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Laura Schneider for HBR The digital industry is riding an important—and turbulent—wave of change right now. As Facebook and others grapple with tough questions about data privacy and security practices, trust in social platforms appears to be plummeting. Companies and analysts are scrambling to figure out how to make privacy rules clear, protect user data, and […]

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images On a Saturday night in Modena, a picturesque city in one of the most well-known culinary regions of Italy, a couple and their two young sons dined at the three-Michelin star restaurant Osteria Francescana. The father ordered for the family “Tradition in Evolution,” a tasting menu with 10 of the restaurant’s most […]

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images Bias against parents — and especially mothers — has been well documented. We call it the “Maternal Wall,” and we’ve been studying it for years, researching how women who have always been successful at work sometimes find their competence questioned when they take maternity leave or ask for a flexible work schedule. […]

beastfromeast/Getty Images Not long ago, I had the chance to speak to a networking group for job seekers over the age of 40. Many of the people in attendance had worked for over 10 years at companies and were then let go. A number of them had been out of work for six months or […]

PM Images/Getty Images For years, companies, universities and nonprofits have researched the reasons why women are less likely to enter STEM fields — and why, once they enter, they face challenges that frequently push them out. In prior research, we at the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) found that women leave STEM fields in droves: 52% […]

Luis Diaz Devesa/Getty Images You’re double booked. It’s not just one meeting scheduled over another. It’s something for your family at odds with a work commitment. These situations can trigger guilt and stress. Guilt because you feel like you’re letting others down — no matter what you decide, you will lose. And stress because you […]

pbombaert/Getty Images The revelations of the #MeToo movement seem to have caught many men by surprise. Comedian Aziz Ansari was “surprised and concerned,” believing his encounter with a woman to be “by all indications completely consensual.” Well-known actor Richard Dreyfus was “bewildered to discover” an incident wasn’t consensual, leading him to “reassess every relationship I […]

Jamie Jones/Getty Images In 1997, health information technology and digitial health pioneer Warner Slack wrote his bold and prophetic book, Cybermedicine: How Computing Empowers Doctors and Patients for Better Care.  Slack argued that “the electronic digital computer, with its capacity to hold large amounts of data and to execute multiple complex instructions and accuracy would…find […]

Bhavesh1988/Getty Images Over the last few decades, the job market in the U.S. has changed in many ways. But one trend that hasn’t received nearly enough attention is the steady rise of occupational licensing: more and more jobs are requiring workers to be licensed to enter the profession. In the 1950s, approximately 5% of U.S. […]

Bhavesh1988/Getty Images Over the last few decades, the job market in the U.S. has changed in many ways. But one trend that hasn’t received nearly enough attention is the steady rise of occupational licensing: more and more jobs are requiring workers to be licensed to enter the profession. In the 1950s, approximately 5% of U.S. […]

hamzaturkkol/Getty Images When employees lack self-confidence, it can be hard to get them to perform at their best. So how can you help them excel at their job? What kind of coaching should you provide? What’s the best way to boost their self-esteem? And how do you deal with your own frustration around their insecure behavior? What […]

HBR Staff/Arata Photography/Getty Images “Cheetos! Please Cheetos!” Riku Nakamura’s daughter, Akari, lunged toward the grocery store shelf. His wife, Aoi, sighed. “Remind me: Why are we walking down this aisle again?” “I wanted to see how rice cakes are displayed. I don’t understand why our rice crackers can’t be in this section, too.” Aoi nodded […]

Raymond Gehman/Getty Images Today, monitoring technologies are increasingly inexpensive—and staggeringly expansive. This has made it easier than ever for managers to intensively monitor employees at work. These technologies run the gamut, from body-worn cameras and closed-circuit televisions, to traceable identification cards and keystroke trackers. Managers in banks, hospitals, police departments, call-centers, and retail outlets who want […]

Raymond Gehman/Getty Images Today, monitoring technologies are increasingly inexpensive—and staggeringly expansive. This has made it easier than ever for managers to intensively monitor employees at work. These technologies run the gamut, from body-worn cameras and closed-circuit televisions, to traceable identification cards and keystroke trackers. Managers in banks, hospitals, police departments, call-centers, and retail outlets who want […]

