If you’ve invested in someone you manage, it’s natural to feel hurt when that person tells you they’re leaving—especially if they’re a strong contributor. The classic management advice is: Don’t take it personally. Be professional. But it’s important to acknowledge your feelings and work through them—for yourself and with your team. In this episode, three HBR leaders join managers drawn from the Women at Work audience to share their experiences losing team members. They discuss how to...

Some leaders are too comfortable talking about themselves — and others — at work. Their teams may struggle to trust them because they have no boundaries. Other leaders are reluctant to share anything at all, and risk coming across as remote and inaccessible. But Lisa Rosh says that when you get self-disclosure just right, it can build greater trust on your team. Rosh is an assistant professor of management at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. In this episode, you’ll...

When you’re in the middle of a conflict, it’s common to automatically enter fight-or-flight mode. But HBR contributing editor and workplace conflict expert Amy Gallo says it’s possible to interrupt this response, stay calm, and find a path towards a more productive discussion. In this episode, you’ll learn some simple techniques that will help you manage your emotions when conflict arises at work. First try to distance yourself from the negative emotion you’re feeling by labeling it. Then...

In early 1915, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship became trapped in ice, north of Antarctica. For almost two years, he and his crew braved those frozen expanses. Then, in December 1916, Shackleton led them all to safety. Not a single life was lost, and Shackleton’s leadership has become one of the most famous case studies of all time. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor and historian Nancy Koehn analyzes Shackleton’s leadership during those two fateful years that he...

Imagine you’re a new manager, and one of your team members consistently underperforms. But there’s a catch: your struggling employee is a personal friend of your CEO. When performance review time rolls around, should you be honest and give them a low rating? There are no simple answers for the tough decisions that managers face. Harvard Business School professor Joe Badaracco says that hard and fast rules only go so far in these sorts of situations. Instead, managers must use their best...

Problem solving skills are invaluable in any job. But all too often, we jump to find solutions to a problem without taking time to really understand the dilemma we face, according to Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, an expert in innovation and the author of the book, What's Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve. In this episode, you’ll learn how to reframe tough problems by asking questions that reveal all the factors and assumptions that contribute to the...

Notes (iTunes) Would you promote an employee who’s a top performer, but mistreats their colleagues and disregards company values? It’s a dilemma that many managers face in their careers. In this episode, the former dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria discusses the classic case study, “Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley.” He breaks down the issues at the heart of the case—including the questions it raises about managers’ accountability for their employees’ behavior. You’ll learn how to...

What should you do when you become the boss? Many of us are promoted into people manager roles without any preparation for the complexities involved in that work. But Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks says there are some basics that will help you get started as a first-time boss. Brooks is an expert in organizational behavior and the psychology of communication. She takes questions from listeners who are struggling as first-time bosses, and talks through what to do when...

If you’re a leader, you need to know how to influence people. Maybe you’re trying to get clients to buy into your idea, trust your expertise, or sign on with your company. Or perhaps you want to convince colleagues to start a new initiative or kill one you think is doomed to fail. In this episode, Vanessa Bohns, a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, and Raven Hoffman, who works in a construction role that involves recruiting new clients to her firm, break down how to...

Some leaders spend their careers honing their relationships with employees. But Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and corporate communications expert Michael Slind argue that leaders are at their best when they simply talk with their teams. In this episode, you’ll learn how to be more intentional about your conversations with employees—to ensure that you’re cultivating appropriate intimacy, inviting meaningful interaction, and including everyone. You’ll also learn how to...

Etsy, the online seller of handmade and vintage goods, was founded as an alternative to mass-manufactured products. The company grew substantially in its first decade but remained unprofitable. When Etsy went public, stakeholders demanded a new level of financial returns and accountability. But the company continued to struggle to contain costs—until a new CEO arrived with a plan for a purpose-driven turnaround. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati discusses...

The key to success as a leader is to strike a careful balance between ambition and humility. But how do you stay humble while also proving your worth? And how do you advance without showing too much ambition? In this episode, Amer Kaissi offers advice on how to find a better balance between our desire to achieve and the qualities that earn more respect from colleagues. As he says, “humility keeps our feet on the ground by allowing us to have an accurate assessment of our own abilities, by...

