6 Signature Traits of Inclusive Leadership - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM DELOITTE DIGITAL
Sponsor Content from Deloitte Digital.| Harvard Business Review
A walk through recent research.| Harvard Business Review
“I hate networking.” It’s a familiar refrain. But in today’s world, networking is a necessity—and fortunately, an aversion to it can be overcome. Drawing on laboratory experiments and on studies at a large law firm, the authors have identified four strategies that can help people become more excited about and effective at building relationships: Focus on learning. Adopt a “promotion mindset” and concentrate on the positives, and you’re more likely to perceive networking as an ...| Harvard Business Review
A survey by Tata Consultancy Services reveals that while some jobs have been lost to machine intelligence, that’s not the major way companies are using AI today. Companies are more likely to be using AI to improve computer-to-computer tasks while employing the same number of people. The 170-year-old news service Associated Press offers a case in point. In 2013, demand for quarterly earnings stories was insatiable, and staff reporters could barely keep up. So that year, AP began working w...| Harvard Business Review
When companies make mistakes, customers often write reviews about it online. Some companies have started responding to customer reviews, but do these responses affect the ratings that customers give them? According to a study of hotel reviews on TripAdvisor, yes: When hotels start responding, they receive 12% more reviews and their ratings increase by an average of 0.12 stars (on a 1-to-5 scale). These gains may seem small, but they can have a significant effect on the hotel’s rating, due...| Harvard Business Review
What it missed was the business model.| Harvard Business Review
Effective leadership today relies more than ever on influencing others — impacting their ideas, opinions, and actions. While influence has always been a valuable managerial skill, today’s highly collaborative organizations make it essential. Consider how often you have to influence people who don’t even report to you in order to accomplish your objectives. Success depends […]| Harvard Business Review
Most companies struggle to capture the enormous potential of their data. Typically, they launch massive programs that try to meet the needs of every data end user or have individual application-development teams set up customized data pipelines that can’t easily be repurposed. Firms instead need to figure out how to craft data strategies that deliver value in the near term and at the same time lay the foundations for future data use. Successful companies do this by treating data like a comm...| Harvard Business Review
Given the choice, when would you rather discover that your business strategy is unrealizable: After the fact or while the plan is still on the drawing board? The answer is obvious, of course. Yet a surprising number of executives fail to follow through on its logic. By closing their eyes to the benefits of long-range […]| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R1309E Research has established that women decide about consumer purchases differently than men do. But does that hold true in a B2B setting? Senior executives at Deloitte, recognizing that an increasing number of potential clients are women but that executives have honed their skills selling to men, decided to conduct some research on the matter. Interviews with experienced buyers of professional services in 18 large organizations—and observations of meetings with hundreds of pros...| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R0909D As a market, women represent an opportunity bigger than China and India combined. They control $20 trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could reach $28 trillion in the next five years. Women drive the world economy, in fact. Yet most companies do a remarkably poor job of serving them, a new study by the Boston Consulting Group reveals. BCG surveyed more than 12,000 women from a variety of geographies, income levels, and walks of life about their education, finances, ...| Harvard Business Review
Why do some teams consistently deliver high performance while other, seemingly identical teams struggle? Led by Sandy Pentland, researchers at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory set out to solve that puzzle. Hoping to decode the “It factor” that made groups click, they equipped teams from a broad variety of projects and industries (comprising 2,500 individuals in total) with wearable electronic sensors that collected data on their social behavior for weeks at a time. With remarkable consis...| Harvard Business Review
Boundaries are limits we identify for ourselves, and apply through action or communication. When we define what we need to feel secure and healthy, when we need it, and create tools to protect those parts of ourselves, we can do wonders for our well-being at work and at home — which, in turn, allows us to bring our best selves to both places. Here’s how to boundaries in healthy ways: First, figure out your “hard” and “soft” boundaries. Hard boundaries are your non-negotiables. Sof...| Harvard Business Review
Building a data driven culture is hard. To capture what it takes to succeed, the authors look at the first two years of a new data program at Kuwait’s Gulf Bank in which they worked to build a culture that embraced data, and offer a few lessons. First, it is important to start building the new culture from day one, even as doing so is not the primary mandate. Second, to change a culture, you need to get everyone involved. Third, give data quality strong consideration as the place to start. ...| Harvard Business Review