Raymond Gehman/Getty Images Today, monitoring technologies are increasingly inexpensive—and staggeringly expansive. This has made it easier than ever for managers to intensively monitor employees at work. These technologies run the gamut, from body-worn cameras and closed-circuit televisions, to traceable identification cards and keystroke trackers. Managers in banks, hospitals, police departments, call-centers, and retail outlets who want […]

Raymond Gehman/Getty Images Today, monitoring technologies are increasingly inexpensive—and staggeringly expansive. This has made it easier than ever for managers to intensively monitor employees at work. These technologies run the gamut, from body-worn cameras and closed-circuit televisions, to traceable identification cards and keystroke trackers. Managers in banks, hospitals, police departments, call-centers, and retail outlets who want […]

Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. surgeon general, explains what can be done. from HBR.org https://ift.tt/2Hn6Nm1

Amanda Goodall, a senior lecturer at Cass Business School in London, argues that the best leaders are technical experts, not general managers. She discusses her research findings about doctors who head up hospitals, scholars who lead universities, and all-star basketball players who go on to manage teams. She also gives advice for what to do […]

Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. surgeon general, explains what can be done. from HBR.org https://ift.tt/2Hn6Nm1

Nicholas Blechman for HBR In the early days of corporate environmentalism, the focus was mainly on big, heavy industries. Fossil fuels and mining had the most obvious environmental issues, as well as extensive regulatory regimes to navigate. These days, however, sustainability discussions are more often focused on the actions of consumer product, retail, and tech […]

pm images/Getty Images Pay TV has over $100 billion in revenue in the U.S., with a wide array of large and small firms vying for a piece of the action. As recently as 2012, over 90% of U.S. households subscribed to cable, satellite, or another pay TV service. But the market is in turmoil, despite attempts to […]

Keiichi Ichikawa/EyeEm/Getty Images Loneliness is a painful and pernicious emotion. Defined as “a complex set of feelings that occurs when intimate and social needs are not adequately met,” loneliness is different from depression, being alone, or feelings of solitude. It has more to do with a person’s quality of social relationships rather than their quantity. […]

Donna Grethen/Getty Images We often hear about the power of personality, and how some traits are beneficial for our careers while others are more harmful. For example, we know that being more conscientious (hard-working, driven, reliable, and organized) is associated with better job performance, and that being nice (more agreeable) does not pay off in […]

Donna Grethen/Getty Images We often hear about the power of personality, and how some traits are beneficial for our careers while others are more harmful. For example, we know that being more conscientious (hard-working, driven, reliable, and organized) is associated with better job performance, and that being nice (more agreeable) does not pay off in […]

Philip gould/Getty Images When you’re a leader — no matter how long you’ve been in your role or how hard the journey was to get there — you are merely overhead unless you’re bringing out the best in your employees. Unfortunately, many leaders lose sight of this. Power, as my colleague Ena Inesi has studied, can […]

Project Apollo Archive/NASA Johnson Space Center/Flickr NASA today is a very different beast from the NASA of the 1960s. Though many would call that decade NASA’s golden age, we’d argue that NASA’s innovation and influence is even greater today. Since the Apollo program, NASA has faced funding cuts, competition from other nations for space leadership, […]

vincent tsui for hbr When someone you work with annoys you, it’s tempting to avoid the person as much as possible. But this isn’t always feasible and often only makes the situation worse. You’re better off cultivating some empathy. How can you do that with a colleague who rubs you the wrong way? How can […]

htu/Getty Images Is there someone on your team who seems unusually productive? Someone who gets a huge amount done — without working longer hours? Super-productive people are in every industry. The most productive software developers write nine times more usable code per day than the average developer, according to research by Michael Mankins. He also found that […]

Is your boss making your life miserable? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Moshe Cohen, a senior lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. They talk through what to do when your boss is a jerk, a workaholic, […]

diane555/Getty Images Alongside popular misconceptions that healthy people do not need the flu shot and myths about the harmful side effects of the vaccine, numerous studies have shown that one of the biggest reasons people don’t get vaccinated is that a physician never recommends it. (Eighty percent of patients say they would be more likely to […]

CSA Images/Getty Images You want to be a great boss. You want your company to be a great place to work. But right now, at this very moment, one of your key employees might be about to walk out the door. She has consistently brought her best game to work and has grown into a […]

