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New research in management skills from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including how to measure the efficacy of the world's managers, and how managers can learn to share advice effectively.
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Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

by Bill George

General Electric, Wells Fargo, and Boeing all chose the wrong CEOs for the job, says Bill George, creating big problems for the companies. George outlines five common mistakes boards of directors make when selecting leaders and provides advice for picking the appropriate person for this all-important role.

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

by Ben Rand

Extroverts are more likely to express their passion outwardly, giving them a leg up when it comes to raises and promotions, according to research by Jon Jachimowicz. Introverts are just as motivated and excited about their work, but show it differently. How can managers challenge their assumptions?

Lessons from COVID-19: The Business Skills Doctors Need

by Michael Blanding

The pandemic forced many physicians to become supply chain experts and strategic planners. Robert Huckman and colleagues offer a roadmap for teaching doctors the management and leadership skills they need—before the next public health crisis. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What Companies Want Most in a CEO: A Good Listener

by Jay Fitzgerald

Financial expertise and operational experience will only take executives so far. More than ever, companies want senior leaders with strong social skills and emotional intelligence, says research by Raffaella Sadun and Joseph Fuller. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

by Tsedal Neeley

Now that we have learned the basics of working from home, managers need to relaunch their teams, advises Tsedal Neeley. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

We’ve Now Been Asking “What Do You Think?” for 20 Years

by James Heskett

James Heskett reflects on 20 years of writing his monthly business management column for HBS Working Knowledge. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

by Julia Hanna

Knitting together a diverse workforce into a common fabric is a difficult challenge for managers—and even more difficult for the workers themselves, say Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin Reid. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Hard Work Isn't Enough: How to Find Your Edge

by Dina Gerdeman

Life isn't fair, especially in the workplace. In Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, Laura Huang offers a new strategy for uncovering and showcasing your unique value in the face of obstacles. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

6 Traits That Set Top Business Leaders Apart

by Danielle Kost

What do the best leaders do differently? Harvard Business School faculty members highlight the leadership skills and qualities that separate good from great. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

by Julia Austin

As small companies grow to around 100 employees, the skills of their managers are challenged in new ways. Julia Austin describes how leaders themselves must scale. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Are You a Digital Manager?

by Martha Lagace

Linda Hill explains how the digital workplace is generating greater burdens on managers but also creating new opportunities to shine. PLUS: Book excerpt. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics

by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo

Which managerial skills, traits, and practices matter most for productivity? This study of a large garment firm in India analyzes the integration of features of managerial quality into a production process characterized by learning by doing.

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

by Dina Gerdeman

If you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own management shortcomings, counsels Alison Wood Brooks. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Creative Consulting Company

by Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton

Management theories cannot be tested in laboratories; they must be applied, tested, and extended in real organizations. For this reason the most creative consulting companies balance conflicting demands between short‐term business development and long‐term knowledge creation.

Learning to Manage: A Field Experiment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem

by Aaron Chatterji, Solene Delecourt, Sharique Hasan, and Rembrand Koning

This study of 100 high-growth startups in India finds that founder-executives can learn how to improve their management style from their peers at other firms. These interfirm network connections between founders may help explain why some companies are well managed and others less so. Despite the apparent value of this peer learning, founders don’t appear to naturally connect with peers who could help them improve their management style.

CEO Behavior and Firm Performance

by Oriana Bandiera, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Pratt, and Raffaella Sadun

This paper combines a new survey methodology with a machine learning algorithm to measure the behavior of CEOs in large samples. Results show that larger and more complex firms require CEOs with a more coordinative—and less micromanaging—behavior. Inefficiencies in the way CEOs match with firms have important consequences for firm productivity.

How Can We Hold the “Leadership Industry” Accountable?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP This month’s reader comments provide little hope that the leadership-development industry can achieve its goals, says James Heskett. So why does the leadership industry continue to thrive? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Advice on Advice

by Dina Gerdeman

To be effective leaders, we all need good advice, and we need to give good advice to others. Problem is, advice sharing is not as easy as it sounds, explain Joshua Margolis and the late David Garvin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

by Carmen Nobel

Over the past seven years, Harvard Business School's Raffaella Sadun and a team of researchers have interviewed managers at some 10,000 organizations in 20 countries. The goal: to determine how and why management practices differ vastly in style and quality not only across nations, but also across various organizations and industries. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Horrible Boss Workarounds

by Carmen Nobel

Bad bosses are generally more inept than evil, and often aren't purposefully bad, says Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. She discusses common bad-boss behaviors, and how good colleagues can mobilize to overcome the roadblocks. Key concepts include: Common traits of bad bosses include a failure to communicate goals effectively, if at all; a failure to realize that employees have more to offer than their job descriptions dictate, and a tendency to get caught up in the details to the detriment of the big picture. Employees can work around bad-boss roadblocks by proactively mobilizing their peers toward a common goal. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.