If you’re a leader, you need to know how to influence people. Maybe you’re trying to get clients to buy into your idea, trust your expertise, or sign on with your company. Or perhaps you want to convince colleagues to start a new initiative or kill one you think is doomed to fail. In this episode, Vanessa Bohns , a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, and Raven Hoffman , who works in a construction role that involves recruiting new clients to her firm, break down how to bu...
Mar 13, 2024•34 min•Ep. 49
Some leaders spend their careers honing their relationships with employees. But Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and corporate communications expert Michael Slind argue that leaders are at their best when they simply talk with their teams. In this episode, you’ll learn how to be more intentional about your conversations with employees—to ensure that you’re cultivating appropriate intimacy, inviting meaningful interaction, and including everyone. You’ll also learn how to make you...
Mar 06, 2024•17 min•Ep. 48
Etsy, the online seller of handmade and vintage goods, was founded as an alternative to mass-manufactured products. The company grew substantially in its first decade but remained unprofitable. When Etsy went public, stakeholders demanded a new level of financial returns and accountability. But the company continued to struggle to contain costs—until a new CEO arrived with a plan for a purpose-driven turnaround. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati discusses his case,...
Feb 28, 2024•29 min•Ep. 47
The key to success as a leader is to strike a careful balance between ambition and humility. But how do you stay humble while also proving your worth? And how do you advance without showing too much ambition? In this episode, Amer Kaissi offers advice on how to find a better balance between our desire to achieve and the qualities that earn more respect from colleagues. As he says, “humility keeps our feet on the ground by allowing us to have an accurate assessment of our own abilities, by unders...
Feb 21, 2024•27 min•Ep. 46
If you’re leading innovation, you need very specific leadership skills. Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill has studied leadership and innovation for decades and is the coauthor of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation . She says that leaders who shepherd innovation can’t rely on formal authority. Instead, they need to understand how to get people to co-create with them, which requires mastering three key roles —architect, bridger, and catalyst—or the ABCs of inn...
Feb 14, 2024•9 min•Ep. 45
John Kerry has spent more than 40 years in public service, including several decades in the U.S. Senate, leading the U.S. Department of State from 2013 to 2017, and more recently serving as U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In this episode, he shares the leadership lessons he learned over many years of leadership in the public sector—from influencing people to recovering from defeats, handling leadership transitions, and staying focused on important long-term goals. Key episode topics...
Feb 07, 2024•26 min•Ep. 44
Julie Zhuo was Facebook’s first intern, and she became a manager there in her mid-twenties. Those early years as a manager at the company—now named Meta—were tough. She says she often felt like she was in over her head and she made a lot of mistakes. But Zhuo did eventually learn how to manage team dynamics. When she left Facebook in 2020, she was leading a team of hundreds, as vice president of product design. Now the co-founder of Sundial, she takes questions from listeners who are struggling ...
Jan 31, 2024•33 min•Ep. 43
As the host of two successful business podcasts, Guy Raz has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders. His podcasts How I Built This and Wisdom From The Top offer an inside look at how visionary leaders build their careers and their companies. Raz has identified three key behaviors successful leaders have in common: They create a culture of collaboration. They encourage risk-taking. And they allow for failure. In this episode, he discusses how to incentivize internal collaboration and w...
Jan 24, 2024•29 min•Ep. 42
If you’re a leader, you know how critical feedback is to your team’s success and growth. But giving the kind of feedback that motivates people to improve is harder than it may seem. In this episode, Therese Huston , a cognitive scientist at Seattle University who specializes in giving and receiving feedback, and Jessica Gomez , an elementary school principal whose job involves observing teachers and giving them feedback on their teaching, break down the art and science of giving effective feedba...
Jan 17, 2024•33 min•Ep. 41
Do you have a culture of respect on your team? Kristie Rogers , an associate professor of management at Marquette University, has identified two types of respect that employees value: owed and earned. She says that owed respect refers to basic workplace civility whereas earned respect is related to an employee’s achievements. In this episode, you’ll learn how to practice both types of workplace respect, and what happens when their balance isn’t quite right. You’ll also learn how managers can unk...