CSA Images/Getty Images You want to be a great boss. You want your company to be a great place to work. But right now, at this very moment, one of your key employees might be about to walk out the door. She has consistently brought her best game to work and has grown into a […]

CSA Images/Getty Images You want to be a great boss. You want your company to be a great place to work. But right now, at this very moment, one of your key employees might be about to walk out the door. She has consistently brought her best game to work and has grown into a […]

CSA Images/Getty Images You want to be a great boss. You want your company to be a great place to work. But right now, at this very moment, one of your key employees might be about to walk out the door. She has consistently brought her best game to work and has grown into a […]

Colormos/Getty Images Imagine this: You’re a general manager for a manufacturing company and orders are up. You know you should be celebrating, but instead, you feel gut punched. Your plants are facing severe capacity and material constraints and you know you can’t fill these orders. Now you have to decide which ones to fill, which […]

Yenpitsu Nemoto/Getty Images Conventional wisdom suggests that negotiators need alternatives to succeed. Alternatives give negotiators the confidence to negotiate offers more ambitiously, to push for more optimal outcomes, and to walk away from the table when needed. But negotiators often have no alternative at all. For example, a recent survey by GMAC suggests that the […]

HBR Staff/Chris Minerva/Getty Images In the past decade, content marketing has become a widely established practice. Companies have hired writers and Chief Content Officers to run departments, create blogs and other materials, and, in the process, some have assured sales people that content marketing can mean the end of cold calling. The playbook sounds simple: […]

andrew nguyen/hbr staff/the new york public library I don’t often start essays about leadership with insights from French novelists, but in this case it seems appropriate. “The real act of discovery,” Marcel Proust wrote, “consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” Today the most successful companies don’t just outcompete their […]

andrew nguyen/hbr staff/the new york public library I don’t often start essays about leadership with insights from French novelists, but in this case it seems appropriate. “The real act of discovery,” Marcel Proust wrote, “consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” Today the most successful companies don’t just outcompete their […]

Jobalou/Getty Images As a leader, you probably juggle many things at work and at home. You’re not alone. Most executives I coach struggle with balancing parenting and work duties. They worry that they aren’t spending enough time with their children, and they’d like to help their children learn from their experience and avoid mistakes they’ve made. […]

Keystone-France/Getty Images I got an early start in business. By the time I was 17 years old, I was a partner in a fast-growing company, and when I decided to hire a close friend of my father’s, I was thrilled when he agreed to join. But it was awkward from the beginning. This man had known […]

Paul Daugherty and James Wilson, senior technology leaders at Accenture, argue that robots and smarter computers aren’t coming for our jobs. They talk about companies that are already giving employees access to artificial intelligence to strengthen their skills. They also give examples of new roles for people in an AI workplace. Daugherty and Wilson are […]

andy sacks/Getty Images When a company needs a supervisor for a team, senior leaders often anoint the team’s most productive performer. Some of these stars succeed in their new role as manager; many others do not. And when they fail, they tend to leave the organization, costing the company double: Not only has the team […]

As the new general manager of the Global Research & Innovative Technology Center (GRIT) at Hitachi Metals, Kenichi Inoue is tasked with creating an updated framework for research and development in advanced materials, helping his organization make the shift to a new approach to engineering and innovation in a disrupted world. With products that include […]

vincent tsui for hbr Even companies that claim to have a long-term orientation worry about whether R&D is worth the investment. Sarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal (formerly Focusing Capital on the Long Term), an organization cofounded in 2016 by BlackRock, CPPIB, Dow Chemical, McKinsey, and Tata Sons to encourage a longer-term focus in […]

Martin Holste/EyeEm/Getty Images There is no shortage of hot takes regarding the significant impact that artificial intelligence (AI) is going to have on business in the near future. Much less has been written about how, exactly, companies should get started with it. In our research and in our book, we begin by distilling AI down […]

dave wheeler for hbr The U.S. Senate and House hearings last week on Facebook’s use of data and foreign interference in the U.S. election raised important challenges concerning data privacy, security, ethics, transparency, and responsibility. They also illuminated what could become a vast chasm between traditional privacy and security laws and regulations and rapidly evolving […]

Antonio Iacobelli/Getty Images In front of a packed room of MIT students and alumni, Vivienne Ming is holding forth in a style all her own. “Embrace cyborgs,” she calls out, as she clicks to a slide that raises eyebrows even in this tech-smitten crowd. “Really. Fifteen to 25 years from now, cognitive neuroprosthetics will fundamentally change […]

HBR Staff The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. The guy who replaced him invented the idea of the modern corporation. If you want to understand the future of Tesla, and Elon Musk’s role […]

anucha sirivisansuwan/Getty Images On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Donald Trump often slammed American leaders for publicly telegraphing their ISIS strategy. “Whatever happened to the element of surprise, OK? We announce we’re going after Mosul,” he said during the last debate with his opponent. “I have been reading about going after Mosul now for about — […]

tomas robertson/unsplash For women with leadership ambitions, there is no shortage of advice for how to reach the top. By learning to lean in, speak out, negotiate, delegate, and a dozen other behaviors, women everywhere are launching themselves through the glass ceilings of their organizations, landing jobs at or near the C-suite level. But what […]

tomas robertson/unsplash For women with leadership ambitions, there is no shortage of advice for how to reach the top. By learning to lean in, speak out, negotiate, delegate, and a dozen other behaviors, women everywhere are launching themselves through the glass ceilings of their organizations, landing jobs at or near the C-suite level. But what […]

tomas robertson/unsplash For women with leadership ambitions, there is no shortage of advice for how to reach the top. By learning to lean in, speak out, negotiate, delegate, and a dozen other behaviors, women everywhere are launching themselves through the glass ceilings of their organizations, landing jobs at or near the C-suite level. But what […]

andrew nguyen/hbr staff/the new york public library “If only we could tell our stories better,” is a refrain I hear often from people I work with in the science and technology community. And I understand why. In my experience, startup and technical business leaders don’t tell their innovation stories well. This is a huge missed […]

Emma Kim/Getty Images There are so many articles about the challenges and stresses of being a working parent. But this is an article about joy. Let me just, for a moment, shine a light on the pleasures that await you once your kids have grown up and left home – it comes faster than you […]

HBR Staff Too many leaders avoid making tough calls. In an effort not to upset others or lose status in the eyes of their followers, they concoct sophisticated justifications for putting off difficult decisions, and the delay often does far more damage than whatever fallout they were trying to avoid. In fact, hard decisions often get […]

MINORU KIDA/Getty Images When Tony Hsieh, founder of  Zappos, was asked what he’d do differently if he could restart his company from scratch, he responded with this: “If I could go back and do Zappos all over again I would actually come up with our values from day one.” Developing your corporate values early in […]

Henrik Sorensen/Getty Images Stephen Curry has built his NBA career on taking shots that others don’t: three-pointers from a crazy distance. Traditionally, defenders didn’t worry much about contesting these long-distance shots; there’s such a low likelihood they’ll actually make it into the basket. But the Golden State Warriors star practiced and practiced until they weren’t unlikely for him. […]

japatino/Getty Images Many industries have had to downsize sales forces. There are several reasons for recent sales force job cuts: Shifting market dynamics are one cause, including changing customer needs, customer consolidation, new buying channels, and slowing market growth. Merck recently publicized that it planned to lay off about 1,800 U.S. sales reps following an […]

HBR Staff Over the last year, there has been no shortage of avoidable PR nightmares for leading corporate brands. In January, fashion retailer H&M came under fire for an advertisement featuring a young black boy in a green hoodie bearing the words “coolest monkey in the jungle.” Last year Pepsi faced criticism for its ad featuring Kendall Jenner […]

yuoak/Getty Images We’ve all been there: You’re talking to someone from another culture — perhaps while on a business trip or working with a colleague on a project — when you get a sinking feeling that you’ve made a mistake. Maybe it was a joke that misfired, an unintentional violation of personal space, or a misreading of […]

yuoak/Getty Images We’ve all been there: You’re talking to someone from another culture — perhaps while on a business trip or working with a colleague on a project — when you get a sinking feeling that you’ve made a mistake. Maybe it was a joke that misfired, an unintentional violation of personal space, or a misreading of […]

yuoak/Getty Images We’ve all been there: You’re talking to someone from another culture — perhaps while on a business trip or working with a colleague on a project — when you get a sinking feeling that you’ve made a mistake. Maybe it was a joke that misfired, an unintentional violation of personal space, or a misreading of […]

yuoak/Getty Images We’ve all been there: You’re talking to someone from another culture — perhaps while on a business trip or working with a colleague on a project — when you get a sinking feeling that you’ve made a mistake. Maybe it was a joke that misfired, an unintentional violation of personal space, or a misreading of […]

