Personal Development and Career →
- 17 Sep 2014
- Sharpening Your Skills
Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills
Everyone negotiates, but few negotiate well. Here is a collection of Working Knowledge articles and faculty working papers that detail some of the the skills needed to negotiate successfully. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Manager in Red Sneakers
Wearing the corporate uniform may not be the best way to dress for success. Research by Silvia Bellezza, Francesca Gino, and Anat Keinan shows there may be prestige advantages when you stand out rather than fit in. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel Dirty
Network ties are essential to advancement in organizations: they provide access to opportunities, political insight, and technical knowledge. Yet networking with the goal of advancement often leaves individuals feeling somehow bad about themselves—even dirty. The authors use field and laboratory data to examine how goal-oriented or instrumental networking influences individual emotions, attitudes, and outcomes, including consequences for an individual's morality. The authors argue that networking for professional goals can impinge on an individual's moral purity—a psychological state that results from a person's view of the self as clean from a moral standpoint and through which a person feels virtuous—and thus make him or her feel dirty. There are three main insights: First, the authors show the importance of a clear conceptual distinction between instrumental networking driven by individual agency versus spontaneous networking reflecting the constraints and opportunities of the social context. Second, the research establishes the relevance of moral psychology for network theory. Third, because people in powerful positions do not experience the morally contaminating effects of instrumental networking, power emerges from this research as yielding unequal access to networking opportunities, thus reinforcing and perpetuating inequality in performance. Key concepts include: Professional-instrumental networking is the purposeful creation of social ties in support of task and professional goals. The content and approach of networking each influence the psychological experience of those engaging in it, including a person's feelings of moral purity. The amount of power people have when they engage in instrumental networking for professional goals influences how dirty such networking can make them feel. Organizations need to create opportunities for emergent forms of networking, because people who need instrumental networking the most are the least likely to do it. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Oct 2013
- Research & Ideas
Overcoming Nervous Nelly
In situations from business negotiations to karaoke, Alison Wood Brooks explores the harmful effects of anxiety on performance—and how to combat them. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
Who Sets Your Benchmarks?
In his new book, What You're Really Meant to Do, Robert Steven Kaplan outlines a step-by-step approach to defining success on your own terms. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Mar 2013
- Research & Ideas
Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup
Campbell Soup had lost its way when Douglas Conant took charge in 2001. His first task: get out of his quiet zone and apply bold measures. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Mar 2013
- Research & Ideas
Marissa Mayer Should Bridge Distance Gap with Remote Workers
Marissa Mayer's decision to bring work-at-home Yahoo! employees back to the office has set off a firestorm. Lakshmi Ramarajan writes on how to mitigate the problem. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Mar 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
Prominent Job Advertisements, Group Learning, and Wage Dispersion
What role do peers play when job seekers assess prospects? This research presents a stylized model that generates wage inequality as a result of people's reliance on peers for information about the wages that are offered in the market and the length of time one can expect to spend unemployed. The key idea of the model is that people whose peers have low wages and short unemployment spells come to expect that all jobs have relatively low wages so they accept low-wage jobs relatively quickly even when they shouldn't. People with peers that have higher wages are, instead, more choosy and wait for better jobs. Key concepts include: Because workers search for jobs only a few times in their entire lifetimes, their ability to learn about the distribution of wage offers from their own experience is extremely limited. They may thus base their decisions mostly on the information provided by people they know. Peer groups can lead their members to accept relatively unattractive jobs by causing them to believe that better opportunities are more scarce than they actually are. More sophisticated workers wait for higher wages and learn from their group that it is rational to do so. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Mar 2013
- What Do You Think?
Who Should Manage Our Work Time?