Many companies struggle to attract and retain Millennial talent. A few are experimenting with reverse-mentoring programs to address that problem. These programs can increase retention, help senior executives become more sophisticated about social media, drive culture change, and promote diversity.| Harvard Business Review
Employees everywhere are suffering from chronic low engagement and productivity levels, while stress and burnout continue to rise. Add to this the pressures of economic uncertainty and a potential recession, the threat of artificial intelligence automating jobs and skills and disrupting entire industries, and the sense of languishing and loneliness that increasingly permeate the work experiences of many, and the overall picture is rather bleak. If you want to compete for talent, and create tr...| Harvard Business Review
Costly failures of talent management—such as hiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons or creating perverse incentives—can frequently be traced to the earliest point in the recruitment process: designing the job. It’s easy to get that wrong. Too often, executives bundle contradictory tasks without considering how the job description will influence who applies or […]| Harvard Business Review
We’ve known for years that emotional intelligence improves results—often by an order of magnitude. Now, new research shows that a leader’s mood plays a key role in that dynamic—a discovery that should redefine what leaders do first and best.| Harvard Business Review
While it might sound contradictory, the U.S. is experiencing higher unemployment numbers and a labor shortage. So how to attract talent in such a labor marketplace? For hourly workers and lower-salaried positions, accessibility is one of the biggest – and often underestimated – drivers of effective recruiting. Research has shown that minor geographic differences in available talent and open jobs, even in the same city, can lead to higher unemployment. look at ways of improving accessibi...| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R0410H The strength of the American economy does not rest on its manufacturing prowess, its natural resources, or the size of its market. It turns on one factor—the country’s openness to new ideas, which has allowed it to attract the brightest minds from around the world and harness their creative energies. But the United States is on the verge of losing that competitive edge. As the nation tightens its borders to students and scientists and subjects federal research funding to i...| Harvard Business Review
The author has conducted in-depth interviews with hundreds of CEOs and other executives for the New York Times feature “Corner Office” and his leadership series on LinkedIn, and he has coached hundreds of high-potentials. In this article he shares the lessons that emerged about the mental shifts needed to make a successful transition to a senior leadership position. The process involves identifying and communicating your core values and learning how to approach tough decisions. It require...| Harvard Business Review
Feedback needs to be carefully tailored or it will likely backfire.| Harvard Business Review
The average adult makes 33,000 to 35,000 total decisions each day. Many of these happen automatically and simultaneously through the information we’ve subconsciously stored about what is “good” or “bad.” But some decisions are heavier and need conscious thinking. Writing or journaling can help. The practice of daily writing interrupts this “autopilot mode” and invites us to live our lives more intentionally. You make more balanced decisions. The act of physically writing employs...| Harvard Business Review
More than 80% of respondents in a BCG survey of 5,000 global consumers say they want and expect personalized experiences. But two-thirds have experienced personalization that is inappropriate, inaccurate, or invasive. That’s because most companies lack a clear guidepost for what great personalization should look like. Authors Mark Abraham and David C. Edelman remedy that in this article, which is adapted from Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI (Harvard Business Review Press, 2...| Harvard Business Review
What makes for a good strategy in highly uncertain business environments? Some executives seek to shape the future with high-stakes bets. Eastman Kodak Company, for example, is spending $500 million per year to develop an array of digital photography products that it hopes will fundamentally change the way people create, store, and view pictures. Meanwhile, […]| Harvard Business Review
Many executives assume that customer data can give you an unbeatable edge. The more customers you have, the more data you can gather, and that data, when analyzed, allows you to offer a better product that attracts more customers. You can then collect even more data, repeating the cycle until you eventually marginalize your competitors. But this thinking is usually wrong. Though the virtuous cycles of data-enabled learning may look similar to those of network effects—wherein an offering inc...| Harvard Business Review
What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers’ diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that is critical to performance) than making progress in meaningful work. If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that he or she achieved something, however small. If the pers...| Harvard Business Review
Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication. Respect. Integrity. Excellence. They sound pretty good, don’t they? Maybe they even resemble your own company’s values. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as claimed in its 2000 annual report. And they’re absolutely meaningless. Indeed, most values statements, says the author, are bland, toothless, or just plain dishonest. And far from being harmless, as some executives assume, they’re oft...| Harvard Business Review
You’ve updated your resume, written your cover letter, and prepared for your interview. Now it’s time for your thank you note to seal the deal. In this piece, the author outlines what to say — and not to say — in your thank you email to interviewers and answers common questions like: How much detail should you include? When should you send it? And why is it important to do? He also includes three sample emails to use as a guide.| Harvard Business Review
Many have wondered about — and feared — the impact that gen AI will have on labor markets. Some compare it to past innovations, like robots, whose effects have been relatively modest, while others have forecasted that its impacts will be more long-ranging, given gen AI’s fundamental ability to improve itself over time. New research analyzed over a million job posts for online gig workers to see what affect the introduction of tools like ChatGPT and image-generating AI have already had o...| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R0809D Many people believe that good ideas are rarer and more valuable than good people. Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, couldn’t disagree more. That notion, he says, is rooted in a misguided view of creativity that exaggerates the importance of the initial idea in developing an original product. And it reflects a profound misunderstanding of how to manage the large risks inherent in producing breakthroughs. In filmmaking and many other kinds of complex...| Harvard Business Review
Research has found that 73% of all employees have some type of current caregiving responsibility. However, because the majority of employers don’t track caregiving status, they don’t offer the supportive infrastructure — such as the right benefits and policies — to support this large segment of their workforce. This results in U.S. businesses losing $35 billion annually from failing to attract, support, and retain these crucial workers. The authors offer four recommendations to help c...| Harvard Business Review
Of all forms of communication, feedback is perhaps the hardest to give and receive. The giver has to criticize, which might hurt someone’s feelings, so they avoid having the conversation in the first place. And if the conversation does occur, the recipient is likely to feel shame, hearing some version of “you’re not good enough and you need to change.” So if feedback doesn’t help people up their game, then what does? The authors offer four steps to shift from a culture of feedback t...| Harvard Business Review
If there’s one thing that’s certain about the future, it’s that change is here to stay. The ability to constantly transform has become a top priority for organizations. Therefore, change management is now an essential business priority that can’t be overlooked or set aside. Leaders need to urgently develop change and project management competencies across all levels of an organization, from employees and managers to senior executives. This article covers the two most important things ...| Harvard Business Review
Research has long shown that using friendly nicknames can be a great way to solidify personal relationships between peers or romantic partners. But what’s the impact of using nicknames in professional environments, in which power disparities are common? Through a series of studies with more than 1,100 U.S.-based adults, research finds that using nicknames in workplace relationships between supervisors and subordinates can sometimes have positive effects — but not always. Specifically, res...| Harvard Business Review
What works, what doesn’t, and why most HR managers don’t know the difference.| Harvard Business Review
Many large companies fail to pay enough attention to their leadership pipelines and succession practices. That leads to excessive turnover at the top and destroys a significant amount of value—close to $1 trillion a year among the S&P 1500 alone, say the authors of this article. The biggest costs are underperformance at companies that hire ill-suited external CEOs, the loss of intellectual capital in the C-suites of organizations that executives leave behind, and for companies promoting fro...| Harvard Business Review
The biggest problem with analyzing data is often accessing it.| Harvard Business Review
There are a lot of methods out there for staying organized. But which method prevails? Over four days, I tried four ways of organizing my to-do list. I tracked my overall productivity and stress levels to see which worked best. Monday: Get rid of your to-do list and instead schedule out your tasks in your digital calendar. This method is good for people who like structure, aren’t afraid of a crowded calendar, and love planning ahead. Tuesday: Keep a running list but do just “one thing” ...| Harvard Business Review
The data clearly show that women are less liked as they get more successful.| Harvard Business Review
Experiments involving 20 million people generated a surprising finding: moderately weak connects — and not strong connections — are the most useful in finding a new job. To be more specific, the ties that are most helpful for finding new jobs tend to be moderately weak: They strike a balance between exposing you to new social circles and information and having enough familiarity and overlapping interests so that the information is useful. The findings are important not just for job seeker...| Harvard Business Review
Today’s dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity, quality, and speed, managers have embraced tools such as TQM, benchmarking, and re-engineering. Dramatic operational improvements have resulted, but rarely have these gains translated into sustainable profitability. And gradually, the tools have taken the place of strategy. In his five-part article, Michael Porter explores how that shift has...| Harvard Business Review
The antiquated assumption that those who work from home are less productive than those who work from the office has given rise to “visibility” concerns. In a recent survey, 42% of managers said they sometimes forget about remote workers when assigning tasks. This may explain why remote workers get promoted less often than their peers, despite being 15% more productive on average. While these findings are problematic on many levels, managers — new or seasoned — can take steps to mitiga...| Harvard Business Review
In June 2023, the Supreme Court effectively ended race-based affirmative action in higher education in the Students for Fair Admissions ( SFFA ) case. On the heels of that decision, newly empowered activists have brought a barrage of challenges against workplace DEI efforts. When it comes to DEI today, the authors predict that neither side will “win.” Rather, as the law inevitably evolves in a more conservative direction, the new legal standards will be absorbed into the field of DEI, tra...| Harvard Business Review
Managers are often at a loss as to how to effectively motivate uninspired employees. Research indicates that managers first should identify the reason for an employee’s lack of motivation before applying a targeted strategy. These reasons fall into four categories called motivation traps. Namely, these are values mismatch, lack of self-efficacy, disruptive emotions, and attribution errors. Each of these four traps has distinct causes and comes with specific strategies to release an employee...| Harvard Business Review
Annual evaluations are often subjective, which opens the door to gender bias. These biases can lead to double standards — a similar situation gets a positive or a negative spin depending on gender. For example, one review described a woman as seeming “to shrink when she’s around others and especially around clients.” But a similar problem — confidence in working with clients — was given a positive spin when it was a man who was struggling with it: “Jim needs to dev...| Harvard Business Review
At most small and medium-sized e-commerce retailers, prices are typically set and updated in an ad hoc fashion without one clear owner. The process often starts by using a gross margin target, followed by some comparison with competitors, and then some adjustments from there. Many of these retailers would quickly admit that this isn’t an optimal strategy, and that they are likely leaving money on the table — and they’re often right. The authors’ experience with price testing has shown...| Harvard Business Review
Companies often crimp profits by using discounts to attract price-sensitive customers and by failing to give high-end customers reasons to spend more. A multitiered offering can use a stripped-down product (the “Good” option) to attract new customers, the existing product (“Better”) to keep current customers happy, and a feature-laden premium version (“Best”) to increase spending by customers who want more. There’s nothing new about this concept, of course—think of the differe...| Harvard Business Review
Companies work hard to persuade existing customers to buy additional products. Often that’s a money-losing proposition.| Harvard Business Review
Although women today outperform men in educational settings, they immediately lose ground once they enter the workforce, moving up the career ladder at significantly lower rates. One of the big reasons for this, say three McKinsey consultants, is that women aren’t building as much experience capital —the knowledge, skills, and wisdom that can be gained only on the job. Multiple systemic issues are at work here, but there are actions women can take to address this problem themselves. They ...| Harvard Business Review
A single price is essentially an ultimatum.| Harvard Business Review
In corporate strategy projects, executive leadership teams work through a series of questions to determine how their businesses can succeed. Individuals can use a similar process to figure out how to live a meaningful life. It starts with defining what makes a great life for you and then outlining your purpose and vision. You must also look at your current “portfolio” — the areas in which you spend your time and energy — to see if you’re investing the best of yourself in the activit...| Harvard Business Review
Among the many challenges organizations face in implementing AI initiatives, most are related to people and processes. While it’s true that organizations face technical barriers such as poor data quality, integration complexity, or infrastructure costs, the primary obstacle is the ability of companies to adapt, reinvent, and scale new ways of working. This is called change resilience.| Harvard Business Review
Did you know that an autistic professional is up to 140% more productive than an average employee when properly matched to a job that fits their skills? Yet, discrimination against neurodivergent people continues. That’s because most of the “common” workplace practices at the workplace are established for neurotypicality. While the onus to change this really lies with the organizations, the author offers a few strategies to help neurodivergent employees take control of their own success...| Harvard Business Review
Workers who have switched to telecommuting have to contend with a host of distractions that might make sustaining motivation difficult. One surprising factor that can be a powerful drain on drive is a lack of other people watching you work. Social psychologists have known for decades that people are motivated to work harder when others are watching. When they are observed, people run faster, are more creative, and think harder about problems. These effects occur for several reasons. For one,...| Harvard Business Review
In 2023, organizations continued to face significant challenges, from inflation to geopolitical turmoil to controversy over DEI and return-to-work policies — and 2024 promises more disruption. Gartner researchers have identified nine key trends, from new and creative employee benefits to the collapse of traditional career paths, that will impact work this year. Employers who successfully navigate these will retain top talent and secure a competitive advantage for themselves.| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: F0405E A study of more than 600 retail outlets finds that stock-outs are far more costly than most companies imagine.| Harvard Business Review
The prevailing wisdom says that negative thoughts and feelings have no place at the office. But that goes against basic biology. All healthy human beings have an inner stream of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear. David and Congleton have worked with leaders in various industries to build a critical skill they call emotional agility, which enables people to approach their inner experiences in a mindful, values-driven, and productive way rather than buying into or tr...| Harvard Business Review
As AI becomes more powerful, it faces a major trust problem. Consider 12 leading concerns: disinformation, safety and security, the black box problem, ethical concerns, bias, instability, hallucinations in LLMs, unknown unknowns, potential job losses and social inequalities, environmental impact, industry concentration, and state overreach. Each of these issues is complex — and not easy to solve. But there is one consistent approach to addressing the trust gap: training, empowering, and inc...| Harvard Business Review
Following on the first article on defining customer experience, this second installment looks at the first essential step of improving the experience you deliver, which is mapping out your customer journey. A customer journey map is a very simple idea: a diagram that illustrates the steps your customer(s) go through in engaging with your company, […]| Harvard Business Review
Research conducted during Covid-19 shows that a large number of managers are struggling with the effective management of people working from home, with this translating into many workers feeling untrusted and micromanaged by their bosses. The consequences of poor management at this time — for workers, families, and the economy — suggest the urgent need to help develop managers’ skills in this area. However, simply telling managers to trust their employees is unlikely to be sufficient. R...| Harvard Business Review
As a leader, how you respond under the pressure makes an indelible impression on the people around you. Research shows that your temperament in these crucial moments has a tremendous impact on your team’s performance, and ultimately, a large majority of managers and leaders buckle under pressure. There are a few simple skills that can help a leader be at their best even when the pressure is on. First, determine what you really want. Stop and ask yourself, “What is it I really want lon...| Harvard Business Review
An overlooked way to sound more authoritative.| Harvard Business Review
Relationships with our coworkers are incredibly important, but we tend to think about them in the wrong way: We categorize them as either good or bad, and we think they will always stay the same. As a result, we don’t try to fix the ones that have soured, and we take those that seem healthy for granted. In reality, most relationships are a mixed bag, and they ebb and flow. And if you look closely, you’ll see that they’re made up of a series of “micromoves” — small actions that se...| Harvard Business Review
For years, brand managers have groused that consumers say they intend to buy sustainable products but don’t actually buy them. Companies have used this conventional wisdom as justification for not making their products more sustainable. A new study, looking at the sales from 2013 to 2018 of products marketed as sustainable, finds the conventional wisdom isn’t true. In more than 90% of consumer packaged goods categories, sustainability-marketed products grew faster than their conventional ...| Harvard Business Review
We’re all looking for purpose. Most of us feel that we’ve never found it, we’ve lost it, or in some way we’re falling short. But in the midst of all this angst, we’re also suffering from fundamental misconceptions about purpose. Challenging these misconceptions could help us develop a more rounded vision of purpose. The first misconception is that purpose is a thing you find. Purpose is a thing you build, not a thing you find. The second misconception is that purpose is a single th...| Harvard Business Review