MirageC/Getty Images It’s hard to know if we’re really making efficient use of our time. It seems like we’re working hard — and we’re certainly stressed out. But are we spending our time on the right things? That’s the question I set out to solve at the start of this year. I was feeling overwhelmed after […]

Steve Lewis Stock/Getty Images Scented environments have been shown to reduce typos made by office workers; improve the perception of product quality; increase purchase intent, average unit sales, and duration of a retail visit or stay among consumers; and boost the willingness of consumers to pay more for a product. But from offices and trade show […]

Nancy Rothbard, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, draws a distinction between workaholism and working long hours. She explains the health consequences of being addicted to your work. She also gives practical advice for managing work addiction, whether it’s you who’s suffering, your direct report, boss, peer, or partner. Rothbard […]

PM Images/Getty Images It’s no secret that black people are widely underrepresented in the highest-status professional jobs. Even when they have Harvard MBAs, black women are generally absent in leadership positions at most Fortune 500 companies, and black men are in high-ranking roles in only a handful. Researchers who have examined black women in corporate settings generally highlight […]

Laura Schneider for HBR Imagine you are putting together a team for an important project. You have two candidates for the last slot. First, there’s Tess. She has not only a lot of relevant experience but also a wide network in the industry. She seems to know all about the emerging trends; her colleagues marvel […]

B.S.P.I./Getty Images Lately, we have been hearing a lot from our clients about “toxic” coworkers and teammates. This issue isn’t new; there have been bad coworkers since the beginning of organized work. But these days, their impact feels bigger and more destructive. Businesses need teamwork to function. And teams need to be more collaborative, adaptable, […]

tim evans for hbr Few people today call a doctor when they feel a bout of nostalgia coming on. But for 200 years, nostalgia was considered a dangerous disease that could trigger delusions, despair, and even death. A 17th-century Swiss physician coined the word to describe the debilitating algos (pain) felt by people who had […]

Daniel Grizelj/Getty Images No one wants to think they got to the top through an unfair advantage. You want to feel that you’ve earned it — that your hard work and carefully honed skills have paid off. But the evidence on diversity in the workplace is conclusive: There are lots of people held back by bias. And […]

Bernhard Lang/Getty Images Leaders today hear a lot about the importance of having good networks. For example, firms with better-connected CEOs can obtain cheaper financing, and firms with well-connected board directors see better performance. We wanted to explore whether the diversity of CEOs’ networks might affect their firms. Our study, published in the Journal of […]

Eric Thayer/stringer/Getty Images It’s a predictable part of nearly every big business scandal: the moment when the CEO is summoned to Capitol Hill to testify before a congressional committee. For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, this rite of passage happens this week, when he will testify about data breaches and how foreign states allegedly used social […]

Bloomberg/Getty Images “If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you’re going to wake up this morning as a software and analytics company.” Jeff Immelt, former CEO of General Electric The second wave of digitization is set to disrupt all spheres of economic life. As venture capital investor Marc Andreesen pointed out, […]

andrew nguyen/hbr staff/dan gold/unsplash In May the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect, two years after passage by the European Parliament. This radical new privacy law, which covers any business that processes information about EU residents, will dramatically affect the way data is collected, stored, and used, including for U.S. companies doing […]

kelly bowden/Getty Images Last month, Facebook announced in a brief statement that it will be shutting down Partner Categories, a feature that allows marketers to target ads on the company’s universe of platforms by using third-party data provided by data brokers. The move, which comes during a period of intense scrutiny over the social media […]

Jens Magnusson/Getty Images Ever since Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, observers have bemoaned boards of directors as being ineffective as both monitors and advisors of management. Because a CEO often effectively controls the director selection process, he will tend to choose directors who are unlikely to oppose him, and who are unlikely […]

Hayon Thapaliya/hbr staff “Katherine, have a go at it?” I love this scene from the 2017 movie, Hidden Figures. Katherine, played by Taraji P. Henson, is put on the spot by her boss, played by Kevin Costner, in a room filled with top brass NASA officials — all male. She is asked to go to […]