Jan 10, 2024•24 min•Ep. 40
When was the last time you practiced your active listening skills? HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo says it is a skill you need to practice. In this episode, you’ll learn how you can use listening skills to make other people feel heard and understood. Specifically, you’ll learn different styles of listening and how to use each one to fit your goals. You’ll also learn how to use thoughtful questions to deepen your conversation and make sure you’re getting the information you need. Gallo is an ex...
Jan 03, 2024•10 min•Ep. 39
The business world is beginning to recognize the importance of mental health. That’s why writer, entrepreneur, and podcast host Morra Aarons-Mele says that the more we understand and talk about our own mental health, the better we are as managers and colleagues. In this episode, you’ll get tips on how to work with—and through—your anxiety. If you’re a senior leader or a human resources professional, you’ll also learn ways to help your organization prioritize employees’ mental health. This is the...
Dec 27, 2023•31 min•Ep. 38
With the explosive growth of generative AI, businesses are beginning to integrate artificial intelligence into all aspects of their operations, products, and services. This shift is posing a particularly difficult challenge for leaders, who must quickly learn enough about this new technology to make sound decisions for their companies, in the short- and long-term. One key player in this transition is NVIDIA, the AI-driven computing company, which makes both hardware and software for a range of i...
Dec 20, 2023•25 min•Ep. 37
From Microsoft to Google to Meta, many of the world’s biggest tech companies announced layoffs in 2023. But Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher , who has been studying layoffs for years, says that companies often overlook their hidden costs: lost institutional knowledge, weakened employee engagement, higher turnover, and lower innovation. She says that it can take years for companies to bounce back from these setbacks. In this episode, you’ll learn better ways to approach layoffs—wit...
Dec 13, 2023•31 min•Ep. 36
Becoming a manager for the first time comes with many common challenges: balancing your time, managing team conflicts, and delegating work to direct reports. But leadership coach Jen Dary says there are also subtler challenges—like learning to actually see yourself as a leader. Assuming responsibility for other people’s professional development and personal happiness does change you. And the feelings can be mixed until you’re able to build your identity and confidence back up. In this episode, D...
Dec 06, 2023•41 min•Ep. 35
Are leaders born or made? University of Michigan Ross School of Business professor Sue Ashford has studied leadership for decades—what makes people see themselves as leaders and how groups choose leaders among them. She says that leadership does come more easily to some than others, but that leadership is dynamic and only as real as a group decides. It’s a state that everyone can reach, whether they’re officially in charge or not. “People grant a leader identity by their willingness to follow so...
Nov 29, 2023•26 min•Ep. 34
Do you trust the people you work with? Without trust, organizational psychologist Liane Davey says it’s hard to have the two key ingredients for any healthy team: effective communication and productive conflict. Davey takes questions from listeners who are struggling to build trust at work. She offers advice for what to do when your new boss doesn’t trust you, or when you want to earn the trust of people who work for you. Key episode topics include: leadership, emotional intelligence, managing p...
Nov 22, 2023•37 min•Ep. 33
When you think of good leadership, what comes to mind? Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter argue that good leadership isn’t rooted in power or public speaking skills. They say that, in fact, mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion are the key components. “If [you are] focused on things that are going to feed [your] ego, [you’re] not necessarily going to be doing the things that will be most helpful to other people,” Carter explains. “[And] what the research and our field work really showed u...
Nov 15, 2023•22 min•Ep. 32
Are you struggling to motivate your team? Professor and author Richard Boyatzis says there’s a motivation crisis in workplaces. “And the responsibility for that lies with the managers and leaders—the people who are supposed to be energizing people and engaging them,” he argues. Boyatzis takes questions from listeners who are struggling to retain their employees and motivate their teams. Key episode topics include: leadership, developing employees, motivating people, organizational culture, psych...
Nov 08, 2023•31 min•Ep. 31
As the head of science at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen managed an $8.6 billion dollar budget. A typical Monday, for him, might have involved hitting an asteroid with a space craft or trying to launch a rocket. Zurbuchen left that role in 2022, but he’s still the longest continually serving head of science in NASA’s history. He and his team accomplished a lot in that time. In this episode, he shares what he learned about leading extremely technical, complex, and expensive projects with a high risk of f...
