678 Posts found for Source: Harvard Business Review

The problem with hierarchy is not the role definition that comes with it, the problem is that bosses use hierarchy to tell those below them what to do. We believe that clear role definitions (with people filling various roles that may change from time to time) allows the team to focus on getting the job done rather than worrying about the uncertainly of the limits … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Marquet | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Organizational Behavior

One of the problems with the word empowerment is that it is vague. “Empowerment” does not inherently contain the ability to measure and affect it: two necessary components for improving it. What do we say, “Be somewhat more empowered than you used to be?” That’s like saying “Get stronger” and then going to the gym and never knowing how much weight you are pushing.

Content: Quotation | Author: David Marquet | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Founders face a wide range of decisions when building their startups: market decisions, product decisions, financing decisions, and many more. The temptation is to prioritize these choices over decisions about how to structure their own founding teams. That’s understandable, but perilous. Our research, forthcoming in Management Science, identifies one of those important pitfalls: founder equity splits, i.e., the way founders allocate the ownership amongst themselves … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Noam Wasserman | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

What [is] an “adjacency” to one company [is] the “core” to someone else and companies consistently underestimated how hard competitors [will] fight to defend their core.

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Zook | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Strategy

In a study of nearly 20,000 employees around the world (conducted with HBR), I found that when it comes to garnering commitment and engagement from employees, there’s one thing that leaders need to demonstrate: respect. No other leadership behavior had a bigger effect on employees across the outcomes we measured. Being treated with respect was more important to employees than recognition and appreciation, communicating an … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Erich C. Dierdoff and Robert S. Rubin of DePaul University conducted a big study to check the relevance of the typical MBA education. The three competencies rated most important in the real world were managing human capital, managing decision-making processes, and managing strategy and innovation. But the researchers found that those three topics were the least represented in required MBA courses: Only 29% of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: MBA Related

For chief executives and other senior leaders, it is not unusual for 60-80% of their pay to be tied to performance – whether performance is measured by quarterly earnings, stock prices, or something else. And yet from a review of the research on incentives and motivation, it is wholly unclear why such a large proportion of these executives’ compensation packages would need to be variable. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Dan Cable | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Human Resources

How is a near-zero firing rate achieved? With great reference checking. Of course, you should assess potential hires in many other ways, too. But reference checks are by far the most important step in making sure that you’re not about to bring on someone who you’ll soon want to let go. So how do you make sure you’re getting the right people to give you … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Claudio Fernández-Aráoz | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Human Resources

Do a little test of your strategy before committing to it. Ask: Is the opposite stupid on its face? Have most of my competitors made the same choice as me? If the answers are “yes,” you have more work to do to have a smart strategy rather than just a non-stupid one.

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Anyone taking the time to delve into the literature of strategy quickly realizes that there are two fiercely opposed camps.

In the red corner we have the “positioning school” (TPS) and in the white we have the “resource-based view of the firm” (RBV). Michael Porter is credited with (or more often accused of) creating TPS in 1980—positing that a firm should think about positioning itself in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Despite the huge impact executives can have on their organizations, failure rates remain high. Prescriptions for what to do continue to fall short. So we wondered: If we closely studied the executives who succeed in top jobs once appointed, could we identify distinguishing features that set them apart and defined their success?

As part of our ten-year longitudinal study on executive transitions, which included more than … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ron Carucci | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Personal Development

When a valuable employee tells you she’s leaving, worrying about losing her institutional knowledge and experience is understandable. How can you oversee the transition in a way that helps you retain that expertise? Who should be involved? How far in advance of the employee’s end date do you need to start? And how do you motivate the departing colleague to cooperate?

Content: Article | Author: Rebecca Knight | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Human Resources

Boards should have at least one person who has the responsibility to think like an activist investor. Many boards are caught unaware because no director is playing that role.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

when, as part of your performance appraisal, we ask your boss to rate you on the organization’s required competencies, we do it because of our belief that these ratings reliably reveal how well you are actually doing on these competencies. The competency gaps your boss identifies then become the basis for your Individual Development Plan for next year. The same applies to the widespread use … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marcus Buckingham | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

In the past decade, there has been much enthusiasm for the idea that behavioral change interventions are most effective when they focus exclusively on enhancing people’s inherent strengths, as opposed to also addressing their weaknesses. Although there are no reasons to expect the fascination with strengths to wane any time soon, organizations — and people — would be better off if it did. There are … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

There are a number of reasons why the productive conversations in a meeting seemingly go nowhere. Attendees are often immediately running to another meeting where their attention shifts to a new set of issues. Or people leave the meeting without clarity about what was agreed upon.

To make sure productivity doesn’t slow after you walk out of the room, do two things after and in between … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Paul Axtell | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Productivity / Work Tips

It’s safe to say that CEOs are, overall, a talented bunch, but that’s not what separates them from other professionals, nor is it the main reason their firms succeed or fail. Certainly it doesn’t come close to explaining why they’re so well paid. Put another way, CEOs matter, just less than many people think. Instead, luck, and yes, bias, play a far larger role in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Walter Frick | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

After a long and successful run, the theory of disruptive innovation has come under attack of late. Disruptive innovation is a parsimonious theory that explains many business failures. But not all. And that is the critical insight getting lost in the cross-fire between the theory’s disciples and its critics.

Content: Article | Author: Donald Sull | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Innovation

For decades, leadership development has focused on “competencies,” a psychometric-based method of assessing and developing leader behavior. Organizations figure out the competencies that leaders need to be successful, help them develop those competencies, and then measure those competencies in the organization.

The problem is that this logic is inconsistent with how work actually gets done. Leadership does not happen in a vacuum; leaders are always acting … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Todd Warner | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Leadership

A business model is a description of how your business runs, but a competitive strategy explains how you will do better than your rivals. That could be by offering a better business model — but it can also be by offering the same business model to a different market.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Andrea Ovans, Joan Magretta | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy