675 Posts found for Source: Harvard Business Review

A new study just out from James Gross of Stanford University and six other researchers has shown that the higher people go as a leader, the less stress they experience. It turns out that being the CEO is less stressful than being a senior manager. It’s an intriguing idea, as it flies in the face of the current thinking about leadership, which has supported the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: David Rock | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The oldest, shortest words — “yes” and “no” — are those which require the most thought.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Communication, Decision Making

Instead of better tools for better organizing, people want their organization done for them. Organizing is wasteful; getting its benefits is productivity. …the new economics of personal productivity mean that the better organized we try to become, the more wasteful and inefficient we become. We’ll likely get more done better if we give less time and thought to organization and greater reflection and care to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael Schrage | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Productivity / Work Tips

Corporations should have early warning systems to detect emerging competitive threats that have long-term potential to affect their business. Strategists can look back at past transformations to inform their own analyses and they need to understand how tomorrow’s industry could be structured. The work of two of the most important scholars in the field, Clayton Christensen and Richard N. Foster, suggests considering five questions.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Anthony | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

With fresh faces in organizations and new interns flooding offices, it’s time to really think about what the first steps are for bringing a new employee onto your team.

Content: Article | Author: Dick Grote | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Almost 50 years ago Ernest Dichter, the father of motivation research, did a large study of word of mouth persuasion that revealed secrets of how to use social media to build brands and businesses. The study was reported in a 1966 article in HBR.

A major Dichter finding, very relevant today, was the identification of four motivations for a person to communicate about brands.

Content: Article | Author: David Aaker | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Because of the structure of their compensation, CEOs are rewarded for share price volatility not performance. So the volatility of the past four years has served them very well indeed. To understand how, let’s model stock-based compensation in two possible worlds: A CEO whose stock has followed the S&P more or less exactly and a CEO whose stock has remained steady over the same period. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Corporate Governance

Moonwalking With Einstein, the current bestselling book by Joshua Foer, deals with a subject close to the pounding hearts and minds of every public speaker or presenter: how to remember what to say. Speakers and presenters rely on a number of devices — from low-end three-by-five index cards to expensive high-end teleprompters — to aid their memories. Foer offers an even higher-end but lower-cost technique: … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jerry Weissman | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Personal Development

The article details the latest insights on what changes organizations can take to have the greatest impact on executing their strategies to achieve results. The HBR article demonstrates the importance of decision rights and information flow in driving effectiveness and how enterprises succeed or fail at execution depending on whether they focus on these power drivers or, instead, focus solely on “structural reorganization.”

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Powers, Gary L. Neilson, Karla Martin | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Rather than think of white space as external — as some indistinct but desirable land outside your company’s walls — I suggest that it’s more productive to view it as an internal signpost — as a way to map your company’s ability to address new opportunities or threats. So by white space, I mean “market opportunities your company may wish — or need — to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Mark Johnson | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Strategy

The firms that have enjoyed years or even decades of life with no or weak competitors have created barriers that inhibit or prevent competitors from entering and becoming serious customer options. Here are some twelve routes to real barriers the last six of which involve the brand.

Content: Article | Author: David Aaker | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Choosing which innovative ideas to pursue is often an exercise in guesswork. But by using existing management tools in a new way, executives can effectively gauge an innovation’s potential along two crucial dimensions: Can it withstand market pressures from competitors? And can it deliver more economic value to customers than alternatives?

In this article for Harvard Business Review, Monitor partner Geoff Tuff outlines this distinctive approach: … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Geoff Tuff | Sources: Harvard Business Review, Monitor Group | Subject: Innovation

The concept of shared value—which focuses on the connections between societal and economic progress—has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth.

There are three key ways that companies can create shared value opportunities:
– By reconceiving products and markets
– By redefining productivity in the value chain
– By enabling local cluster development

Every firm should look at decisions and opportunities through the lens … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Mark R. Kramer, Michael E. Porter | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Strategy

Persuasion is a catalyst for getting work done, for achieving an outcome you can’t realize on your own. MBA courses, leadership books, and executive education classes recognize the importance of persuasion, but they rarely teach it as a practical art and, if they do, the focus is usually on formal presentations and PowerPoint.

Managers need more fundamental advice on how to persuade. William Ellet teaches a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: William Ellet | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Companies can take a wide variety of approaches to how to discuss ethics but what actually works in guiding employees’ ethical behavior. While working with different organizations over the last six year, Francesca Gino has observed approaches across the entire spectrum. Her research suggests that subtle changes can produce big differences in the ethical conduct of organizational members. Three findings seem particularly relevant, and they … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Francesca Gino | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Ethics

Have you ever noticed how a pat on the back makes you feel great for days? Sadly, kudos from bosses are all too rare. Over the years, I’ve worked on acknowledging others for their efforts. I’ve managed to marry tough-minded performance standards with tender-heartedness. As I’ve looked back over the more than 30 years that have passed since my career began, I have come to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Douglas Conant | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Many of us learn the need to be liked by everyone early in our lives — it’s something to get over if you are going to negotiate a path to power.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Power / Authority

Adam Richardson of frog design has clustered a variety of KM approaches into a 2×2, and describes some of the specific things done at frog by way of illustration. This is not to say that these are the best methods, but they do show that there are often many below-the-radar and informal methods of achieving knowledge sharing that don’t get recognized as being valuable for … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Adam Richardson | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Knowledge Management

Is your company investing in expensive knowledge management systems that are useless for making big, strategy decisions? Most companies recognize the need for knowledge management, but often delegate it to the IT and HR departments without linking it to corporate strategy, often thereby wasting both resources and the strategic options their firm’s knowledge could generate. The problem is that most current knowledge management efforts merely … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Ian MacMillan, Martin Ihrig, Max Boisot | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Knowledge Management

Many managers underestimate the transformational challenges of their roles—or they become complacent and stop growing and improving. At best they learn to get by; at worst they become terrible bosses. Sometimes even the best of them suffer doubts and fears despite years of management experience.

Three imperatives can guide managers on their journey to becoming great bosses: (1) Manage yourself. Productive influence comes from people’s trust … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Kent L. Lineback, Linda A. Hill | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Personal Development