It’s nearly impossible to thrive with a boss who actively undermines your accomplishments, diminishes your self-esteem, and blocks your opportunities. In a perfect world, you could pack up and go. But in this economically challenged world, you might not have the financial freedom to leave. Here are some things you can do to survive — until you have the resources to leave or decide it is time to go. Document your interactions. Take notes when communicating with your boss and keep a record...| Harvard Business Review
A reading list to bring you up to speed.| Harvard Business Review
Just focusing on differences isn’t enough.| Harvard Business Review
In early 2020, the switch to remote or hybrid work was abrupt for many companies. While employees were willing to give one another some latitude earlier in the pandemic, now, almost a year in, their trust is wearing thin, and some find themselves wondering whether their remote employees are actually working at home. Companies that fail to address this crisis are likely to see lower morale, increased attrition, lower productivity, and stalled innovation. Leaders need to address the underlying ...| Harvard Business Review
Thanks to the benefits for both employers and employees, hybrid work arrangements will likely persist beyond the pandemic. In order for them to work, though, leaders must understand the power differentials they create within teams and take steps to level the playing field. Where individuals (including the manager) on a team are located relative to others matters, as does each individual’s skills in relationship building. The authors offer four strategies managers can take to manage the stru...| Harvard Business Review
In the twenty-first century, human capital is the most valuable resource in our economy. And though much has been done (rightly) to promote diversity at work, there’s a giant hole when it comes to understanding how temperament and sentiment play into the trajectory of success. Mental illness is a challenge, but it is not a weakness. Understanding your psyche can be the key to unleashing your strengths — whether it’s using your sensitivity to empathize with clients, your anxiety to be a ...| Harvard Business Review
More often than not, when we talk about flexible work arrangements, we’re thinking about working moms. But, in truth, everybody needs flexibility at some point in their careers — and limiting flex to just working moms creates bias that’s harmful to everyone. In this piece, the authors describe new research showing that when employees see workplace flexibility bias in their organizations, they are less happy professionally and are more likely to say they will quit their jobs in the near ...| Harvard Business Review
It’s clear that as the U.S. economy reopens after Covid precautions that many organizations will be pursuing a hybrid future in which employees work from the office some days and at home on other days. While some managers may be inclined to let employees choose their schedule, the author recommends not pursuing this approach for two reasons. First, is the challenge in managing a hybrid team, which can generate an office in-group and a home out-group. The second concern is the risk to dive...| Harvard Business Review
With political polarization on the rise and companies gauging the risks of employees’ internal political activism, some are opting to ban political speech at work entirely. The authors, experts in speaking up at work, explain the pitfalls of this approach and instead suggest asking a different question: How can we support employees and encourage them to handle difference, respect one another, listen, and learn? The answer, they suggest, requires four actions on the part of leaders: Building...| Harvard Business Review
How do you make your work more meaningful? Prior studies have focused on understanding the factors that contribute to making work meaningful overall, such as having more autonomy or being able to job craft. But these are individual actions that don’t easily translate into how we experience meaningfulness every day. It can also be difficult for early career professionals as you can’t just decide to drop every uninspiring task from your to-do list in an attempt to experience more meaning in...| Harvard Business Review
Choosing the right products to stock is incredibly important — and often equally hard to achieve. In this piece, the authors offer a new approach to assortment planning. The approach is based on the idea that most of the time, customers aren’t looking to buy specific products; rather, they’re looking for a bundle of attributes. For instance, when customers consider buying a TV, they think about screen size, resolution, price, LCD or plasma, and brand. The new method uses sales of exist...| Harvard Business Review
It’s a balancing act.| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R1105D Allen, the author of the best seller Getting Things Done , and Schwartz, the author of the best seller Be Excellent at Anything and the CEO of The Energy Project, are two of the world’s foremost authorities on increasing personal efficiency. Yet although they agree on much, their ideas on how to maximize the output of knowledge workers are fundamentally different. In this edited conversation with HBR, they discuss their own approaches and what they’ve learned from each oth...| Harvard Business Review
Recent history is filled with stories of companies and sometimes even entire industries that have made grave strategic errors because of inaccurate industrywide demand forecasts. For example: In 1974, U.S. electric utilities made plans to double generating capacity by the mid-1980s based on forecasts of a 7% annual growth in demand. Such forecasts are crucial […]| Harvard Business Review
Effective Learning and Development (L&D) programs are critical for the success of both employees and their employers. But what does it take to develop initiatives that actually achieve substantial positive outcomes? Research suggests that an approach known as “learning in the flow of work” can help ensure that learners retain and apply new skills and concepts in their day-to-day workflows. In this piece, the author offers five tactical, research-backed strategies to help companies build p...| Harvard Business Review
The rise of digital collaboration platforms and new methods for harvesting data, along with new technologies and novel approaches for finding and managing talent, are redefining how companies will build their workforces going forward. Remote work has increased the sheer volume of digital communications and work product generated by employees, propelled by the mass adoption of collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack. This type of employee data represents the keys to the human si...| Harvard Business Review
Sponsor Content from Deloitte Digital.| Harvard Business Review
Reprint: R0902D Decision making lies at the heart of our personal and professional lives. Yet the daunting reality is that enormously important decisions made by intelligent, responsible people with the best information and intentions are nevertheless hopelessly flawed at times. In part, that’s due to the way our brains work. Modern neuroscience teaches us that two hardwired processes in the brain —pattern recognition and emotional tagging —are critical to decision making. Both are norm...| Harvard Business Review
Sponsor content from Enboarder.| Harvard Business Review
Which ones are hurting your company?| Harvard Business Review
While change has always been difficult, we have now entered an area in which it is continuous rather than episodic. Employees are tired and morale, productivity, and innovation all suffer as a result. This playbook offers executives strategies for anticipating their workforce’s emotions, handling communication, and managing the pace of change to help their teams embrace transformation rather than resisting it.| Harvard Business Review
Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.| hbr.org
The promise of staffing a team with diverse members is that the different perspectives, ideas, and opinions will result in greater performance. The reality is that diverse teams often underperform because people from dissimilar backgrounds often clash. A study of 62 drug-development teams suggests that the key to getting them to work better together and tap the potential of diversity is to create a psychologically safe environment. This article discusses ways to do that.| Harvard Business Review
Is your team making good use of tools like Slack, Zoom, and Trello?| Harvard Business Review
Find people who disagree with you and cherish them.| Harvard Business Review
Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.| hbr.org
Find new ideas and free advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.| hbr.org
The coronavirus pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to businesses all around the world. As organizations, leaders, and individuals struggle to make sense of this new normal, we hope this selection of HBR articles will help our readers to survive — and thrive — through these trying times.| Harvard Business Review
Why do we find video calls so draining? In part, it’s because they force us to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information. They also require us to stare directly at a screen for minutes at a time without any visual or mental break, which is tiring. To make video calls less exhausting for yourself, try using a few research-based tips. First, avoid multitasking. It may be tempting to get other work done on a video call, but switching between tasks can cost you as much...| Harvard Business Review
Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.| hbr.org
Find new ideas and classic advice for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.| hbr.org
The field of neuromarketing, sometimes known as consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making. Over the past five years several groundbreaking studies have demonstrated its potential to create value for marketers. But those interested in using its tools must still determine whether that’s worth the investment and how to do it well. “Neuromarketing” loosely refers to the measurement of physiological and neural si...| Harvard Business Review
Sponsor content from Maslansky+Partners.| Harvard Business Review
Research shows you need to tap into deep, unspoken needs.| Harvard Business Review
Strategic thinking is an essential component of leadership — and yet for many leaders, it can be nearly impossible to find time for. In this piece, the author argues that there are two main barriers that keep leaders from devoting more time to strategic thinking: First, companies often incentivize long hours, and tethering yourself to your desk is rarely a recipe for innovative, strategic thinking. Second, many leaders want people to think they’re busy, so they lean into the frenzy. To fi...| Harvard Business Review
