HBR On Leadership

Do you have an employee who just gets on your nerves?

In this episode, Dear HBR cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer listener questions with the help of Art Markman, former professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and now the school’s Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

They talk through how to manage someone who is difficult, overly polite, or passive aggressive. Markman also offers advice for how to give your initial feedback and then follow up. He also has tips for coaching an employee who needs to improve their communication skills.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, managing conflicts, difficult conversations.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Dear HBR episode: Annoying Subordinates (2018)

· Find more episodes of Dear HBR.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Amid the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many U.S. business leaders promised to make workplaces more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. But these efforts have now slowed, and many DEI teams have faced cuts, and calls for anti-racist leadership have all but disappeared.

In this episode, James White, the former CEO of Jamba Juice, and his daughter and coauthor Krista White offer advice on how corporate leaders can promote lasting change in their organizations and society at large. They also discuss why it’s so important to engage middle managers in inclusion work—and how to do that.

James and Krista White are coauthors of the book Anti-Racist Leadership: How to Transform Corporate Culture in a Race-Conscious World.

Key episode topics include: leadership, race, diversity and inclusion, leadership and managing people.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: DEI Isn’t Enough; Companies Need Anti-Racist Leadership (2022)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Think of a large company you admire. What kind of leadership culture do they have — and how does that affect their ability to innovate?

If you went right to command-and-control leadership, you’re not alone. It’s a common approach to leading large organizations. But MIT Sloan School of Management researchers Deborah Ancona and Kate Isaacs argue that big organizations can be nimble if they have three types of leaders in the mix: entrepreneurial, enabling, and architecting.

In this episode, Ancona and Isaacs explain how some large organizations continually develop new talent by empowering employees to lead in their area of expertise and make choices about the projects to which they contribute. They also discuss the structures these companies have created to support leaders and their teams as they transition from hierarchical leadership to more autonomous ways of working.

Key episode topics include: leadership, innovation, business management.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: The 3 Types of Leaders of Innovative Companies (2019)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

What’s the best way to determine whether or not your business should engage on potentially controversial societal issues?

In this episode, Harvard Business School senior lecturer Hubert Joly explains how to create a process for decision-making around these issues, in collaboration with your board.

Joly wrote a case study based on his own time as chairman and CEO of electronics retailer Best Buy. When George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis in 2020, just a few miles from their global headquarters, Joly led the organization through weeks of unrest and protests in their community and within the firm.

The episode also offers lessons from other organizations, like Nike, Disney, and Starbucks, whose leaders have spoken out on issues related to racism and LGBTQ rights.

Key episode topics include: leadership, business ethics, social movements, corporate social responsibility.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: Should Businesses Take a Stand on Societal Issues? (2024)

· Find more episodes of Cold Call

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

Do you know how your best employees feel about their work?

Are they actually engaged and motivated? Or are they already looking for a better opportunity? If so, what would it take to make them want to stay?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to retain your best employees for the long term, including tactics you can use to help the people you manage feel valued and respected. You’ll also learn what to do when a valuable employee says they have another job offer.

Key episode topics include: leadership, employee retention, career coaching, managing teams.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Women at Work episode: The Essentials: Retaining Talent (2022)

· Find more episodes of Women at Work.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Joel Peterson has spent a career leading teams, building businesses, and managing people at every level. Along the way, he’s learned valuable lessons about the best ways to bring on new talent, as well as when and how to let people go.

Peterson is the former chairman of JetBlue Airways. He also teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

He shares his approach to hiring for top leadership positions and why it’s so important to slow down and take plenty of time with interviews. He also explains how he coaches new hires who are struggling and how he knows when it’s time to let someone go.

You’ll learn why Peterson says you shouldn’t wait for a “triggering event” to fire someone who’s not performing. And you’ll learn why he never outsources that difficult conversation to human resources.

Key episode topics include: leadership, dismissing employees, hiring and recruitment, managing people, difficult conversations, firing.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Rules for Effective Hiring — and Firing (2020)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge argues that every aspect of being an early-stage founder involves sales. But many founders lack an understanding of how to incorporates sales into their ventures.

Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are worth investing in? How aggressively should you align sales with customer success?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to hire for early sales roles, design compensation, and lay a strong foundation for a growing sales team.

Key episode topics include: leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, startups, entrepreneurial business strategy, pricing strategy, talent management.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing (2023)

· Find more episodes of Cold Call

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

Are you ready to be a manager?

In this episode, Ellen Van Oosten answers questions from listeners who are struggling to move into management. She offers advice for what to do when you’ve been tapped for a managerial role, but you don’t want the job. She also discusses how to respond if your supervisor is blocking you from earning a promotion into management, and how you can make the move to manager even if you only have informal management experience.

Van Oosten is a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. She’s also a coauthor of the book, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth.

Key episode topics include: leadership, careers, career transitions, managing people,

coaching, growth.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Dear HBR episode: Management Material (2020)

· Find more episodes of Dear HBR.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.

If you think your organization is difficult to maneuver, consider the unique challenges of government leadership.

Former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker and his former chief of staff Steve Kadish faced many challenges during Baker’s time in office—perhaps most notably: the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looking back, they argue that running a government is often much harder than leading a private-sector company. For one thing, Baker says, there’s rightly more public scrutiny of every decision you make as a leader. And, Kadish adds, decision-making is far more dispersed.

In this episode, they share their four-part framework for breaking down complicated problems with many stakeholders to get results. If you’re struggling with bureaucracy and politics in your organization, this episode is for you.

Key episode topics include: leadership, strategy execution, government, stakeholder management, decision making, problem solving, negotiation.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Leadership Lessons from a Republican Governor in a Blue State (2022)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.