Hayon Thapaliya/hbr staff “Katherine, have a go at it?” I love this scene from the 2017 movie, Hidden Figures. Katherine, played by Taraji P. Henson, is put on the spot by her boss, played by Kevin Costner, in a room filled with top brass NASA officials — all male. She is asked to go to […]

Andrew Nguyen/HBR Staff/The New York Public Library It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the crush of email. In fact, one study showed the average professional spends 4.1 hours per day responding to work messages. During a recent time tracking exercise, I discovered I’m actually at the low end of the spectrum, spending about 1.35 hours […]

Busá Photography/Getty Images It happens all the time: A group of managers get together at a resort for two days to hammer out a “strategic plan.” Done and dusted, they all head home. But have they produced a plan with a strategy? At the start of my public seminars on strategic planning I ask attendees, […]

Do you want to shake up your career? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Whitney Johnson, the author of Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work. They talk through what to do when you’ve trained for one career and […]

Do you want to shake up your career? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Whitney Johnson, the author of Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work. They talk through what to do when you’ve trained for one career and […]

Hayon Thapaliya/JoKMedia/Getty Images As a coach and international business school instructor, I have worked with hundreds of current and future leaders who are accomplished, bright, and capable — and who quickly lose their confidence and competence when making business presentations. For a subset of these leaders — those who need to present in English when […]

Hayon Thapaliya for HBR Selena Rezvani was in an all-day strategy session when she faced a challenge many women of color are intimately familiar with: she was expected to arrange lunch for everyone present. Simultaneously, seven heads in the room turned towards her, the only non-white person in the room, to place the order. “No one […]

Martin Barraud/Getty Images The Trump Administration has a historically unprecedented rate of turnover of the senior staff, and it shows no sign of abating. This level of disruption would be difficult for any organization to handle. But these difficulties are compounded in the unique environment of the White House — and, for reasons I’ll elaborate […]

Jurgen Ziewe/Getty Images Over the past few decades, Silicon Valley has been such a powerful engine for entrepreneurship in technology that, all too often, it is considered to be some kind of panacea. Corporate executives seek to inject “Silicon Valley DNA” into their cultures, and policy makers point to venture-funded entrepreneurship as a solution for […]

Marion Barraud for HBR Employees take leaves of absence for all sorts of reasons, from dealing with a cancer diagnosis to caring for a sick child. In one survey, 13% of U.S. employees reported taking time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act in the past 12 months. When the employee comes back to the office, […]

Imagno/Getty Images Show me a person who sees uncertainty as opportunity, and I’ll show you a person who has mastered the new world of work. A person like Juliet (not her real name), for example, who described a stressful stretch of her career as “disgustingly exciting.” Juliet had left full-time employment in the public sector […]

Hayon Thapaliya for HBR There is a paradox when it comes to what we expect in leaders. On the one hand, we believe that effective leaders display humility — they bring out the best in others, are open to admitting their shortcomings and mistakes, and give appreciation and credit to their followers. Recent public scandals demonstrate […]

hbr staff/umanoide/unsplash/energepic.com/pexels Many of us have had a bad workplace interaction with a boss — for example, being yelled at or sworn at in front of others, receiving no credit for work that required serious effort or extra hours, or being humiliated for a past mistake. At best, such experiences can be frustrating and demotivating; at […]

HBR Staff In an era where nearly every consumer good and service — from books and groceries to babysitting and shared rides — can be purchased through an electronic transaction on a mobile device, it seems reasonable to think that more and more of our health care can also be managed using apps on mobile devices. Proponents of […]

Hayon Thapaliya/Bloomberg Contributor/Getty Images By now we are all familiar with the risks of burnout. Research shows that it leads to work-related issues such as job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, inefficient decision making, and turnover, as well as health-related issues such as depression, heart disease, and even death. Research also reveals some of the common causes of […]

Hayon Thapaliya/Bloomberg Contributor/Getty Images By now we are all familiar with the risks of burnout. Research shows that it leads to work-related issues such as job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, inefficient decision making, and turnover, as well as health-related issues such as depression, heart disease, and even death. Research also reveals some of the common causes of […]

Dan Cable, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, explains why people often lose their enthusiasm for their work and how leaders can help them get it back. He says we shouldn’t forget that as humans we all need to explore and have purpose — and without that, we languish. Cable offers ideas […]