Summing Up Who will save us from our work habits? Jim Heskett's readers offer a range of viewpoints on the responsibility of employees to manage their time at work. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Dec 2012
- Research & Ideas
How to be Extremely Productive
Professor Robert Pozen discusses his new book, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours, in which he shares performance-enhancing tips on everything from better sleep on overnight business flights to dealing with employees' mistakes. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Oct 2012
- Research & Ideas
Taking Advantage of Life’s (Few and Far Between) Inflection Points
A new book about the wit and wisdom of Harvard Business School Professor Howard Stevenson, written by longtime friend Eric C. Sinoway, examines life's "inflection points" and how to use them to best advantage. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jul 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity among Professionals
While women and racial minorities have increasingly crossed the threshold into professional service organizations, the path to the top remains elusive. Why do inequalities persist? McGinn and Milkman study processes of cohesion, competition, and comparison by looking at career mobility in a single up-or-out professional service organization. Findings show that higher proportions of same-sex and same-race superiors enhanced the career mobility of junior professionals. On the flip side, however, higher proportions of same-sex or same-race peers increased the likelihood of women's and men's exit and generally decreased their chances of promotion. This research highlights how important it is to look at both cooperative and competitive effects of demographic similarity when trying to address the problem of persistent underrepresentation of women and minorities at the highest levels in organizations. Key concepts include: Social comparisons lead to measurable effects on individuals' careers, in turn shaping the demographic composition at the top of professional service organizations. Organizations should attend to the ways in which policies and practices invoke competition and comparison within demographic categories. Clustering same-race or same-sex junior employees to provide an increased sense of community may have the opposite effect of that desired, unless accompanied by senior professionals' active sponsorship of juniors across demographic lines. Attempts to design employment practices that are blind to the demographics of candidates are likely to succeed only if all candidates perceive and receive equal mentoring, sponsorship, and peer support regardless of their race and gender. Among peers, the potentially positive role for social cohesion could be compromised by minimal interaction in day-to-day work, while limited opportunities for choice assignments and promotion lend a distinctly competitive edge to the work environment. Junior professionals perceive that they are easily replaced by peers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jun 2012
- What Do You Think?
Is Something Wrong with the Way We Work?
Summing Up Who is to blame for our pressure-packed 24/7 work culture? Technology? Globalization? Increasingly demanding customers? Jim Heskett's readers say it's best to first look in the mirror. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Jun 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Business of Life
Scholarly economic theory applies to more than just business. The same causal mechanisms that drive big corporations to success can be just as effective in driving our personal lives, says Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 May 2012
- Research & Ideas
Breaking the Smartphone Addiction
In her new book, Sleeping With Your Smartphone, Leslie Perlow explains how high-powered consultants disconnected from their mobile devices for a few hours every week—and how they became more productive as a result. Such "predictable time off" might help phone-addled employees better control their workdays and lives. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Oct 2011
- Lessons from the Classroom
Building a Business in the Context of a Life
Careers rarely run on a track from Point A to Point B—life experiences often change our goals. At Harvard Business School, Senior Lecturer Janet J. Kraus teaches students to take a life plan as seriously as they would a business plan. Key concepts include: Students and practitioners must evaluate what's important to them both personally and professionally and create a "life plan" for getting where they want to go. Students reflect on experiences and explore visions for where they see their lives going, taking into account not only career ideas but also family life, hobbies, community, spirituality, and other interests. The ideal is for students to find their "flow"—experiencing such enjoyment from an activity that they feel time, space and friction melt away. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Sep 2011
- Research & Ideas
Cheese Moving: Effecting Change Rather Than Accepting It
In his new business fable, I Moved Your Cheese, Professor Deepak Malhotra challenges the idea that change is simply something we must anticipate, tolerate, and accept. Instead, the book teaches readers that success often lies in first questioning changes in the workplace and, if necessary, in effecting new changes ourselves. Q&A plus book excerpt. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 28 Jul 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The Three Foundations of a Great Life, Great Leadership, and a Great Organization
This is the commencement speech that HBS professor Michael Jensen delivered to the 2011 graduates of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Drawing from his own experiences, he discusses the three foundations of a great personal life, great leadership, and a great organization. Those three foundations are integrity, authenticity, and being committed to something bigger than oneself. Key concepts include: As integrity declines, workability declines. As workability declines, value (or more generally, the opportunity for performance) declines. The actionable pathway to authenticity is to be authentic about your inauthenticities. Being committed to something bigger than oneself is the source of both personal and corporate passion and energy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Jun 2011
- Research & Ideas
Recovering from the Need to Achieve
In his new book, Flying without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success, HBS professor Thomas J. DeLong explores the world of "high-need-for-achievement professionals" or HNAPs—those for whom the constant, insatiable need to achieve can lead to anxiety and dysfunction. Plus: book excerpt. Key concepts include: Instead of happiness or well-being, high-need-for-achievement professionals seek "relief in the accomplishment of tasks." This creates a vicious cycle marked by a lack of a real sense of purpose. Four characteristics define an HNAP: comparing, busyness, worrying, and blaming. DeLong calls for HNAP readers to take the following steps toward recovery: stop and reflect with self-awareness, let go of the past, create a vision or specific goal with an agenda, seek support through mentors and a network, don't blink (or fall back on old behaviors), and purposefully expose themselves to vulnerability. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?
SUMMING UP—"Brilliant jerks" dot every organization. But what to do about them? Jim Heskett's readers offer a range of remedies intended to capture their brilliant performance while reducing their toxic personalities. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.