such as providing and receiving feedback—need to become a more … [ Read more ]

A Tactical Guide to Managing Up: 30 Tips from the Smartest People We Know

Like any relationship, that of the manager and their report is a two-way street. Whether you’re taking on your first direct report or you’re a seasoned leader looking to sharpen your skills, there’s plenty of advice to go around when it comes to managers. But when the focus shifts to those who are being managed, many of those concrete tactics and strategies get decidedly less … [ Read more ]

Résumé-Writing Tips to Help You Get Past the A.I. Gatekeepers

More companies than ever are using software to screen their mountains of job applications. Getting seen by a human recruiter takes some effort.

The 40 Best Questions to Ask in an Interview — How to Go Deeper Than “What’s the Culture Like?”

As a candidate, prepping for a job interview can feel like a job that’s never fully done. Today we’re focusing on those moments when the interviewer turns to candidates and asks the inevitable, “Do you have any questions for me?” at the end of the interview. It’s critical to come up with a slate of good questions to ask that uncover vital information about the … [ Read more ]

The Lies We Tell During Job Interviews

Interviewers and candidates often end up in situations where they’re almost encouraged to lie—here’s what research says about how, why and how often it happens.

Carter Cast

The popularity of assessment tools designed to measure a person’s talents in dozens of competency areas indicates that both companies and employees are taking a positive approach to on-the-job feedback. […] There are two problems with companies’ excessive focus on the positive. First, not all strengths are of equal importance. What you’re good at might not be what your firm needs you to be … [ Read more ]

If You Want to Change the World, You Need Power: Part 2

Cultivate your network and think strategically to rise in your career.

Sally Carson

There’s a big difference between modes of support that a mentor offer, whether it’s championing, mirroring, coaching, or advising. It’s easy to jump straight into giving advice based on our own experience, but often that’s not what your mentee needs. Maybe she just needs someone to say ‘Keep going, you’ve totally got this!’”

Chris Hicken

I think people need two different categories of mentors: One that’s three to five years ahead of you who’s doing the job that you want to have next and a mentor who’s much older and has already achieved the level of success you’re after. Mentors who are only three to five years ahead can sink into the nitty-gritty tactics and help you tackle the problems … [ Read more ]