MirageC/Getty Images Fear of failure stalks the world of the entrepreneur, from losing key clients to running out of money. For entrepreneurs, courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to persist in spite of it. These fears are well-founded: Studies suggest that roughly 75% of ventures fail within 10 years (see U.S. […]

Kroeger/Gross/Getty Images If you cannot remember the last time you had a glass of organic wine, you are hardly alone. Overall, less than 5% of the world’s vineyards are organic. In the United States, the world’s largest consumer of wine, only 1% of wine sold by volume was organic. The paltry market for organic wine […]

Phil Marden/Getty Images The conventional wisdom—that the best care is delivered in-person by experienced caregivers—may soon be overturned. Rising health care costs, a shortage of physicians, and a rapidly aging population are making the traditional model of care increasingly unsustainable. But new uses of virtual health and digital technologies may help the industry manage these […]

How many times have you heard an executive assign familiar aphorisms to business challenges–and you just know it’s a means to justify bad behavior? They might say “business isn’t personal” as an excuse for sub-par treatment of others. Executives demand that employees “do more with less,” but then don’t allow people to focus on less. […]

Drew Angerer/Staff/Getty Images The United States is experiencing a human capital crisis at all levels of government. Even among graduates of public affairs programs, the interest in joining the public sector is dwindling as baby boomers retire and Millennials look elsewhere to make an impact on society. But this is more than a numbers issue. […]

Bruno Vincent/Staff/Getty Images Just as people differ in height, musical talent, or sense of humor, there are also pretty consistent differences in people’s ability to understand how others see them. Such differences are usually attributed to their self-awareness, though a more appropriate name for this ability would be other-awareness: awareness of how our actions affect — […]

Bruno Vincent/Staff/Getty Images Just as people differ in height, musical talent, or sense of humor, there are also pretty consistent differences in people’s ability to understand how others see them. Such differences are usually attributed to their self-awareness, though a more appropriate name for this ability would be other-awareness: awareness of how our actions affect — […]

Hans Blossey/Getty Images Like any extreme trait, perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. Having high standards and being hardworking can help someone stand out in a crowded field, and their tenacity can help them improve their skills over time. And, to an extent, being very conscientious can help avoid errors. The benefits I’ve mentioned, and […]

Stephen Smith for HBR “Why don’t we get credit for all the good things we do?” the CEO of a major global corporation asked me recently. After all, the company has innovative and impactful programs to ensure safe working conditions; training programs to help low-wage workers in its supply chain increase their earnings; numerous environmental […]

Alan Schein Photography/Getty Images Poor data quality is enemy number one to the widespread, profitable use of machine learning. While the caustic observation, “garbage-in, garbage-out” has plagued analytics and decision-making for generations, it carries a special warning for machine learning. The quality demands of machine learning are steep, and bad data can rear its ugly […]

rawpixel/Getty Images We invest billions of dollars each year in medicines, new technologies, doctors, and hospitals—all with the goal of improving health, arguably our most prized commodity.  Yet, investments in the U.S. health care system woefully underperform relative to those made in health care in other countries. For instance, the U.S. spends nearly 7–10% more […]

hbr staff/the new york public library Imagine you are a fly on the wall in a corporate training center where a management team of 12 is participating in a session on executing strategy. The team is midway through attempting to solve a new, uncertain, and complex problem. The facilitators look on as at first the […]

vincent tsui for hbr Your boss sits you down for some tough feedback: You are not conscientious enough. She points out that you have missed several deadlines and show a pattern of failing to remember important details. At first, you feel defensive — it is just your personality that she’s describing. Hey, I can’t get bogged down in details! I’m […]

Learn how leaders can develop an “adaptively authentic” style in this video slide deck. Download a customizable version here. from HBR.org http://bit.ly/2pRzMCS

MirageC/Getty Images After a blizzard of hype surrounding the electronic health record (EHR), health professionals are now in full backlash mode against this complex new tool. They are rightly seen as a major cause of professional burnout among physicians and nurses: Clinicians are spending almost half their professional time typing, clicking, and checking boxes on […]

Jakub Domerecki/EyeEm/Getty Images A young friend recently remarked that the worst boss he ever had would provide him with feedback that always consisted of “You’re doing a great job.” But they both knew it wasn’t true — the organization was in disarray, turnover was excessive, and customers were not happy. My friend was giving it […]