Nov 01, 2023•31 min•Ep. 30
When was the last time you disagreed with your boss? Did you tell them you had a different opinion — or did you just let it go? HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo says it’s much easier to just agree with your boss. But sometimes it’s important to speak up. In this episode, you’ll learn how to weigh the risk of a negative reaction against the risk of not voicing your opinion: What could happen later if you don’t raise this issue now? What do you stand to lose? What opportunities could you or your ...
Oct 25, 2023•10 min•Ep. 29
Most of us think of mentoring a colleague as a one-way street—a gift of professional guidance and advice. But Sylvia Ann Hewlett says sponsorship needs to be a reciprocal relationship. “[T]he younger person has to display a great deal of value. And oftentimes the senior person is looking for a value add, a skill or an experience in the younger person that they don’t have themselves,” she explains. “So it’s very reciprocal…and it’s really about progression for both of the individuals.” Hewlett is...
Oct 18, 2023•26 min•Ep. 28
When Rosalind Fox took over as manager of John Deere’s largest factory in Des Moines, Iowa, the plant employed 1,600 workers and included four major product lines. It was far bigger and more complex than the factory she’d been managing in North Carolina before her promotion. She had to shift from being a more operational, tactical manager to a more strategic role. But Fox was also the first Black female manager at the Iowa factory, and her employees there were mostly white men. So she also had t...
Oct 11, 2023•30 min•Ep. 27
Management decisions almost always involve uncertainty. But what if you just can’t get the facts you need—or if your colleagues disagree about what you should decide? Harvard Business School professor Joseph Badaracco calls these “gray area problems.” He offers a framework for addressing these problems in his book, Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work . “Get expert advice. Look at options with other people, work the process. Be a good manager...
Oct 04, 2023•20 min•Ep. 26
Delegating is an essential part of leadership. Without it, how can you rise above the tactical grind and focus on strategic thinking? But leadership coach Deborah Grayson Riegel says delegating effectively is harder than it may seem. “People delegate poorly defined tasks to other people where they’re not clear of the expectation. They’re not clear on the goal. They’re not clear on what success would look like, and they pass that on,” she explains. “And as you can imagine, it’s like a giant game ...
Sep 27, 2023•47 min•Ep. 25
Some managers give meaningless positive feedback. Others are unreasonably critical. But Kim Scott , cofounder of the executive coaching firm Radical Candor, says good leaders can give honest feedback in the moment—as long as it’s rooted in a strong relationship. “You want to show that you care personally,” she tells IdeaCast host Curt Nickisch . “Your job as a leader is to paint a picture of what success looks like. You want to show what the possibilities are.” In this episode, Scott explains th...
Sep 20, 2023•27 min•Ep. 24
Captain Michael Davidson, of the container ship SS El Faro, was determined to make his trip on time. But a hurricane was approaching, and Davidson and his fellow officers had to plot a new course to avoid the storm, in the face of conflicting weather reports from multiple sources and differing opinions among the officers about what to do. Over the 36-hour voyage, tensions rose as the ship got closer and closer to the storm. And there were other factors compounding the challenge. The El Faro was ...
Sep 13, 2023•38 min•Ep. 23
Herminia Ibarra , a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, says that if you want to grow as a leader, you must leave your comfort zone and try new behaviors. Eventually, she says, you’ll arrive at a more authentic version of yourself. “The paradox is that a lot of times in order to become more authentic, more fully yourself, but in a new capacity, you can’t start that way,” says Ibarra. “You actually have to do things that don’t come naturally and that sometimes make you...
Sep 06, 2023•17 min•Ep. 22
Are you struggling to give and receive feedback at work? Executive coach and organizational consultant Ben Dattner says giving good feedback is really about how you deliver it. “I think what good bosses do is they let their employees know…the reason I’m giving you this feedback is to help you be more successful,” he tells Dear HBR hosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn . “This is not adversarial. This is the two of us together trying to make something better.” Dattner takes questions from Dear HBR li...
Aug 30, 2023•35 min•Ep. 21
Generational differences may get laughs online. (Remember “OK boomer”?) But in the workplace, productivity can suffer when older and younger workers struggle to communicate and find common ground. Mimi Nicklin, a business coach and advertising executive, argues that older managers should spend less time forcing their Millennial and Gen Z employees to conform to company culture and more time listening. But Nicklin says listening isn’t enough. Practicing empathy across generational divides is key ...
Aug 23, 2023•25 min•Ep. 20