If you’re leading innovation, you need very specific leadership skills. Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill has studied leadership and innovation for decades and is the coauthor of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation. She says that leaders who shepherd innovation can’t rely on formal authority. Instead, they need to understand how to get people to co-create with them, which requires mastering three key roles —architect, bridger, and catalyst—or the ABCs of...

John Kerry has spent more than 40 years in public service, including several decades in the U.S. Senate, leading the U.S. Department of State from 2013 to 2017, and more recently serving as U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In this episode, he shares the leadership lessons he learned over many years of leadership in the public sector—from influencing people to recovering from defeats, handling leadership transitions, and staying focused on important long-term goals. Key episode...

Julie Zhuo was Facebook’s first intern, and she became a manager there in her mid-twenties. Those early years as a manager at the company—now named Meta—were tough. She says she often felt like she was in over her head and she made a lot of mistakes. But Zhuo did eventually learn how to manage team dynamics. When she left Facebook in 2020, she was leading a team of hundreds, as vice president of product design. Now the co-founder of Sundial, she takes questions from listeners who are...

As the host of two successful business podcasts, Guy Raz has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders. His podcasts How I Built This and Wisdom From The Top offer an inside look at how visionary leaders build their careers and their companies. Raz has identified three key behaviors successful leaders have in common: They create a culture of collaboration. They encourage risk-taking. And they allow for failure. In this episode, he discusses how to incentivize internal...

If you’re a leader, you know how critical feedback is to your team’s success and growth. But giving the kind of feedback that motivates people to improve is harder than it may seem. In this episode, Therese Huston, a cognitive scientist at Seattle University who specializes in giving and receiving feedback, and Jessica Gomez, an elementary school principal whose job involves observing teachers and giving them feedback on their teaching, break down the art and science of giving effective...

Do you have a culture of respect on your team? Kristie Rogers, an associate professor of management at Marquette University, has identified two types of respect that employees value: owed and earned. She says that owed respect refers to basic workplace civility whereas earned respect is related to an employee’s achievements. In this episode, you’ll learn how to practice both types of workplace respect, and what happens when their balance isn’t quite right. You’ll also learn how managers...

When was the last time you practiced your active listening skills? HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo says it is a skill you need to practice. In this episode, you’ll learn how you can use listening skills to make other people feel heard and understood. Specifically, you’ll learn different styles of listening and how to use each one to fit your goals. You’ll also learn how to use thoughtful questions to deepen your conversation and make sure you’re getting the information you need. Gallo...

The business world is beginning to recognize the importance of mental health. That’s why writer, entrepreneur, and podcast host Morra Aarons-Mele says that the more we understand and talk about our own mental health, the better we are as managers and colleagues. In this episode, you’ll get tips on how to work with—and through—your anxiety. If you’re a senior leader or a human resources professional, you’ll also learn ways to help your organization prioritize employees’ mental health. This...

With the explosive growth of generative AI, businesses are beginning to integrate artificial intelligence into all aspects of their operations, products, and services. This shift is posing a particularly difficult challenge for leaders, who must quickly learn enough about this new technology to make sound decisions for their companies, in the short- and long-term. One key player in this transition is NVIDIA, the AI-driven computing company, which makes both hardware and software for a range...

From Microsoft to Google to Meta, many of the world’s biggest tech companies announced layoffs in 2023. But Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher, who has been studying layoffs for years, says that companies often overlook their hidden costs: lost institutional knowledge, weakened employee engagement, higher turnover, and lower innovation. She says that it can take years for companies to bounce back from these setbacks. In this episode, you’ll learn better ways to approach...

Becoming a manager for the first time comes with many common challenges: balancing your time, managing team conflicts, and delegating work to direct reports. But leadership coach Jen Dary says there are also subtler challenges—like learning to actually see yourself as a leader. Assuming responsibility for other people’s professional development and personal happiness does change you. And the feelings can be mixed until you’re able to build your identity and confidence back up. In this...

Are leaders born or made? University of Michigan Ross School of Business professor Sue Ashford has studied leadership for decades—what makes people see themselves as leaders and how groups choose leaders among them. She says that leadership does come more easily to some than others, but that leadership is dynamic and only as real as a group decides. It’s a state that everyone can reach, whether they’re officially in charge or not. “People grant a leader identity by their willingness to...