Nick Purser/Getty Images Companies today spend millions of dollars on workplace diversity programs and outreach, often with little to show for it. Research has found that most workplace diversity programs fail to produce meaningful diversity and inclusion, and some have actually increased bias among individual employees. In STEM fields, both the private and public sectors […]

Trina Dalziel/Getty Images The relentless rise of online retailers has led to deep soul searching among brick-and-mortar retailers to find ways to compete. The traditional methods of competing through convenience, assortment, and pricing are largely ineffective against online retailers who outperform brick-and-mortar retailers in these dimensions. The last arrow in the quiver is to use service […]

HBR Staff/Tom Kelley Archive/Getty Images As former baseball pitcher Vernon Law once put it, experience is a hard teacher because it gives the test first, and only then provides the lesson. Perhaps this observation can explain the results of a survey sponsored by the Association of American Colleges & Universities. Among college students, 64% said they were […]

HBR Staff/Tom Kelley Archive/Getty Images As former baseball pitcher Vernon Law once put it, experience is a hard teacher because it gives the test first, and only then provides the lesson. Perhaps this observation can explain the results of a survey sponsored by the Association of American Colleges & Universities. Among college students, 64% said they were […]

Luciano Lozano/Getty Images When you join an organization, you have a short window of time to adapt to its culture. It’s the old 90-day rule. And we know too many talented individuals who have stumbled in their new company because they failed to read the cultural tea leaves. This happens because most organizations don’t explain […]

Gillian Blease/Getty Images Nearly 800 digital health startups were funded in 2017, an all-time high. Each of the new companies offers the hope of transforming the performance of the U.S. health care system. The audience for such innovation wants to be receptive: A recent American Hospital Association (AHA) survey found that 75% of senior hospital […]

Bloomberg/Getty Images Passenger electric cars get all the press, especially when someone launches one into space. But something important is going on in the world of commercial vehicles as well. Last year Tesla announced it would produce an electric long-haul big rig. PepsiCo, Walmart, and UPS promptly committed to buying a few hundred. More recently, UPS […]

Phil Ashley/Getty Images Each year, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, sends a much-anticipated letter to leading CEOs. This year, chief executive Larry Fink’s focus was on why it is imperative for business to contribute to society. One of the first big issues he highlighted was retirement: “Many [individuals across the world] don’t have the […]

Daniel Day/Getty Images I first met Eric (not his real name) in a new manager training I was facilitating. He had recently become a manager after several successful years as an individual contributor and was excited to learn more about his new role. Throughout the next two days Eric fully immersed himself, engaging with other […]

MEHAU KULYK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images Over the past year, the healthcare industry found itself under constant attack. Cybercriminals targeted vulnerable clinical networks and poor controls to gain privileged access to medical devices and databases on an almost daily basis. Consider that in just the first two months of 2018, 24 health care provider organizations reported […]

Hayon thapaliya for hbr Most employees, at one point or another, have been the victim of incivility at work. Ranging from snarky comments or rude interruptions to being disrespected in a brusque email, organizations can be breeding grounds for this type of behavior. Compared to more egregious forms of workplace mistreatment like sexual harassment, incivility—which […]

agalma/Getty Images Does cultural background affect a leader’s decision making? There’s a lot of research on how leaders living in different cultures behave, but little on how cultural heritage shapes leaders — even though this would seem to be just as meaningful for business performance as other factors like experience and education. We sought to fill […]

Professors Michael Toffel, of Harvard Business School, and Aaron Chatterji, of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, discuss the emerging phenomenon of CEO activism. They explain how political polarization in the U.S. and employee expectations around company values are pushing corporate leaders to enter into controversial political and social debates. Toffel and Chatterji are the coauthors […]

James Graham/Getty Images “It’s no good fighting an election campaign on the facts,” Cambridge Analytica’s managing director told an undercover reporter, “because actually it’s all about emotion.” To target U.S. voters and appeal to their hopes, neuroses, and fears, the political consulting firm needed to train its algorithm to predict and map personality traits. That required lots of personal […]

VANDAL Photography/Getty Images We often blame tech for our worst habits, like distraction or bad spelling. But our phones, computers, and gadgets can just as easily help us build good habits — if we understand how habits work and the right technology to use. Devices can even help us break bad habits, if we use them to create […]